The Alexandra Wilson Story

When I was staying at my mom's house the other day, I woke up in the middle of the night, logged onto the computer, and started up an instant messaging program. I was pleasantly surprised to see one of my friends, whom I hadn't seen or heard from in a few months. While IMing, he sent me a link to a news article, informing me that it was about some people who went to school with him. As I read the article, which boasted of raiding the home of a family in Kansas, finding drugs, and then jailing the entire family--children and all--I felt anger at the self-righteous injustice of it all.

My friend put me into contact with the female head of the household, and I chatted online with her for a while. The more she told me, the more I became determined that her story needed to be heard--both for the benefit of her own family and for the benefit of many other families, who have been and will continue to be victims of such an abusive and corrupt system.

You've just read the beginning of my post...and here is the rest of it.

Here is the story of Alexandra and her family.

At the age of thirty-seven, Alexandra Wilson thought she finally had her life heading the right direction. She had found the man of her dreams, and they had conceived a child, which brought them even closer than they had already been. Alexandra's teenage children were growing up to be strong individuals. Her motorcycle customization shop and cafe/gift shop/arcade, despite the smallness of the town in which she had opened them, were becoming thriving sources of income.

Everything seemed perfect, until her mother-in-law had a heart attack.

No matter how strong a woman thinks she is, recovering from a heart attack while raising two eight-year-old twins and managing the care of her husband (who was suffering from Parkinson's disease) proved to be too much for Alexandra's mother-in-law.

Overcoming her own flawed upbringing, Alexandra did the altruistic thing--she and her family moved in with her in-laws, to help manage their care.

Just as the family was getting settled in and life was beginning return to some semblance of normality, one of Alexandra's dear friends was diagnosed with terminal cancer and, with treatment, given a life expectancy of no more than five years.

With his lack of medical care, and Alexandra's current caretaker position with her in-laws, she invited him to move in with her family, so that she could help get him the treatment that he needed. Deeply concerned about her friend's condition and her in-laws weakened and degenerating states, Alexandra followed up on things that she had heard in the past, and she did extensive research into the medicinal use of marijuana.

In the course of her research, she discovered the Medical Necessity Defense. With her entire family suffering, Alexandra weighed all of their problems and their ongoing pain and discomfort against the legality of what she was considering doing. In the end, she did what many others have done in the past and would do in the future, if faced with such circumstances.

Alexandra turned to a plant that was, until sixty-seven years ago, legally and acceptably used in The United States of America. She began administering marijuana to her loved ones, using it to lessen their pain and suffering.

As long as it was available and not abused, Alexandra saw no problem with her actions. After all, she wasn't selling it to anyone; it was used in the safety of her own home. No one was harmed by its use, and (to the contrary) it actually relieved pain, returned lost appetites, and had the medically underweight cancer patient gaining weight. At five-foot-nine, with a hyperactive metabolism, the cancer patient went from roughly one hundred and ten pounds to his personal record of one-twenty-five in the course of six months.

Alexandra says she saw nothing but benefits from her medicinal use of marijuana.

In an email to me, she further wrote, “Financial constraints made purchasing it difficult at times, but fortunately it grows wild here in the state of Kansas. Pulling a plant from the side of the road became an easy alternative when finances were tight.”

Since things seemed to be going so much better, Alexandra decided to enroll in college. The cancer patient, who not long ago had been debilitated with pain and weakness, was now functional enough to assist in caring for Alexandra's in-laws, to help with home-schooling her sixteen-year-old daughter, and to baby sit her two-year-old daughter, while Alexandra and her husband went to school all day. Given the circumstances, life seemed to be going fairly well for Alexandra and her family. Then, on October 12th of 2004, their lives were turned upside down.

Speaking on the Internet with a friend she met in a chat room called Budsmokers Only, Alexandra's sixteen-year-old daughter showed somebody online the instruments her family used, along with a small sack, which she had to identify for the other person as marijuana. This “friend” she had been speaking to was actually a deputy sheriff, located in the same town where Alexandra's family lived.

Alexandra is quite angry and indignant over what she sees as the coersive and manipulative tactics used on her daughter. Says Alexandra of her daughter, “She was depressed, trying to fit in and thought she was talking to someone she trusted. Despite his harassing attempts, she persisted to tell him that she would not sell him anything, give him anything or even meet him in person just to talk about it.”

That night, the Sheriff and a group of law enforcement officers arrived at Alexandra's home, armed only with an Affidavit Requesting a Search Warrant. They forced Alexandra's ten-year-old son to the ground to handcuff him and proceeded to gather everyone on the property, including a friend not in the home, who rented a garage apartment on the property. They handcuffed only the men, refused to let anyone handle the "search warrant," and subsequently arrested six people from the home on charges of possession of marijuana, possession of paraphernalia, and (since a roadside plant was being dried for later use) cultivation and harvesting of marijuana.

During the search, arrest, and processing of charges, many of the victims' civil rights were violated. Items were "taken into evidence" and left behind (possibly with the intention of a follow-up raid). Alexandra's sixteen-year-old daughter was taken out of the home to be questioned by police before either of her parents were made aware of a police presence on the property.

Items taken into evidence were mishandled (the driver's license of her son’s fiancé, taken from Alexandra's son's wallet, but listed in evidence as being found in Alexandra's bedroom, is one example).

In the end, a plea bargain was reached. Everyone except Alexandra pled guilty to misdemeanor possession charges, and they were released under varied bond amounts. Again, caring for and protecting her family, Alexandra was charged with Felony Possession With Intent To Distribute.

Alexandra says, “With this being a year when both the Sheriff and County Prosecutor are up for reelection, I honestly believe this entrapping event was nothing more than an attempt to make them look good for the election. Their political ploy even goes so far as my first scheduled court appearance, scheduled for this Thursday, a total of ten days after the initial raid, and conveniently with two more weeks before election day, (the) faster they can get the felony charge prosecuted, the better they look to those still debating how to vote.

“With four of those ten days being spent in jail, two more being a weekend, they expect me to work on a reasonable defense in four days, while still attempting to stay in school as long as possible. I'm being railroaded with the possibility of three to seven years in prison for doing what I believed was best for my family and being given four working days to try and stop it. Is there anyone out there who cares enough about my rights to provide the best care I could under the circumstances? When no one was being harmed, no one was abusing the substance and everyone using it was benefiting from it, how is what I did wrong?”

This story, as tragic as it is, is one that is repeated every day in our nation. I'm willing to come to the defense of somebody like Alexandra, who is doing what she feels is best for her loved ones when they are suffering and dying. But I'm even willing to take it a step further and tell you that I'm for the legalization of all drugs. Since when did it become morally acceptable for us to make criminals out of people who are ill?

In our nation, we tell alcoholics, “You have a disease. Alcoholism is an illness, which needs to be treated.” We tell cigarette addicts, “Cigarette addiction is an illness, and you need treatment to recover.” The same experts who claim that addiction to such narcotics as alcohol and nicotine is an illness also say that addiction to any other drug is an illness, and it needs to be treated. Jailing and imprisoning people because they are suffering from an illness is a practice out of the Dark Ages, and it's something we should have stopped doing long ago.

Addicts don't need incarceration; they need treatment. And people who are doing nothing more than trying to care for loved ones--on that one, I have to agree with Alexandra.

How is what she did wrong?

More of My Articles Along This Vein:
The Two-headed Monster (U. S. Politics)
The So-called Debates
Close the Door Or You'll Let In a...
Waste No Vote