Florida Cops Repeatedly Arrest Quadriplegic for Medical Marijuana

Via MPP, here's another completely horrible reminder of the plight faced by medical marijuana patients in most parts of the country:

John Haring, 45, is a quadriplegic who suffers daily from chronic pain, arthritis, spasm attacks, and depression. He uses marijuana to treat his condition, and after two marijuana arrests in two years, he’s now heading to jail for 90 days, after which he’ll be forced to undergo three years of probation and drug testing. If he tests positive for marijuana in just one of those tests, he could face up to five years in jail.

Haring and his relatives say legal prescription painkillers left him "drugged, depressed and in an angry stupor." Using marijuana, on the other hand, "allowed him to live his life," according to the St. Petersburg Times.

Opponents of medical marijuana will be the first to tell you that no one actually gets in trouble for it, but you can bet those people will never come to the aid of someone like John Haring. They don't care about his health and they don’t want to know his story. Meanwhile, the President has called for an end to federal medical marijuana raids because he says they're a bad use of resources. In other words, the reason you shouldn’t treat people like this is because it wastes money, not because it's evil.

Clearly, our work isn't done yet. We have no choice but to fight for medical marijuana in every state until there remains no place in America where patients are criminalized and abused. To those who say voters shouldn't be making medical decisions, I say neither should police.