Statistics and data obscure the very human side of the medicinal marijuana. The stories of Dan Asbury, Louis Covar, Jr., and Will Foster, each of whom was arrested for marijuana, illustrate clearly why there is overwhelming support for this issue and why large percentages of the public believe our country’s position on it must change.

In July 1980, Toledo, Ohio, resident, Dan Asbury, fell from a fence and broke his back, rendering him a quadriplegic paralyzed from the chest down. For years, doctors prescribed pain medications for the burning sensation in his legs, but nothing worked. Then in 1983, a friend, who was also a quadriplegic, suggested that he try marijuana. It helped relieve both the physical and emotional pain resulting from his condition. Because of marijuana’s expense and unreliable availability, Asbury decided to grow his own medicine, which became a patch of about a dozen plants in his back yard. A neighbor complained, and when police investigated, Asbury was arrested. He was subsequently convicted in March of 1995 of trafficking in marijuana, a fourth degree felony in the State of Ohio, in spite of the fact that no customers, scales, or money were presented as evidence. To this day, Asbury remains on probation.

Another quadriplegic, Louis E. Cover Jr., who used cannabis to relieve painful muscle spasms, illustrates the great disparity in marijuana laws. In March 1999, Cover, a Georgia resident, was sentenced to seven years of probation for felony marijuana possession. In January 2000, claiming they had received numerous anonymous complaints and seen people coming and going from Cover’s home, police obtained a search warrant. They only found about 1.25 ounces of marijuana. However, it was enough for the judge in the case to revoke his probation and send him to prison. According the Georgia Department of Corrections, his special care will cost almost $260 per day. Over the course of his seven-year sentence, the price tag will exceed $660,000. As a final insult, using the marijuana conviction, the District Attorney of Richmond County, Georgia, filed a civil forfeiture claim against Covar’s father who purchased the home next to his own in order to care for his son.

One of the most egregious medical marijuana cases belongs to Will Foster from Oklahoma. An Army veteran, college graduate, computer programmer, business owner, and father of three, Foster had an all-American background. He also used marijuana to relieve the chronic pain caused by rheumatoid arthritis. Late in 1995, acting on a tip that Foster was selling methamphetamine, police broke into his home and tore it apart in front of his terrified 5-year old daughter. Instead of finding meth, police uncovered Foster’s marijuana garden of about 70 plants concealed in an old bomb shelter. According to expert testimony provided by his defense, this would have been about the right number for someone who used cannabis daily to control pain. But the prosecution exaggerated the amount of usable marijuana, and in 1996, Foster was sentenced to 93 years in prison. Declaring that the sentence "shocks our conscience," the Oklahoma State Appeals Court reduced it to 20 years in 1998, making Foster eligible for parole. Twice in 1999, the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board unanimously recommended Foster’s release, only to twice have it turned down by Oklahoma governor, Frank Keating. Foster was finally set free in 2001 after serving four and a half years.

As a result of his ordeal, Foster, along with James Dawson, established Adopt a Green Prisoner, an outreach program to help medical cannabis patients and prisoners like Dan Asbury, Louis Cover, Jr., Roy Sharpnack, Patrick Elmore, and many others who run afoul of U.S. marijuana laws.