nornerator

It was the last time she would ever see him again. “It was the drugs that got to him” said her father in a grieving tone. Alice could barely get it out, “I just don't understand, it all happened so fast” she said as she began to weep.

Five years earlier, Alice and her boyfriend Charlie are playing tennis at the local recreation
center. Alice was a young adult barely 17 years old. She had a slender body but athletic
arms and legs from being on the school water polo team. Charlie was a pudgy young adult with rosy cheeks and big brown eyes. These were the eyes Alice loved staring into, she felt warm and safe when they stared into each other. The tennis courts were quite run down due to lack of funding. Shattered liquor bottles and rubbish carpeted the court floors. The tennis net was hanging by a few threads, half of the lights in the ceiling were out, and the other half flickered on and off. The walls of the courts were engulfed in obscene graffiti. Ever since the economic collapse in 2009 the city could no longer afford to pay for maintenance so the people just decided that they would continue using the center until the structure became unsafe to play in.

The score was love, love, as usual. Neither Alice nor Charlie were great at tennis, but they played anyways as it was one of the few things to do to pass the time. It didn’t really matter what they did as long as they were together. Alice had just lost the serve and passed the ball to Charlie. Charlie wound up his arm in order to do a typical overhead serve, he tossed the ball up in the air and began swinging his arm forward. As soon as his racket made contact with the ball a tremendous jolt of energy rushed through Charlies' body. His hand clenched tightly around the rackets handle as he fell to the filthy ground. Charlie hit the ground with tremendous momentum and began convulsing uncontrollably. His arms flailed wildly as his body flopped around on the dirty floor. Alice screamed as she raced over to help him. She had no idea what was going on with Charlie, she just knew that when he hurt, she hurt, and she was hurting a lot right now.

The next day Charlie woke up in a daze. Everything was fuzzy, his vision, his mind, and everything sounded muffled. The first thing he saw were white curtains straight ahead, he turned his head to the left and saw Alice sleeping in a chair. Charlie soon realized that he was in the hospital but he could not figure out how he had gotten there, or more importantly, why he was there. The last thing he remembers was playing tennis with Alice.

“You're awake!” Shrieked Alice as she awoke from her light slumber.
“How do you feel?”
“I feel fine, but everything seems cloudy”
“Oh, sorry, its the drugs the doctors gave you to stop your seizure”
“Seizure?”
“You don't remember? We were playing tennis yesterday, you went to serve and you collapsed to the ground shaking uncontrollably”
“The last thing I remember was playing tennis with you, am I going to be okay?”
“You are going to be fine, but the doctor thinks you might have epilepsy.”

The door handle begins turning and the doctor walks in.

“I see you are awake, you are probably wondering what is going on with you.” Charlie nods his head.
“Yesterday you experienced a grand mal seizure, the majority of the neurons in your brain locked up and just started firing over and over and over. Unfortunately seizures are not typically isolated events, once a person has one it is likely they will have more and more. It is likely that you have or will develop epilepsy. You have also suffered some minor but serious gashes on your back from convulsing on broken glass.”
“What is epilepsy?”
“Epilepsy is the word used to describe a person who has recurring seizures that have been unprovoked, although it is too early to diagnose you with epilepsy right now, it is a common possibility, however there are treatments that will help you live your life normally”
“What treatment would you recommend?”
“I would recommend marijuana, if I could, but legally, I cannot so I would have to recommend phenobarbital”
“Why would you recommend marijuana?”
“Well, it is the best anti-convulsant on the market. You don't have to use very much of it, it is not toxic at any possible dose, and the side effects are generally interpreted as 'pleasant'.”
“What are the side effects of phenobarbital?”
“Well, it is not too bad, on a normal dose you might get dizzy, shifty eyes, or in some cases a gross lack of coordination of muscle movements known as ataxia. At higher doses you can experience decreased consciousness, coma, hypothermia, liver damage and temporary brain death.”
“That sounds dangerous.”
“It can be dangerous, but only about 88% of people report any side effects, there is a good 12% chance you will not have any side effects”
“I think I'd rather use the marijuana.”
“You could, but then you risk federal agents busting down your door in the middle of the night raiding your house with sub-machine guns, or worse, they might accidentally kill you if you give the appearance of resisting arrest.”
(The doctor writes a prescription for phenobarbital) “I know it is not the best drug out there, but it is better than nothing for most people.”

Charlie begins taking phenobarbital daily, at first he notices nothing different but over time things start to change. A few weeks pass and Charlie starts noticing his first side effect at the tennis court.
“You aren't on your game today are you Charlie?” yells Alice over the noisy court
“I don't understand, I just keep whiffing them, I mean, I know I was never good at this, but at least before I could hit the ball.”

As Charlie begins to walk towards Alice he trips over his own feet. “I think your medication might be interfering with your coordination.” Charlie had fallen silent, in fact Charlie was dead. “Charlie? Charlie! CHARLIE!!” shrieked Alice. She dialed 911 and as the ambulance arrived she was completely soaked in tears, she had no idea what was going on. When they arrived at the hospital it was declared that Charlie had entered into a deep coma. It turned out Charlie had mistakenly taken one too many of his phenobarbital pills that day, his brain showed no signs of life. A few hours later the doctors told Alice that Charlies' brain was not registering any activity, that he was brain dead, and likely to be a vegetable for the rest of his life. Alice ran outside and screamed as loud as she could for as long as she could before she collapsed on the ground sobbing. She refused to give Charlie up.

Alice would visit Charlie on the weekends, first she would spend all weekend there, then just her Saturdays, finally after 5 years her visits had devolved into a few hours every few weeks. Her father started to pressure her to move on, he didn't think it was healthy for her to hold out hope for so long. They had made an agreement that Alice would visit Charlie one last time and that her father would accompany her visit. Alice stepped into Charlies' room and looked at his un-aged lifeless body for the last time. She approached Charlie, wrapped her arms around him and started crying into his chest, just like she used to when she was upset. She whispered into his ears “Good bye Charlie, I will always love you.” She walked out of the hospital with her father it was the last time she would ever see him again. “It was the drugs that got to him” said her father in a grieving tone. Alice could barely get it out, “I just don't understand, it all happened so fast” she said as she began to weep. “If he would have been using marijuana, he wouldn't be in a coma right now.”

Shortly after Alice had given up all hope Charlie’s parents learned about a new procedure used to wake up comatose patients. Doctors implanted an electrode deep within Charlie’s brain in the hopes of being able to wake him up with an electric shock. After the electrode was positioned properly a neurologist prepares to send along the first electric shock. The first shock is sent through and Charlie has no reaction. The neurologist decides to increase the voltage a little, again Charlie has no reaction. This goes on for about 10 minutes until the machine is set to maximum voltage. The neurologists sent the final electric shock through. Charlie’s parents have already given up at this point, feeling defeated they start putting their jackets on to leave when suddenly Charlie sputters “Mom? Dad?” His parents clamor to his bedside to communicate with their son that they haven’t talked to in 5 years. Charlie’s parents explain to him about being in a Coma for 5 years because he overdosed on Phenobarbital and that Alice had moved on. Charlie was upset about this, but mostly he was just happy to be alive.

It was at this point Charlie decided that he did not care whether or not marijuana was illegal; he wanted to have the safest most effective treatment for his condition. Charlie decided that the best method of delivery for his new medicine would be through a vaporizer than smoking it. The vaporizer would allow Charlie to get all the benefits from the medicinal compounds in the herb without any of the tar or carcinogens that comes along with smoking it. So Charlie went on eBay and ordered his vaporizer. He then decided that the best and most cost efficient way to get his medicine would be to grow it himself. He bought a bunch of indoor plant growing lights and ordered some cannabis seeds from Canada.

A few months later in the middle of November Charlie’s first medicine harvest was about to come in. It was 3AM Tuesday morning when all of the sudden Charlie is awoken by the sound of the front door being kicked down. Charlie’s father instinctively grabbed his gun to protect Charlie and himself from the burglars. Twelve men with semi-machine guns trampled through the house directly to Charlie’s closet where his medicine was growing. Charlie’s dad comes in to his room to rescue him with his gun drawn. The men turn around to see Charlie’s father at the doorway with a shotgun pointed straight at them. A man from behind shot Charlie’s father in the head and the other men stole the medicine and kidnapped Charlie. They bound his arms and legs with handcuffs and through him in the back of their van. It was at this point Charlie was beginning to realize that these were not ordinary criminals, they were government sponsored criminals, they were blackwater agents working for the Drug Enforcement Administration.

These agents had used an infrared scanning device to look through houses and could see the grow lights in Charlie’s closet. This method is illegal because it violates our right to privacy and unwarranted search through our homes protected by the fourth amendment. However laws do not apply to blackwater because they are a private “guns for hire” corporation. They can kill, loot, and use any illegal methods they want to force their beliefs onto others without any oversight. Charlie as the law sees it is now considered a terrorist and does not have the right to habeas corpus, nor does he have the right to due process of law, as per the patriot act and patriot act II. He was then taken to a secret prison built by haliburton, never to be seen from or heard from again.

In this story several people’s lives are ruined by the government over a plant. This is nothing in comparison to the 870,000 lives ruined each year by the federal government over marijuana. Regardless of if you use marijuana or not it should be obvious that marijuana prohibition is harmful to everyone.

The murder of Charlie’s father and the use of blackwater agents working for the DEA are actually based on real events. Black water agents have been photographed working for the DEA by the LA Times, and unfortunately every year people are killed in their own homes by the police because they mistake midnight police raids for intruders. Additionally about 50% of the time the midnight raids are on the wrong house entirely and people who don’t even have any marijuana get killed defending their home. In addition, police have access to Infrared scanners that literally can see into a persons house. They are illegal for the police to use and recently they have gotten caught by an internet reality show called “cop busters” which is put together by an ex DEA agent who regrets all the lives he’s ruined.