Emily Williams battled cancer and said there was one thing that relieved her suffering, but using it made her a criminal.
"Your whole body hurts, your insides hurt, your head hurts. Everything hurts."
During Emily's battle with lymphoma, no anti-nausea medication eased her pain.
"I stood there and thought to myself, my body has given up on me. My body doesn't even want to be here. My body wants to just lie down here on this ground and give up."
With reluctancy, she tried marijuana and said it allowed her to manage.
"The immediacy, how quickly it works, how quickly it makes it possible to even be functional is incredible."
But doctors could not prescribe it and would not talk about it., so she had to figure it out for herself.
"I had no guidance on how much, how often, how, so I'm shooting in the dark trying to medically take care of myself... I had to put my family at risk, I had to put the person who brought it to me at risk, I put myself at risk."
Stakes were high. She is married to Fayetteville City Attorney Kit Williams.
"My husband, who is one of the best men I know, who does a fantastic job for the city, could lose everything."
"When I saw the effect on my wife and how she really needed it, then that changed my mind, that opened my eyes, and I could no longer just hide in the shadows, I thought that we needed to be truthful."
With truth came reality, the possibility of losing a job, or his wife going to jail.
"She should not have to be an outlaw to get the kind of relief that she needed to get... It really hurt her to break the law, she doesn't break the law, she had to in this case."
Regardless, he loves Emily unconditionally.
"Love is I will go out there myself and I will stand on the street corner and I'll buy it from somebody, and I'll bring it to you rolled up in a piece of paper or pipe, and I'll stick it in your mouth and I'll light the match and I'll help you suck it down if I have to because I love you and I want you to survive this and feel okay. That's love. That's morality."
As a high-profile figure for the city, Kit is in the spotlight. Even so, he is voicing his support for medical marijuana, a very controversial issue.
"Certainly it's dangerous for me to publicly say that I think that we should pass this...But, sometimes you have to stand up and be counted when you know what the truth is. I had known it abstractly before, but when my wife got sick, I knew it in reality."
Their ideal reality is one without suffering.
"Why in the world would you want to stand there and look me in the face and say, suffer. I don't care if you suffer, because that's what you're doing if you say it should not and cannot be legalized, that's what you're saying to me. I don't care if you suffer."
Thankfully, Emily is no longer in pain.
"After six sessions of chemotherapy she was clear and we were overjoyed, and she was overjoyed not to have to use marijuana again."
But for those who need it, those fighting cancer and illness, Emily and Kit want to see medical marijuana legalized.
"People shouldn't be placed in the position that we were."
"No one should have to be in that position."
The Williamses are not alone.
A group called Arkansans for Compassionate Care is working to get the medical marijuana issue on the November ballot. To do so, they need to gather 62,500 signatures by July 6 and as of now, they have around 70,000.
They have already exceeded the goal, but are hoping to double it, so they are still collecting signatures.
While several folks hope medical marijuana makes it on to the ballot, there are just as many who do not even want to consider legalizing it.
Pastor Tom Hatley with Immanuel Baptist Church in Rogers believes weed is wrong, no matter the situation.
He said he watched his father die of cancer, and said if he were to experience the disease himself and the excruciating pain, he would not want to use marijuana.
Hatley leads a large congregation every week, many sharing his views, and he believes no good can come of legalizing weed for medical use.
"We used to have a saying that if it's doubtful it's dirty, and this is one of those issues that's just clouded with doubt... We should quit trying to escape all pains, learn to be tough enough to go through the valley, instead of just sit down in the valley and smoke a joint... I would hope that they would be able to buck up and go through that system instead of going to something that really isn't dealing with pain, it's masking the pain."
Obviously, Emily and the pastor will never see eye to eye on this subject, but we would love to hear what you have to say.
Let us know what you think about the controversial issue of whether to legalize medical marijuana, on our Facebook fan page.
"Your whole body hurts, your insides hurt, your head hurts. Everything hurts."
During Emily's battle with lymphoma, no anti-nausea medication eased her pain.
"I stood there and thought to myself, my body has given up on me. My body doesn't even want to be here. My body wants to just lie down here on this ground and give up."
With reluctancy, she tried marijuana and said it allowed her to manage.
"The immediacy, how quickly it works, how quickly it makes it possible to even be functional is incredible."
But doctors could not prescribe it and would not talk about it., so she had to figure it out for herself.
"I had no guidance on how much, how often, how, so I'm shooting in the dark trying to medically take care of myself... I had to put my family at risk, I had to put the person who brought it to me at risk, I put myself at risk."
Stakes were high. She is married to Fayetteville City Attorney Kit Williams.
"My husband, who is one of the best men I know, who does a fantastic job for the city, could lose everything."
"When I saw the effect on my wife and how she really needed it, then that changed my mind, that opened my eyes, and I could no longer just hide in the shadows, I thought that we needed to be truthful."
With truth came reality, the possibility of losing a job, or his wife going to jail.
"She should not have to be an outlaw to get the kind of relief that she needed to get... It really hurt her to break the law, she doesn't break the law, she had to in this case."
Regardless, he loves Emily unconditionally.
"Love is I will go out there myself and I will stand on the street corner and I'll buy it from somebody, and I'll bring it to you rolled up in a piece of paper or pipe, and I'll stick it in your mouth and I'll light the match and I'll help you suck it down if I have to because I love you and I want you to survive this and feel okay. That's love. That's morality."
As a high-profile figure for the city, Kit is in the spotlight. Even so, he is voicing his support for medical marijuana, a very controversial issue.
"Certainly it's dangerous for me to publicly say that I think that we should pass this...But, sometimes you have to stand up and be counted when you know what the truth is. I had known it abstractly before, but when my wife got sick, I knew it in reality."
Their ideal reality is one without suffering.
"Why in the world would you want to stand there and look me in the face and say, suffer. I don't care if you suffer, because that's what you're doing if you say it should not and cannot be legalized, that's what you're saying to me. I don't care if you suffer."
Thankfully, Emily is no longer in pain.
"After six sessions of chemotherapy she was clear and we were overjoyed, and she was overjoyed not to have to use marijuana again."
But for those who need it, those fighting cancer and illness, Emily and Kit want to see medical marijuana legalized.
"People shouldn't be placed in the position that we were."
"No one should have to be in that position."
The Williamses are not alone.
A group called Arkansans for Compassionate Care is working to get the medical marijuana issue on the November ballot. To do so, they need to gather 62,500 signatures by July 6 and as of now, they have around 70,000.
They have already exceeded the goal, but are hoping to double it, so they are still collecting signatures.
While several folks hope medical marijuana makes it on to the ballot, there are just as many who do not even want to consider legalizing it.
Pastor Tom Hatley with Immanuel Baptist Church in Rogers believes weed is wrong, no matter the situation.
He said he watched his father die of cancer, and said if he were to experience the disease himself and the excruciating pain, he would not want to use marijuana.
Hatley leads a large congregation every week, many sharing his views, and he believes no good can come of legalizing weed for medical use.
"We used to have a saying that if it's doubtful it's dirty, and this is one of those issues that's just clouded with doubt... We should quit trying to escape all pains, learn to be tough enough to go through the valley, instead of just sit down in the valley and smoke a joint... I would hope that they would be able to buck up and go through that system instead of going to something that really isn't dealing with pain, it's masking the pain."
Obviously, Emily and the pastor will never see eye to eye on this subject, but we would love to hear what you have to say.
Let us know what you think about the controversial issue of whether to legalize medical marijuana, on our Facebook fan page.
