Martyrs Of The Drug War

[Paracelsus]

Hi. I hope I'm starting this thread in the right forum, if not, I am very sorry, any mod should move it where it belongs please.

As many of you know, the criminalisation of drugs which resulted in the drug war we are facing today, has led to countless unfair incarcerations of drug manufacturers, dealers, and users.

Please post here what you consider to be a very unfair drug sentence, or the story of the life of somebody who suffered surveillance and imprisonment for a drug-related cause. These persons are martyts of the drug war, they all suffered immoral sentences for their actions.

The persons/unfair drug sentences don't have to be in the news, just post everything you can dig up.

And please, a dealer who got sentenced to life for a 20-pound meth deal, resisting arrest, illegal posession of firearms and shooting a police officer is *NOT* a martyr of the drug war.

[Paracelsus]

Casey William Hardison
Casey Hardison is an entheogenic activist, unauthorized researcher, and psychedelic chemist who was best
known for his indefatigable good mood and enormous energy. Casey attended entheogen-related conferences
and wrote articles for MAPS and contributed to Erowid. After moving to Britain in 2002, he eventually
rented a house at Ovingdean near Brighton. Casey chose to fulfill a ten-year spiritual journey to make
LSD and make up for the drought caused by a major DEA bust in the U.S. He was arrested and convicted of
LSD manufacture in Britain.
Casey acted as his own lawyer during his case and, instead of arguing he did not commit the acts, he
argued that he had a fundamental human right to engage in his chosen entheogenic religion. The court
rejected the argument and Casey was sentenced to 20 years in prison on Apr 22, 2005.

http://archive.theargus.co.uk/2005/4/23/103475.html

Originally Posted by The Argus

Judge Niblett described Hardison, who sees himself as a martyr in the war against drugs, as a dangerous individual.
He said Hardison was a highly intelligent, articulate and talented man who has tragically used his abilities for illegal purposes.
He said: "You are a US citizen who came to this country to exploit the market for class A drugs. This was production on an industrial scale. You deliberately flouted the laws of this country.
"You have no regret for what you did and you have expressed every intention of pursuing your misguided beliefs in the future."
The judge said he had no doubt Hardison's motivation was for personal gain. He said: "You realised the potential profit was huge, running possibly to millions of pounds. I am quite satisfied that was your goal."

Casey has submitted the enhanced human rights arguments simultaneously to the European Court of Human
Rights and to the House of Lords, the highest court of appeal in the UK. He is challenging the drug laws
as an affront to free thought, therapeutic choice and free religion.
His mailing address in prison is: Casey Hardison LH5330, HMP Swaleside, Brabazon Road, Eastchurch, Isle
of Sheppey, Kent, ME12 4AX, England.
http://www.erowid.org/culture/charac...on_casey.shtml

Timothy Leary
Timothy Francis Leary was born is Springfield, Massachusetts in 1920. He attended West Point in the
early '40s (where he didn't exactly fit in) and then served in the military during WWII. He earned his
PhD in psychology from U.C. Berkeley and taught there briefly but moved to Harvard after his first
wife's death. He first took psilocybin mushrooms in 1960 during a trip to Mexico. When he returned to
Harvard he began the Harvard Psilocybin Project, studying the effects of psilocybin on humans. As part
of the project he, along with Richard Alpert and Ralph Metzner, gave psilocybin to a series of volunteers
including Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, Neal Cassady, and Arthur Koestler, among others.
In 1962 Leary was introduced to LSD for the first time by Michael Hollingshead. He had what he later
described as "the most shattering experience of his life". Leary became a spokesman for LSD and the
psychedelic movement, encouraging people to "turn on, tune in, and drop out". In 1963, he and Richard
Alpert were fired from their positions at Harvard after which they both lived at Millbrook for a time.
At Milbrook they continued to work with psychedelics both therapeutically and recreationally...with the
occasional help of Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, William Burroughs, Abbie Hoffman and Aldous Huxley.
In 1965, while crossing into the U.S. from Mexico, Leary's daughter was caught with marijuana. Leary
took responsibility, was convicted of marijuana possession under the Marijuana Tax Act and sentenced to
30 years in prison. He appealed the case based on the argument that the Marijuana Tax Act required
self-incrimination in order to comply with it, and therefore was unconstitutional. In 1969, the U.S.
Supreme Court agreed with him, declaring the Marijuana Tax Act unconstitutional and overturning his
conviction.
In 1970, Leary was convicted once again of marijuana possession and sentenced to 10 years in prison.
He escaped from the minimum security prison and fled with his wife to Algeria and then Switzerland.
In 1973 he was arrested by DEA agents in Afghanistan and returned to prison in California. He served
three years before being parolled 1976.
Leary became interested in virtual reality and cyberculture and spent the last twenty years of his
life writing and lecturing. He worked with a group of friends to document his own process of dying
from prostate cancer. He died quietly in his own bed, surrounded by friends, and on Feb 9 1997, a
portion of Leary's cremated remains were launched into space.
http://www.erowid.org/culture/charac..._timothy.shtml

Bill Polson
17 Year-Old Faces 10 Years For $20 Weed Sale
From the NORML Weekly Press Release - January 22, 1998
Fayette, MO:
A Missouri judge sentenced an adolescent first time offender to ten years in state prison after finding
him guilty of selling $20 of marijuana within 2,000 feet of the Central Methodist College. State law
classifies the offense as a Class A Felony that carries a sentencing range of ten years to life.
Billy Polson, 17, helped Alex Martinez acquire 3.4 grams of marijuana from students at the Missouri
college campus. Martinez, who dated Polson's sister at the time, later revealed that he was working
undercover for the Boonville Police Department. He also admitted purchasing malt liquor for the defendant
shortly before Polson agreed to sell him marijuana.
Missouri attorney and NORML board member Dan Viets, who represented Polson, called the felony conviction
horribly unfair.
I told the judge that if he wanted to help Polson get along with his life, then giving him a felony
conviction record was the worst thing he could do, Viets said. He explained that the judge had the
option of placing Polson on probation without a conviction.
Viets also said that the prosecutor in the case, Greg Robinson, could have charged Polson with a lesser
offense to avoid the excessive sentence. Viets said that Robinson wished to make an example out of
Polson before the upcoming elections.
Attorney Tanya Kangas, Director of Litigation for The NORML Foundation, questioned why law enforcement
would use its limited resources to target someone like Polson. Alex Martinez was a reserve officer with
the Boonville Police Department, she explained. He was paid to become intimate with a young woman to
gain the trust of her younger brother. The police department paid Alex to encourage a minor to drink
alcohol.
The department paid Alex to arrange a transaction close to the college to increase Bill's sentence under
a law designed to protect elementary school children from drug dealers.
In this case, the law served to incarcerate a kid who is younger than the attendees of the nearby
school. Since when is this the proper role of law enforcement?
http://a1b2c3.com/drugs/law05.htm

[Paracelsus]

Victims of the drug war: http://blogs.salon.com/0002762/stori...arVictims.html