CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — Chris Suttle is known by almost every business on Franklin Street in Chapel Hill.

What You Need To Know

  • The NC Compassionate Care Act would allow people with certain ailments and conditions to use medical marijuana

  • The House will vote on the bill Tuesday

  • A medical marijuana bill didn't reach a vote in the House last year

His "Legalize Marijuana in North Carolina" T-shirt flyers hang in a number of shops here.

He says they support his mission.

“The reason they’ve been so supportive is because I’m still here. They saw what cannabis can do," Suttle said. "They saw me go from someone who walks these streets on a regular basis, to not even being able to walk 5 feet without blacking out. To constantly slurring my words, to seeming like I was drunk in public all the time because of the effects from the growth in my brain.”

After noticing a ringing in his head, and numerous labs and tests, doctors found a tumor on his brain. 

They couldn’t operate without doing a full craniotomy, so Suttle self-prescribed a marijuana micro-dosing regimen.

“Within the first week, I started noticing my speech was coming back. By week two my balance was back, I wasn’t blacking out in public anymore. By week three I felt back to my normal self again," Suttle said. "I could have thoughts in my head that I would finish to completion.” 

Even Suttle says his doctors noticed a difference. While the tumor is not gone, he says doctors have noticed a decrease in size, and that his ailments, caused by the tumor, have subsided.

Suttle has become a proud advocate of medical marijuana, pleading with lawmakers to pass legislation to help people like him. 

“Whether it’s a Senate hearing that passes, and now with the potential of it going to the House in less than a week," Suttle said. "When it gets to the House, those committee meetings are what we hope to be the final blow to knock that wall down and let those who have been dying in the dark learn to have the sun on their face again.”