Those who support the ability of communities to ban medical marijuana businesses typically say the rights of MMJ patients in those towns are still protected, since they can sign up with licensed caregivers.

But that's not the way it's worked out for Angela Macdonald, a resident of Haxtun, a small burg in Northeast Colorado. She says she has to drive five hours per day to get her meds, and that makes her angry. Fortunately, though, she's expressing that frustration through art.

Macdonald was previously profiled in this space back in January. Then, the focus was on ReeferReport.com, a news site for the medical marijuana community that allowed Macdonald to use video and production skills she'd picked up while working for Comcast.

But she's also an MMJ patient due to a 2004 snowboarding accident during which she broke her tibia and ankle. She wound up with reflex sympathetic dystrophy, also known as CRPS, or chronic regional pain syndrome. After years of treating this condition with prescription narcotics, she finally experienced relief via medical marijuana.

But finding it has been a chore. Haxtun has banned dispensaries, and the nearest one that provides the range of merchandise, including edibles, that she needs to function at her best is located in Denver. "It takes me two-and-a-half hours every time I need to go down there," she says. "That's five hours a day to get access to my rights under Amendment 20."

What are Macdonald's alternatives? She could sign up with a caregiver, but connecting with one in her area has proven to be extremely difficult -- and the five-patients-per-caregiver limit has been an issue as well. Moreover, she needs different products at different times, and caregivers are less able to provide a wide range than are dispensaries.

As for growing plants for her own use, she's tried, and she's discovered she simply doesn't have the acumen to do so. Plus, she's worried about becoming a crime victim. "In a town like this, how do I know I wouldn't be a target?" she asks. "I've been very vocal about my position, and I'm not ashamed of what I'm doing -- but I'm apprehensive. If I had my six plants, someone could come along and take them. And then where would I be?"

Still in Haxtun, clearly -- but she's decided to send a message to her friends and neighbors, as well as the anti-MMJ crowd as a whole, about the misplaced nature of their cannabis paranoia. She had her husband own property on one of the main streets in town, and on it is an unoccupied building. "It's actually the old police station, ironically," Macdonald says -- but the structure won't look like one for much longer. On Saturday, Macdonald, assorted volunteers and anyone else who wants to help her will be turning the building into an art project.

"We're planning a mural -- and part of it will feature quotes from people," she notes. "But the front of the building is going to have marijuana symbols all over it."

The idea, she says, "is for everyone to confront their worst fears -- to look at it and see what it is that bothers us about it. And then we can approach things a little more logically. It's a bit like exposure therapy: If we really look at this, maybe we can figure out why we're so afraid of it."

Macdonald is providing pizza and beverages for those who participate. Here are more details about when and where: