A fall severed her spinal cord, and a gunpoint robbery six months later shattered her state of mind. Sarah Lyon wasn’t going to wait.

Paralyzed up to her chest from the fall and down 50 pounds, she prescribed herself a drug — marijuana — which helped her more than the 11 different pharmaceuticals doctors steered her toward, the Omaha woman said.

Within six months, she was back to healthy weight. The pot also helped ease her anxiety after the robbery and cut back the full-body spasms she’d experienced since her 2005 fall from the slide at a playground when she was 15.

“Times are changing, and people need to stand up for what is right for the greater good,” Lyon told members of a legislative panel Friday, testifying in support of a bill that would make Nebraska the 24th state to legalize medical marijuana.

The bill (LB643), sponsored by Sen. Tommy Garrett of Bellevue, is the more comprehensive of two medical marijuana proposals being considered by the Legislature this year. The other, introduced by fellow Bellevue Sen. Sue Crawford, would allow the University of Nebraska Medical Center to treat people with severe epilepsy using a low-potency hemp oil. [Read more at the Lincoln Journal-Star]