ST. PAUL, MN – Almost a month ago we posted a video featuring my good bud Mark Tucci, a medical marijuana patient, author and activist in which he detailed how medical marijuana use became lawful in the eyes of government agents in his native Vermont. The video demonstrated the impact one passionate person can have.
While Jason and I were visiting Mark we also recorded him telling about his experience when he traveled to Long Beach in the fall of 2005 for the bi-annual Drug Policy Alliance conference, which began with him in a bed at the Long Beach Memorial Hospital due to his MS symptoms. Instead of being allowed to self-medicate with medical marijuana he found himself dealing with the bureaucracy of the hospital administration and the arbitrariness of the war on drugs by law enforcement. It’s a story that underscores the rights-violating nature of the war on drugs and the importance of self-ownership.