DRCNet
Book
Review:
"Patients
in
The
Crossfire:
Casualties
in
The
War
On
Medical
Marijuana,"
by
Americans
For
Safe
Access
9/24/04
Phillip Smith, Editor, In Compiled by Americans for
Safe Access (http://www.safeaccessnow.org),
the aggressive grassroots medical
marijuana defense group that sprang up in response to the initial
Ashcroft
raids on California patients and providers, "Patients in the Crossfire"
is primarily a compendium of the stories of medical marijuana users
imprisoned,
prosecuted, and persecuted by local, state, and federal authorities. Largely based on "Shattered Lives:
Portraits from America's Drug War," by long-time cannabis activists
Mikki
Norris, Chris Conrad, and Virginia Resner, and written with additional
assistance from Norris, the volume includes a very personal
introduction by ASA
executive director Steph Sherer, as well as brief glances at the
history of
marijuana as a medicine, federal policies that block its current use,
and the
latest advances in the science of medical marijuana. But it is the stories of
the patients that are the heart of this book.
Some are well-known in drug reform circles, like Will Foster,
sentenced
to 93 years for trying to grow his own medicine. Fortunately
for Foster, that sentence proved
too long even by Another Oklahoman, Jimmy
Montgomery is less well-known, but suffered just as grievously at the
hands of
the state. Confined to a wheelchair for
over 20 years because of a spinal cord injury, whose spasms he
controlled with
marijuana, Montgomery was convicted as a drug dealer over two ounces of
pot
found in his wheelchair and sentenced to life in prison.
Oh, and the police tried to seize the home in
which he lived -- his mother's house.
The state provided muscle relaxants, opiates, and tranquilizers
to the
man it imprisoned for using marijuana as a medicine, but his condition
deteriorated as prosecutors blocked his release. His
sentence was eventually cut to ten years
and he made it out early on medical parole.
But he is minus one leg, the result of an ulcerated bed sore
that
developed while he was lying handcuffed in a prison hospital bed. There are more. More
patients thrown in prison, like Todd
McCormick, or persecuted to their deaths, like McCormick's friend,
author Peter
McWiliams. Or forced into exile, like
Steve Kubby, to avoid a veritable death sentence at the hands of
vengeful local
authorities. Or driven to suicide, like
Shirley Dorsey, 73, who killed herself a year after she and her
companion Byron
Stamate were arrested for growing medical marijuana on their land. "They want to take
our property, security and herbal medicine from us, even though we have
not
caused any harm to anyone," Dorsey wrote in her suicide note. "It is not fair or in the best interest
of people or society. I will never
testify against you [Byron] or our right to our home.
I will not live in the streets without
security and a place to sleep. I am old,
tired, and ill, and I see no end to the harassment and pressures until
they
destroy us." After Dorsey's death,
Byron Stamate was sentenced to nine months in prison, and his home,
cottage,
and life savings were seized. The
prosecutor later said he would do it exactly the same way if he had to
do it
over again. Maybe it's just me --
maybe not -- but this book made me angry.
While "Patients in the Crossfire" doesn't delve into the whys
and wherefores of this modern day witch hunt and doesn't mention the
gigantic
industry of control and incarceration that has grown up around drug
prohibition, the stories of the patients beg the question:
Who is responsible for this? Let us not mince
words: There are indeed villains in this
piece. What can you say about a
prosecutor who goes out of his way to send a pot patient to prison for
years
and then goes above and beyond the call of duty by seeking to keep him
there
even as he reaches death's door? Or a
judge who spinelessly fails to let a jury hear the whole story and sits
by as
the federal imprisonment machine gobbles up another patient? Not to mention taxpayer-paid propagandists
like drug czar John Walters, whose job description surely reads "must
lack
conscience, have ability to lie on demand without blinking." Or those minor villains, the laughing,
smirking, blue-uniformed thugs who take such pleasure in invading the
homes of
peaceful people and ripping them and their inhabitants' lives apart. When do we get our prohibition war crimes
trials, our Don't get me wrong. "Patients
in the Crossfire" is
hardly a fiery polemic. It doesn't have
to be. Its tone is careful and
measured. But in bringing to light the
hideous crimes perpetrated against sick people in the name of drug
prohibition,
it does a great service. If its purpose
is to shock the conscience, it has certainly succeeded.
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