Reefer Madness?? Yes, the Feds Have Lost Their Minds

On October 7, Steven Tuck, a California medical marijuana patient who fled to Canada to avoid going to jail after being raided for growing his own marijuana, was snatched from a hospital by Canadian authorities, driven to the border with a urinary catheter still attached, and turned over to U.S. authorities for prosecution. He was held in jail for five days without medical treatment and without having his catheter removed.
He was released from a Seattle jail to seek medical care last Thursday, but when his treatment is over, he must return to California to face a federal marijuana charge.
Tuck, an Army veteran, used marijuana to treat the chronic pain stemming from a 1987 parachute accident in the Army. Is this how our government rewards its veterans?
If this outrages you like it does me, please do something about it. Please help the Marijuana Policy Project continue lobbying to change these cruel and unjust laws, by making a contribution to the work of MPP.
You can read more about the case of Steven Tuck — whose attorney is being funded by MPP's grants program — here.
And Steven Tuck isn't alone. On Monday, the FBI announced that the government is arresting one marijuana user every 41 seconds — more than ever before.
The 771,605 marijuana arrests last year set an all-time record —  and exceeded the 590,258 arrests for all violent crimes combined. And 89% of the marijuana arrests were for simple possession, not sale or manufacture. This is wildly out of sync with the priorities of most Americans.
One of those arrests last year was Jonathan Magbie, a quadriplegic medical marijuana patient who died in the Washington, D.C., city jail while serving a 10-day sentence for marijuana possession. Had Congress not blocked the district's medical marijuana law from taking effect, Jonathan Magbie would almost certainly be alive today.