Just Another Statistic

Stephen Moore

My arrest occurred when my girlfriend called the police due to a suicidal gesture I had made to her over the telephone. What originally was a call for help turned into a stand off with the police who finally entered my home without a warrant and without my permission. When I verbally protested their search, I was thrown over my sofa and held down with a billy stick across my bad back (which lacerated my spine) until I could no longer breathe. When the police went down a long hallway and broke down a locked door and found my garden, I told them it was for my depression, to which one of the officers testified to at his sworn deposition, and the seeds of a medical necessity case were planted.

I was hauled off in handcuffs with only a pair of shorts on to a Tallahassee mental health hospital (green warrant) where I remained for 72 hours. When I was released, I was immediately picked up by the police again, handcuffed, and taken to jail. When I arrived at my cell, I was ordered to strip naked, put on a paper gown, leave my duffle with blanket, pillow, etc. outside, and the bars were literally slammed shut behind me. That night turned out to be the most horrifying experience I have ever had in my life, and I have never been the same since!

Besides not even giving me the antidepressant medication which I was prescribed and addicted to(Zoloft), I was denied even the most basic of comforts. Without a blanket I was left to freeze in that dirty, filthy, cell. My feet got so cold I had to wrap them in the little bit of toilet paper there was in the cell. My back hurt due to the metal cot I had to sleep on (with mattress removed) which also chilled me to the bone. I could not even view the television outside in the pod due to a stairwell in front of my cell door. I finally started to really lose it that night and remember holding my head in the toilet and seeing fecal matter stuck on the sides. A guard finally found me a small piece of canvas (interesting hemp product!!!) which only helped slightly to keep me from freezing. However, my mental status continued to deteriorate as I lay cold and crying in that inhuman cell. Finally, I tore off a strip from the paper gown and proceeded to try and strangle myself with it.

Shortly thereafter, a guard found me half dazed and nearing my end. Once they determined that I could still breathe, they manhandled me naked through the pod in front of all the other prisoners to another room where I was strapped down in four-point restraints the remainder of the night until I was released from that hell hole to be picked up by the Wakulla County Sheriff's Dept and taken to their facility where I remained for several more days until my bail was finally paid.

Although the accommodations were better in the Wakulla jail's holding cell where I was kept alone and under constant observation, I was still denied some of my basic medical needs. For instance, I have chronic dry skin problems for which I am dependent on lotions/oils. Since I was not allowed this simple remedy, one of my heels cracked open so badly I could hardly walk on that foot. I even took my greasy breakfast eggs one morning and smashed them into my dry aching feet to help alleviate the problem. Thank God for a kind Black woman who saw that I was suffering and brought me a bottle of her lotion one evening and gave me several Tylenol to help me feel a little better. Still, my mental status was to the point that I even once ran across the small cell and hit the wall at full force, smashing me to the ground, and the last night I spent there I began banging my head on the underside of a metal bench. When I was finally released the first thing I found when I got home was that one of my pet guinea pigs had starved to death and another would die shortly thereafter due to their neglect while I was behind bars for nearly a week. Welcome home!

I was eventually thrown out of my living quarters onto the street as my landlords conspired along with the local cops to have me illegally ousted. Many of my personal belongings were confiscated by my landlords who justified their actions due to my "drug use". I lived in a tent for about a week until I became sick with a severe ear infection from sleeping out on the cold and wet January ground. Hence, I finally ended up at my parents home again where I have remained since my life literally fell apart due to cruel people and the unjust drug laws. I was pushed into bankruptcy for the first time in my life and now receive disability for my deteriorated mental and physical condition. I suffer from severe clinical "bi-polar" depression and manic rages. I live in near constant pain from a former injury to my pelvis and spine with sciatica (related to when I ran out of Zoloft, tried to kill myself, and lay unconscious for two days - note this occurrence was before I realized the value of cannabis in preventing such events). I also have suffered headaches (due to tension, migraines, and light sensitivity) for a large part of my life. And lastly, I occasionally suffer eye pain from a trauma in 1984 which left me legally blind in my left eye. Cannabis helps immensely with all these complaints; in fact, I consider myself to be alive today because of cannabis and its positive intervention into my life prior to my arrest and humiliation. However, I am still plagued by prohibition and the real threat and possibility of dying in prison for my cultivation of the only medicine that has ever really worked to keep me functioning and alive!

Stephen is a plaintiff on the

Class Action for Cannabis Therapeutics

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