Everyone is invited to Cathy Jordan’s memorial service this Sunday, at the Fogartyville.
By Johannes Werner
Original Air Date: July 12, 2024
Host: Cathy Jordan was the mother of cannabis legalization in Florida. Jordan passed away last week at age 74, and she will get a memorial service in Sarasota this Sunday. We talked to Jodi James, president of the Florida Cannabis Action Network, fellow activist of 30 years, and organizer of Jordan’s celebration-of-life event.
Johannes Werner: Jordan was diagnosed with Lou Gehrig’s Disease in 1986. At that time, this was the equivalent of a death sentence. But she lived another 38 years. She credited her discovery of marijuana for this second lease of life, and she translated that into activism.
Jodi James: Kathy Jordan had an amazing impact on the landscape of cannabis education, cannabis reform, cannabis public awareness in the State of Florida. When she came to Florida in 1998 and first used cannabis on a beach in Bradenton, it was really, ‘What’s it going to do? Tell me!’ What we found, what she found, is that cannabis had a profound impact on her neurodegenerative disease, which was Lou Gehrig’s disease. At the time, people were fighting to die with dignity, people with Lou Gehrig’s Disease, and Kathy found herself in a fight to live.
JW: Manatee County granted Jordan – who lived in Parrish for many years – medical necessity to grow, own and use marijuana in 2013. Even so, she went to Tallahassee to change the state law. Jordan’s activism gave us Amendment 2 in the Florida constitution, allowing production, possession and use of marijuana for medical purposes. She was also one of the initiators of the current Amendment 3 drive, which would legalize marijuana use beyond medical applications. She was all about Amendment 3, practically until her last breath.
Cathy Jordan
JJ: We had a meeting on Tuesday. She passed on Thursday, and we spent an hour and a half on a meeting on Tuesday. She was going to be on the forefront of reminding people within the disabilities community that it’s harder and harder for people with disabilities to vote, and to make sure that their vote counted — like she did by going to the supervisor of elections, making sure that your ballot counted, and making sure that, if you needed it, an absentee ballot was going to be there. We were kind of in the midst of discussions on what her public statement was going to be on Amendment 3. I wanted her to say something like, ‘Amendment 2 was for me’ — that was medical marijuana — ‘and Amendment 3 is for you!’ And she argued with me. She says, ‘No, Amendment 3 is for me, too.’
JW: This is the memorial service for Cathy Jordan. Her family will be gathering, and her brothers and sisters are flying in from Delaware. But Cathy Jordan’s send-off at the Fogartyville Community Center will be open to everyone.
JJ: She went in to this guy’s tattoo shop to talk to him, welcome him to the neighborhood, talk to him about ALS and cannabis and neurodegenerative diseases. And he said that it changed his life. I would hate to not have him be invited. I want this man to come!
JW: The Fogartyville has seating for 104. For those who can’t make it on Sunday, and in case of overflow, the memorial will be livestreamed. The doors will open at 1:30, and the programmed event will begin at 2:30.
Everybody is invited to leave comments on Cathy Jordan’s Facebook page, or you can post on the FLCAN website. Of course, there will be opportunities to talk about Jordan at the memorial service as well.
JJ: We will leave some time in the program for anybody who wants to get up and say what Cathy meant to them. That’s going to be an important part of our program. And we’re going to be doing some some taped testimonials during the actual memorial service, so that people who have a story about Cathy that they want to be remembered — kind of story time with Cathy. We’ll be doing all of that at the memorial service, and we encourage people to light a candle in her remembrance. Better yet, light a fire under politicians, which is what Kathy’s been doing for the last 27 years.
JW: In Sarasota, this is Johannes Werner for WSLR.
More details about the memorial service here.
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