Jay Sanner is a cancer patient who says he was fired last month from his volunteer coaching position in Fountain Valley for being a medical marijuana red-card holder. Sanner started taking medical marijuana in 2002 in hopes of replacing the legion of painkillers he was taking after breaking his back in the Army in the mid 1990s. The Army was prescribing pain killers for his back condition, which in turn, was raising his liver enzymes. As soon as he stopped taking his pain medication, his liver enzymes went down.

In addition, Sanner was diagnosed with colon cancer last year. He is undergoing chemotherapy treatments and continuing to use medical marijuana for his pain management. The surgery he underwent was an eight-hour procedure that removed 11 centimeters from his colon.





The Colorado Springs Independent has also covered the story extensively.

Sanner says he was told some parents were concerned about his use of various medicine, not just marijuana. He says he has never coached while under the influence of marijuana.

Here, Sanner tells the Colorado Springs Independent about the board meeting where he was asked to step down.

“I never saw the concerns and I don’t know who those parents are,” Sanner says, adding that the board itself was divided on any action to take: “I got to this board meeting and pretty much the entire meeting is on the medical marijuana. Now one of the board members is crying because she knows it’s wrong, and she’s my friend, and she doesn’t want to see me get hamstrung like I was. But the board member knew it was wrong; the president of the league and the head umpire both said there shouldn’t be anything done at all. “But they didn’t vote, because they knew what they were doing was wrong. So the two ‘Captain Americas’ — one of them in the military, one of them in the fire department — one nominated the motion and one seconded the motion and nobody else voted and that’s how I was voted out to not be able to coach anymore.”

A protest/rally is being held Saturday, organized by Coloradans 4 Cannabis Patient Rights, a non-profit patient rights group based in Colorado Springs, Colorado. C4CPR lends support to medical marijuana patients facing various rights issues by providing informational resources, consultation, a patient assistance program and activism regarding medical marijuana.

The rally is Saturday April 16th at John Metcalf Memorial Park in Fountain, Co. 80817. Meeting time will be at 10 AM, protest will be from 10:30 AM to 11:30 AM.

Sanner could not be reached for this article. The Colorado Independent also left voicemail and email for the board, which were not quickly returned.