Michelle Rainey, co-founder of the B.C. Marijuana Party and long-time associate of Marc Emery, has died of cancer.
Rainey, who suffered from Crohn's disease since she was a teenager, had been battling melanoma and lymphatic cancer for years. She succumbed on Wednesday at the age of 39.
Emery wrote of Rainey in a blog posting uploaded two days before her death, calling her "heroic" and "an engine for great change in the world."
"A medical cannabis user herself … she fully appreciated how our seeds were helping thousands of people," Emery wrote.
Those seeds, sold through the Cannabis Culture magazine and website, raised millions of dollars that was contributed to marijuana campaigns and initiatives across Canada and the U.S., Emery said.
It also led to Rainey, Emery, and Gregory Keith Williams being charged and convicted of conspiracy to manufacture marijuana in a Washington State court.
Rainey, who was accused of mailing seeds and growing instructions to U.S. customers, was given two years probation while Emery received a five-year prison sentence.
For the past four years, Rainey had a YouTube channel called Michelle's Medical Marijuana. In her last video, uploaded in August, she announced that her cancer had progressed to stage four, but remained optimistic she would pull through. "I believe that cannabis and alternative medicine can cure cancer," she said.
"I am gonna beat this and I'm gonna show all of you that you can do it as well," she said. "We all can be proactive with our health and also with our minds."
Emery was less optimistic, lamenting the toll that he believed the stress of marijuana activism had taken on Rainey's condition.
"Michelle may have literally given her life to the movement, and when people think about what they can do for freedom in their lifetime, Michelle's life is a shining example of how much is possible," he said.
