My friend Shona is a single mother who uses medical cannabis to treat her Crohn's disease, a chronic inflammatory condition of the gastrointestinal tract that is incredibly painful. Now she's fighting to stay out of prison because she is a medical marijuana patient in a state where it isn't legal.

It all started last year when her 10-year-old son spoke out in school about the benefits of medical marijuana, explaining that it had saved his mom's life. Officials at the school called police who then searched her house and found medical marijuana and cannabis oil.

Shona's son was eventually returned to her after he was removed from her care when he defended his mother's right to use medical marijuana to mitigate her Crohn's disease. But she is now facing charges for possession with intent to distribute (even though the only thing she intended to do was take her medicine).

If convicted this single mother faces a maximum of 27 years in Kansas prison for a medicine that is completely legal 70 miles away in Colorado.

Shona's son, now 11, was questioned by police without knowledge or consent of either parent and this interrogation led to a warrant being issued that would remove both the child and Shona's medicine from the home.

Without medical cannabis, Shona lives in extreme pain everyday. She chooses to combat her disease with cannabis due to its safety profile compared to other treatments and documented success of cannabis therapy in digestive disorders. But Shona lives in Garden City, Kansas where cannabis remains highly illegal, even for medical purposes.

Please join me in asking Finney County Prosecuting Attorney, Susan Richmeier and Shona's public defender, Ronald Evans, to accept Shona's plea of "Not Guilty by Reason of Biological Necessity" and dismiss this case so that Shona can get on with her life and her healing process.