High Above the Law

Patterson is a reluctant public speaker, and the crowd's reaction to the infamous McMahon makes her even more nervous. A punk band takes over to warm up for her. She remembers her speech before the Missouri House committee. "I did horribly bad. I really bombed," she says, the words flowing easily now that she's stoned.

At 4:20 p.m. — the international time for potheads to light up — Uncle Sam introduces the headliner. "Jacqueline, get up here," he says to sparse clapping.

Patterson wears a pair of cowboy boots that she inherited from a grandmother. She made her skirt from a pair of Travis' jeans that she cut up and paired with frilly pink material. Atop her blond, pink-striped hair is a crown of plastic pot leaves.

She begins by reading from the spiral notebook. "'The way we treat you is criminal.' That is the words uttered to me by aaaaa — by aaaa — by a committee member during a hearing for House Bill 1831." The microphone is too tall for Patterson to read her speech while also stretching up to speak.

She abandons the notebook. Unlike her stutter-filled diatribe in the Capitol basement, Patterson ad-libs with clarity. She punches words for emphasis. Soon, she has the crowd cheering with her.

She promises to get medical marijuana legalized.

"If we don't do it this year, we will do it next year!" she screams into the microphone. The crowd reacts with loud approval. "We need you guys to get fucking involved!"

"Yeah, Jacqueline!" somebody yells.

Uncle Sam introduces the next band. Patterson limps to the back of the crowd to collect her kids. Along the way, she passes a lonely-looking woman seated at a folding table. In front of her is a stack of unsigned voter-registration cards.