Cathy Jordan always expected to live a normal, American life, but, in one way or another, her life has been anything but ordinary. In part, it was because she was given the gift of extraordinary spirit, one that sparkles in her eyes when she smiles, makes people feel her pain when she cries, and strikes fear when she is angry. “I don’t take shit from anybody, “she has said, time and time again. When you get hit with the lasers that come from within her eyes when she is upset, you know that is true.

She was living in a fairly normal, blue collar town of New Castle, Delaware, just south of Wilmington with a population of around 5,500. She enjoyed two fairly normal jobs, working as a hair stylist by day and tending bar by night. The fact that she had the chance, in 1972, to work on the hair of Neilia Biden, the first wife of President Joe Biden, before he became a US Senator and she was tragically killed in a car accident, didn’t make her feel out of the ordinary.

She married Vietnam Veteran Bob Jordan in 1982. After months testing and medical examinations in late 1985, she was diagnosed with Lou Gehrig’s disease, or ALS. No treatment or cure, just a prognosis of three to five years of decreased mobility, and the ultimate fate of suffocating and deteriorating down to the point of total paralysis with everything falling apart except for her cognitive brain leaving her trapped in a broken body.

During the holidays of 1989 while visiting friends in Florida, Cathy experienced the relief of her ALS symptoms with Myakka Gold. With a renewed spirit to live, Cathy became a daily user of medical cannabis. Moving to Florida in 1993 for the warm weather and access to Myakka Gold, Cathy later became involved with the Florida Cannabis Action Network (FLCAN). By 1997, she was giving speeches to the public and legislators about her benefitting from medical cannabis. She even cornered Gov. Jeb Bush in 1999 at an event and asked him why he support her execution because without cannabis she would be dead. over the next decade she would become a regular speaker against prohibition. By 2011, she was president of FLCAN.

In 2013, Democratic legislators in Florida were co-sponsoring the Cathy Jordan Medical Cannabis Act. However, this public profile resulted in Manatee County Sheriff Brad Steube to raid the Jordans' home and seize her plants. Cathy, with the help of NORML and its then chair Norm Kent, later sued the Sheriff and the State Attorney's office declined to prosecute knowing they could not defeat her medical necessity defense.

For the past decade Cathy's public appearances have declined as her health issues exacerbated with age. She even outlived many of her doctors and was surprised to receive a letter from the Social Security Administration that she needed to prove she was still alive after she had outlived her expiration date as an ALS patient. Cathy's journey and activism has resulted in her given moniker, the "Patron Saint of Medical Cannabis in Florida."

She passed away on July 4th, 2024.

Today we invite activists from our community to share their Cathy stories and we dedicate this Rotation to her memory.