{"id":11460,"date":"2019-03-07T11:10:10","date_gmt":"2019-03-07T19:10:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mr66givry2.onrocket.site\/?post_type=family-stories&p=11460"},"modified":"2025-12-30T09:02:37","modified_gmt":"2025-12-30T17:02:37","slug":"cycling-drive-awareness-and-hope","status":"publish","type":"family-stories","link":"https:\/\/myotonic.org\/es\/family-stories\/cycling-drive-awareness-and-hope\/","title":{"rendered":"Cycling to Drive Awareness and Hope"},"content":{"rendered":"
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It was more than five years ago when Jeremy Kleiber went to check on a friend who wasn\u2019t answering his phone. He discovered his friend\u2019s body with the man\u2019s three-year-old daughter on his chest, crying for him to wake up.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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It was a life-changing event for Jeremy, whose friend had died of an overdose from oxycodone, which he used to treat his chronic back pain as a result of an\u00a0injury.<\/p>\n

Jeremy, who has myotonic dystrophy type 2, suffered from chronic pain too. He took more than 500 pills a month, including oxycodone, the muscle-relaxer Flexeril, and the antianxiety medication\u00a0Xanax.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was on a cocktail that basically made me a zombie,\u201d\u00a0he\u00a0said.<\/p>\n

But after finding his friend dead, Jeremy became determined to end his own use of prescription pain medication. He started a low-acidic diet and began using marijuana. At the time, marijuana was illegal in his home state of Florida, but the use of medical marijuana has since been legalized in the\u00a0state.<\/p>\n

A Call for Research<\/h2>\n

Jeremy, 43, said he has now freed himself from prescription pain pills. He notes that he no longer sits around in a stupor and has become more physically active. Jeremy is embarking on a bike ride to the Florida capital in an effort to raise awareness about DM and get the state of Florida to direct money it collects in registration fees from medical marijuana toward research into the benefits marijuana could provide to people neuromuscular diseases. The state is expected to address modifications to the rules around medical marijuana use next\u00a0month.<\/p>\n

Jeremy plans on making the trip from his home in St. Augustine to the state capital of Tallahassee in time for the start of the new legislative session, which begins March 5. The trip is a little more than 200\u00a0miles.<\/p>\n

Despite the limitations from his disease, Jeremy is able to ride up to 50 miles a day and expects to make the trip in four to five days. He\u2019ll be riding a Catrike Expedition, a three-wheel bike that sits about four inches off the ground. He\u2019ll carry his gear, myotonic dystrophy bracelets, and literature from MDF in a small trailer connected to his\u00a0bike.<\/p>\n

Jeremy, who helped to get Florida\u2019s medical marijuana passed in 2016, said only a small portion of the estimated $21 million the state collects today is used to fund medical research. The $75 annual fee patients are required to pay for annual registration is used to administer the program or goes to the state\u2019s general\u00a0fund.<\/p>\n

As friends learned about his plans, they have become sponsors for his ride. He\u2019s also raffling off two collectible Harley Davidson motorcycles donated by friends who own one of the oldest Harley dealerships in the country to help fund the trip. Any money he raises beyond what he needs for the ride he plans on donating to MDF.<\/p>\n

Bigger Plans<\/h2>\n

Jeremy will be chronicling his ride on his blog \u201cMisadventures of the Myotonic Maniac.\u201d Longer term, he hopes to launch a foundation to fund research to study muscle atrophy and the prevention of it with cannabinoids. He\u2019s also planning a more ambitious ride\u00a0later.<\/p>\n

He hopes to ride from his home in Florida to Washington, D.C. He\u2019d like to see the federal government change the classification of marijuana as a schedule 1 substance (which means it has no accepted medical use and high potential for abuse) to make it easier for universities to conduct\u00a0research.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t ride a bike\u00a0before I used marijuana. I had pretty much given up on exercise,\u201d he said. \u201cAll I did was lie\u00a0around. Now I\u2019ve got a positive\u00a0outlook.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":11461,"template":"","class_list":["post-11460","family-stories","type-family-stories","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/myotonic.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/family-stories\/11460","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/myotonic.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/family-stories"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/myotonic.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/family-stories"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/myotonic.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11461"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/myotonic.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11460"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}