Months after winning medical marijuana lawsuit, activist Linda Horan has died

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Linda Horan is pictured with her attorney Paul Twomey and friends outside Merrimack County Superior Court in Concord.
Linda Horan is pictured with her attorney Paul Twomey and friends outside Merrimack County Superior Court in Concord.

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Six weeks after she was finally able to obtain medical marijuana in Maine to ease the pain of terminal lung cancer, labor activist Linda Horan has died.

Horan’s Facebook page quickly filled with heart-felt messages from devoted friends and family as word spread of her passing on Monday.

“We’ve lost a hero,” posted friend Linda Grossman Wooddell.

Horan, 64, of Alstead, sued the state in Merrimack County Superior Court in Concord on Nov. 4, 2015, to obtain a medical marijuana ID card so she could purchase the medicine in Maine.

The state Attorney General’s Office argued she would have to wait until spring to obtain a card because the state’s dispensaries won’t open until then. Judge Richard McNamara ruled in Horan’s favor opening the door for other patients to get medical marijuana ID cards before dispensaries open here as well.

State Rep. Renny Cushing, D-Hampton, said Horan was someone who fought for other people during her 30 years as a union activist when she worked for Verizon.

“She went out the way she wanted to go out – fighting with dignity,” Cushing said.

In her last days, Horan was touched by the people who told her they were able to obtain medical marijuana before New Hampshire dispensaries open because of her fight.

“She was glad she was able to do it,” Cushing said. “If the state had succeeded, they would have run out the clock.”

Horan was known to always have a smile on her face even as her health was failing.

After a court hearing in November, Horan told reporters that she didn’t want to live in an opiate haze.

“I want the state to stop dragging their feet over technicalities when we are talking about sick people, terminally ill people,” Horan said.

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Nancy WestAbout InDepthNH: Nancy West founded the nonprofit New Hampshire Center for Public Interest Journalism in April. West is the executive editor of the center’s investigative news websiteInDepthNH.org. West has won many awards for investigative reporting during her 30 years at the New Hampshire Union Leader. She has taught investigative journalism at the New England Center for Investigative Reporting’s summer program for pre-college students at Boston University. West is passionate about government transparency. The New Hampshire Center for Public Interest Journalism is a member of the Institute for Nonprofit News, formerly called Investigative News Network, which is also InDepthNH.org’s fiscal sponsor. Cllick here to read about INN to learn more about the mission of nonprofit news.


About this Author

Carol Robidoux

PublisherManchester Ink Link

Longtime NH journalist and publisher of ManchesterInkLink.com. Loves R&B, German beer, and the Queen City!