Probation officers in Missouri are sending people back to prison for legal use of medicinal cannabis

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Missouri legalized medical marijuana in 2018, but that voter-approved bill doesn’t prevent probation officers from sending people back to jail for using this legal medicine.

Ray Breer is one of many Missourians recently suspended for use of federally approved medical cannabis. Breer was arrested and jailed for possession of non-medicinal weed in 2019. After the 29-year-old was paroled, he decided to go legal and register as a medical marijuana patient.

Breer’s bipolar disorder and mental illness qualified him for the state’s medical marijuana program. But although the young man’s cannabis use was now fully in compliance with state laws, his parole was revoked after he tested positive for THC. In court, the judge told him that the judicial system intended to prevent anyone on parole from using medical cannabis.

After being released from jail last month, Breer is back on parole and could be sent back to jail if he continues to use medical pot. Fortunately, the Canna Convict Project (CCP), an advocacy group focused on finding justice for people arrested for cannabis crimes, has its back. The CCP has already fought legal battles against Missouri’s draconian weed laws and recently helped free a man who was sentenced to 22 years in prison for possession of a single pound of weed.

“Our mission is to help our Missouri non-violent cannabis inmates – prisoners of war, as we call them – exit custody and help them re-enter,” CCP co-founder Christina Frommer told Filter. “You become a kind of family. I develop relationships with all prisoners of war, with their families. I buy presents for their children. We try to look after the whole person. “

The CCP is now working with attorney Timothy Intessimone to help fight for Breer and others who have been paroled for exercising their constitutional right to use medicinal cannabis. “We ask the court to decide and clarify whether [convicts] can legally use medical marijuana with a valid Missouri health card during the trial period, ”Intessimone told Filter.

“It’s not really about that, though,” he continued. “That case is more about the Missouri Constitution. It’s about whether a state authority that acts according to state law, according to the state constitution, can punish someone during the [medical cannabis] The change clearly states that, according to the state constitution, they cannot be criminally punished. “

“The probation problem here in Missouri is that PNP [Probation and Parole] and DOC [Department of Corrections] does not recognize a patient’s ability to take medication while being monitored, ”explained Frommer. “Some of the people have really cool probation officers or probation officers, and they were allowed to take medication while under supervision, no problem. And others have gone so far as to receive sanctions and have been put back in prison. “

Intessimone believes the Missouri courts are using the ongoing federal cannabis ban as an excuse to deny medical cannabis patients access to their drugs. “Without a doubt, every state that has a medical one [marijuana] Program had to deal with it one way or another, ”he told Filter. “We’re dealing with a new, multi-billion dollar industry, and we’ve got to a point where the federal government is saying, ‘Yes, you can do it, and we’re not going to stop you’ it. ‘ But at the same time they say, ‘Well, you can’t.’ “

Similar battles have been fought in other medical cannabis states. Last year, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled that probation officers should not be banned from using medical marijuana, and the Colorado Supreme Court ruled similarly in 2019.