Melissa Etheridge (Victoria Will, Invision/AP)

Here’s what singer Melissa Etheridge said to N.Y. Gov. Andrew Cuomo

On June 17, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo rejected state lawmakers’ medical marijuana bill known as the Compassionate Care Act.

A few nights earlier on June 14, singer Melissa Etheridge was in Albany playing a concert at The Egg and making a plea to the state’s governor “to stand with patients across New York and pass the Compassionate Care Act without further delay,” Etheridge wrote in a statement.

With the future of the Compassionate Care Act unknown, will Etheridge press on?


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“As a cancer survivor, I know the ravages of a serious illness, and patients who are suffering deserve access to a medication that can provide them relief,” Etheridge wrote in her statement. “Tonight, I stand with those patients, with their caregivers, and with the vast majority of New Yorkers who support medical marijuana. It’s time for leaders in Albany to listen to the people of New York and to show some compassion to those who are suffering needlessly; it’s time for them to pass the Compassionate Care Act.”

At Etheridge’s Albany show, she even spoke to the audience about medical marijuana from the stage: “Let the governor know that, ‘Hey, there’s a lot of people out there suffering who could use some medical marijuana,’ ” Etheridge told the crowd according to the New York Daily News. “It’s good stuff. It really is … The world’s a-changing and we’re coming to our senses.”