“My daughter, Jennifer, was vibrant and intelligent. She had the brightest smile, with green eyes to match, playing lacrosse so well she earned herself a college scholarship. After college graduation and starting a new job, her new manager called her in the early morning hours to say there was an alarm going off in her store and asked Jennifer to meet her there. As my daughter was on her way, crossing an intersection not far from her home, a man came racing through the intersection at 82mph, speeding through the red light. He slammed into the side of my daughter’s car, sending it over the embankment and straight into the front wall of a building, collapsing it on Jennifer’s car. Jennifer passed away at the scene from the severe injuries she sustained. The 26-year-old man who caused her death was not injured. He admitted he was smoking medical marijuana, obtained in Michigan, before the crash, and there was marijuana in the car. After he took a plea and his charges were severely reduced to a felony 3, he spent a total of only 15 months in prison. His life goes on with a slap on the wrist while our lives are devastated forever due to false perceptions of the harms of marijuana use while driving.

Every day of my life is difficult now. I see all of my daughter’s friends getting married and starting their families. These special events were taken away from Jennifer, and from our family. My mission is to tell the account of what took her incredible life away so that others become aware of the dangers on our roads. It’s criminal to legalize this powerful and addictive drug that is killing our youth in so many ways. We need to wake up to what this is really about and become aware of how we are just pawns in the game plan of the marijuana industry. It only takes one time with one crash.” – Jennifer’s Mom, Corinne LeMarca, Ohio

Click on the photos to read the stories of each person:

Stephen Mager

Kayla Nicole and Daniel Amos