Hearts are heavy today in the cannabis community as we mourn the loss of a great man. The State Director of the Arizona Chapter of National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML), Mikel Weisser, passed yesterday evening.
We at the Kush Kronicles were in contact with Mikel yesterday, receiving the last text message from him at 6pm. However, only 2 hours later at around 8pm, the Deputy Director of NORML, Todd Gilchrist, reached out to us with the devastating news. According to all accounts from Beth Weisser, Mikel’s wife, he suffered a massive heart attack and did not recover.
This morning, Beth Weisser took to NORML’s social media page to give more detail. In an emotional post Beth said that Mikel had been complaining of back pain, more specifically left shoulder pain, for the past 3 days. Due to this and other factors, they decided to go to urgent care to see if an EKG would reveal an issue other than back pain. Upon arrival to urgent care, Mikel was not breathing. Medics worked for 45 minutes to resuscitate him. for more information HERE
Mikel was a school teacher first and foremost. This was easy to tell by the way he ran his NORML meetings. His loud, boisterous voice always bellowed above the crowded room or during a heated argument. He was an activist for cannabis, lobbying countless hours away from his wife, for cannabis legalization and patients’ rights. Being the State Director of NORML, Mikel had to handle the NORML hotline day in and day out. He would hear horror stories of unjust criminal charges against patients, heartbreaking stories about DCS removal of children from their parents due to cannabis, and loss of livelihood due to termination of employment because of cannabis. He would lobby to change the world’s view on cannabis. Mikel would say he was a man of many hats, and being such, he endeared himself to not just the cannabis community, but to politicians and lobbyists as well.
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