Are people really being arrested for the medical use of marijuana?
Yes, there are numerous tragic examples. The following is a small sampling: • In 2004, Jonathan Magbie died from medical neglect in a D.C. jail five days into a 10-day sentence for possessing a small amount of marijuana to relieve pain caused by his quadriplegia. He was sentenced to incarceration despite his need for nearly constant nursing care and a ventilator. • Rancher and Vietnam veteran Larry Rathbun was arrested in December 1999 for cultivating medical marijuana to relieve his degenerative multiple sclerosis. When he was arrested, he was still able to walk, which he attributes to the medical use of marijuana. After serving 19 months, Larry came out of Montana State Prison in 2002, confined to a wheelchair. • Byron Stamate spent three months in a California jail and lost nearly all of his property — including his home — for growing marijuana for his disabled girlfriend, Shirley Dorsey. He was 73 at the time of his 1991 arrest. Shirley killed herself so that she would not have to
