But for the 30 or so people who gathered at University Congregational Church to memorialize Prosser on Wednesday, it’s easy to see how her hand was forced.
By pain. By depression. By poverty. By her own government.
Prosser suffered chronic pain due to a form of lupus that made it impossible for her to use prescribed pain medications. So she used marijuana instead.
She was an active proponent of the statewide initiative that approved medical marijuana use in Montana, and thought at least some of her problems had been solved by its passage.
In late March, however, the federal Drug Enforcement Administration seized a small amount of marijuana that was being shipped to her by an authorized provider. At the time, a DEA agent said the federal government was “protecting people from their own state laws” by seizing such shipments.
Six months later, robbed of the only thing that brought her relief, Prosser was dead at age 50.
She was, said those who knew her, a talented pianist, a mother who loved her daughter, a friend who gave when she literally had nothing but time to give.
She was funny, too, in a wicked sort of way. And she was tireless, even as disease and pain drained her last reserves.
“She smiled a lot, even when she was hurting,” said her friend Paul Befumo, who worked with her on the medical marijuana initiative.
For more information, read Thursday's Missoulian or go to Missoulian.com.
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