Medical cannabis cultivator Tom Kikiuchi came home from more than 15 months in federal prison on New Year’s Eve to find a crowd of twenty-five supporters weeping, cheering, and waiving signs in the downtown Los Angeles bus station. The holiday homecoming was an emotional one for Tom’s family and advocates – especially when Tom spoke on the phone to his partner, Stephanie Landa, who is still serving a 41-month sentence for cultivation in a federal work camp in Dublin.

Tom served 37 months for cultivation following a DEA raid at his city-sanctioned medical cannabis garden in San Francisco in 2002.  He was arrested again in 2007 in connection with a garden in the San Fernando Valley. That arrest violated his probation and sent him back to federal prison until last night. Sadly, Tom is not off the hook yet. He still faces charges for the garden in the Valley, and there is a real chance that the 60+ year old patient may go back to jail in 2009.

We hope Tom is home for good, and will celebrate New Year’s next year with Stephanie. But prosecutors are going to do their best to punish him – no matter how absurd that seems at this point. Perhaps District Attorneys and US Attorneys all over the country should use the holiday as a chance to reconsider the wisdom of sending legal patients to jail at a time in history in which safe access to medical cannabis is more widespread and secure than ever before. No ones interest was served by incarcerating Tom twice already. Why do it again?

Tom’s warm homecoming and ongoing plight should also remind us that there are still many decent patients facing prosecution or already in prison. Morro Bay collective operator Charles C. Lynch will have a hearing for a new trial and may face sentencing in January. Virgil Grant and Steel Smith will start their trials soon after. Stephanie Landa, Dustin Costa, Luke Scrarmazzo, and Ricardo Montes are sitting in prison cells this New Year’s Day. And these are just a few of the Americans who are facing criminal charges or serving time because of medical cannabis. Let’s make a New Year’s resolution to redouble our support for those we hope are the last victims of state and federal laws against medical cannabis.

Be sure you are signed up on ASA’s announcement lists and keep an eye on our discussion forums to find out when you can show up in court or write a letter to support patients on trial. Community support meant the world to Tom at the bus station… and you can help make that difference for others victims, too.

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 1st, 2009 at 1:31 pm and is filed under Activism, Americans for Safe Access (ASA), California, DEA, Federal, Law Enforcement, Legal, Medical Cannabis. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.