GARDEN CITY, Kan. (AP) — A southwest Kansas single mother who lost custody of her son for using medical marijuana to ease her Crohn’s disease has gone from being a massage therapist eking out a living in the back of a health food store to a national figure at the center of the pot debate.

Thirty-seven-year-old Shonda Banda of Garden City, has not been charged after police officers searched her home and found marijuana and cannabis oil last month. But the Kansas City Star reports authorities took her 11-year-old son away, put him into protective state custody and referred the case to the Finney County prosecutor for possible drug and child endangerment charges.

Banda’s story soon went global, with more than 84,000 people from around the world signing an online petition supporting her.