POW of the WOD

Dan was a patriotic American in every sense of the word. He stood for the America our forefathers created in the hopes of freeing the world of tyranny and injustice. Suffering a fall in 1980 that left him paralyzed from the chest down, and having only the use of his arms, Dan would roll into the battle for freedom and justice, fighting for his life, and the lives of others like him, who are prisoners of their own bodies, and of their own government.

Dan was an avid medical marijuana activist, writing hundreds of letters and attending dozens of events in support of allowing the sick and dying to use marijuana for medical purposes. Dan was also an environmental activist, and a staunch champion of Willow Cemetery, a dilapidated and almost forgotten civil war era cemetery.

Dan will be remembered most for an historic journey that he and fellow activists, patients and friends made in 1997. Dubbed the "Journey for Justice" it was the first time patients had ever set out on battery powered scooters and wheelchairs, traveling over 130 miles from Dan's home in Oregon, Ohio to the state capital in Columbus, Ohio to protest the removal of Ohio's "medical necessity" defense, which allowed patients to present evidence that marijuana was a necessary medical treatment. Although the small group failed to sway the governor and the state legislature, the seed had been planted, and the journey for justice would blossom into a nationwide campaign that continues to this day. Patients in other states, some in wheelchairs and hospital beds, would embark on a Journey for Justice of their own, following a trail blazed by Dan Asbury.

Patient, patriot, prisoner, activist, and friend, Dan will be missed by the hundreds of people he knew from all over the country. A country whose ideals he believed in. If Dan was nothing else, he was courageous because he did not fear those who would lock him away and he was the inspiration for the Journeys for Justice, and a personal inspiration to many, including myself.

Daniel Gene Asbury's righteous journey has come to an end, let our future Journeys be as blessed as he.

Written by Jim White

Editor's Note: OPN mourns the loss of one of our own. Dan Asbury was one of the original members of the Ohio Patient Network. We are very saddened by his crossing over. His life was an inspiration to all medical marijuana patients in Ohio and beyond. This is but one of the tributes to Dan written by OPN members, which will be put together on the OPN website as a lasting memorial to Ohio's casualties in the War on Drugs.