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# Defending a Medical Marijuana Patient | Kate Bell | Drug War Stories
- URL: https://ghost.psymposia.com/defending-a-medical-marijuana-patient-kate-bell-drug-war-stories/
- Published: 2016-11-08T15:55:02.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-01T06:31:22.000Z
- Description: He had stage 4 cancer and was being prosecuted for a marijuana pipe.
- Author: Mike Elliott
- Tags: Videos, #youtube, #youtube-transcript

He had stage 4 cancer and was being prosecuted for a marijuana pipe.

Drug War Stories, Catharsis on the Mall 2015

Filmed by Kenny Reff, Evan Roberts, Bryce Montgomery  
Edited by J Warner

[http://catharsisonthemall.com](http://catharsisonthemall.com/?ref=ghost.psymposia.com)  
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Sponsored by the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS)  
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## Transcript

*This transcript was generated automatically from YouTube's captions, then cleaned up by removing filler words, repeated words and background sounds. It may still contain errors.*

[\[00:01\]](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vRjxH8jRxyc&t=1s&ref=ghost.psymposia.com) I just want to really briefly share a story with you guys. This is not my story. But unfortunately he can't be here to share it because he's no longer with us. I used to be criminal defense attorney in Baltimore and I represented a lot of medical cannabis patients under the old affirmative defense law, which basically meant that you had to be arrested and prosecuted for cannabis use, and then you had to hire an attorney and go to court and try to prove that your use was medical to avoid criminal penalties.

[\[00:56\]](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vRjxH8jRxyc&t=56s&ref=ghost.psymposia.com) I got an email from someone at the Ednormal, the National Organization for the Reformed Marijuana Laws, basically asking me to represent this young man. When I met him, he was 20 years old and had stage four cancer. He had a rare pediatric cancer that, the older you're diagnosed with it, the worse it is, and most people are diagnosed by age five. He was in an experimental treatment at Johns Hopkins in addition to chemo and radiation and was fighting for his life and he was in a car with some friends and got pulled over and was being prosecuted for the marijuana pipe that he had in possession and in his possession. And this is a young man who was an Eagle Scout.

[\[01:43\]](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vRjxH8jRxyc&t=103s&ref=ghost.psymposia.com) He had never been in trouble in his entire life. Incredibly sweet young man and he was terrified. So he came to me he I represented him for free. Although he had a notebook with all of his treatment records in it and on the front of it there was a picture of him with the band Marine 5 who had come to the pediatric hospital that he was in. And I told him that his payment to me was that I was making a photocopy of that picture. And I actually got the charges against him dismissed. But he wanted to fight to make sure that other young people like himself did not have to go through this same difficulty. And so we, the two of us together went to the Maryland legislature and there were some bills introduced at the time to try to improve the medical cannabis law. and we let them know that the current state of the law wasn't good enough and that people like him

[\[02:44\]](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vRjxH8jRxyc&t=164s&ref=ghost.psymposia.com) Shouldn't have to go through this. And unfortunately it didn't nothing it got passed that year because I don't know if you guys remember there was a budget crisis at the time and that took up the legislator's attention. But I am happy to say that eventually they did listen. They the legislators sat through a very very long hearing and listened respectfully to everything that was said and they did eventually amend the medical law. So Maryland has a real medical marijuana law now. They are going to be opening dispensaries any time now. And I when I started organizing this event went to reach out to him and I found out that he passed away last year.

[\[03:39\]](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vRjxH8jRxyc&t=219s&ref=ghost.psymposia.com) So, I just wanted to tell that story in his honor because I am sure that he would be very proud of the work that people are doing and continuing to do to make sure that people who need to use a medical cannabis to get through chemo and radiation and keep themselves alive are able to do so without having to work to worry about going to prison. So that's it. Thanks,