War from the front lines, by Kristin Flor (National Leader for The Human Solution International)
Have you ever wondered what the war on marijuana looks like from the front lines? Well, I can tell you. Right now, while we call it legal for medical use in 20 different states and legal for recreation in two states, we still have a federal law that says it’s illegal in every state.
It’s confusing, and trying to follow two sets of laws that contradict each other is impossible. Which law do you choose to follow and do you really have a choice? For medical reasons, the answer is obvious, we follow the state laws that we voted for. For recreation, we can go to Colorado or Washington.
Regardless of our state laws, our federal government says marijuana is a Schedule 1 drug and continues to raid our establishments, always with their guns drawn. They aggressively kick down our doors and take everything. They shackle our caregivers, kill our pets and torment the lives of our patients, friend, and families regardless of our health or age. After an unfair fight in court, prison is where we are forced to live.
Our plant prisoners live in a tiny jail cell, denied healthy food, denied family and forced to work for less than 20 cents an hour. For my father, who followed the state laws in Montana, his federal sentence was a death sentence. While my dad was in prison, the nurses did not take care of him, he was extremely sick and four months into his federal sentence he died (with me by his side) a very miserable and painful death shackled to a hospital bed. They ignored his many medical needs, accused him if faking his pain, causing him to die a long, tormented, neglectful, lonely death.
My mom also went to prison also for following state laws, after 34 years of marriage they wouldn’t even let my mom out of prison to have a funeral for my dad. One of his partners (Chris Williams) went to trial after my dad died, and the jury did not even know he was a caregiver or how many people he helped because they do not accept state laws in federal court, he was completely defenseless and was found guilty of violating federal laws in his unfair trial. They are not the only plant prisoners who have suffered, we have almost 50 prisoners that we know of serving life in prison for marijuana. Hundreds more serving unfair sentences that we communicate with, and thousands more are incarcerated around our nation daily.*
The choices you make to better your life could very well put you in prison. On a federal level, as prohibition lingers across our nation, we must stop the pain and suffering our laws bring to our plant prisoners and their families. Shortly after my dad died, The Human Solution came into my life and gave me a way to help fight to end the madness. The Human Solution is a grassroots group that believes NO ONE DESERVES TO GO TO PRISON OR DIE FOR OUR PLANT, and we are on a mission to end prohibition. We want the war to be over, we want families to stop suffering, and we want peace. We want our prisoner’s home, safely with their families. To end prohibition, we believe in court support, prison outreach and education. If you would like to help us end prohibition, please visit our website. You can start a chapter, Adopt-A-Prisoner, become a member, volunteer, write a prisoner, there is tons of way you can help END PROHIBITION 2014.
