A Marijuana Valentine To Jonathan Magbie: Patron Saint Of Unicorns
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February 14, 2009
Or, how the Barr Amendment killed a paraplegic over a single lousy joint…
Happy Valentine’s Day, Jonathan—We have not forgotten you!
By George Rohrbacher, NORML Board of Directors, medical marijuana patient
I love my own children beyond all measure. They range from 33-to-26 years old, three sons and a daughter who’ve returned to me a lifetime of love and four grandkids, with three more on the way. It is from this perspective that I first heard of the death of Jonathan Magbie and continue to think about him today.
In October of 2004, I arrived in Washington DC for a NORML Board of Directors meeting, having just flown in from the west coast. It was late Friday afternoon. In NORML’s office, Allen St. Pierre, our Executive Director, slid the second section of that day’s Washington Post across the desk to me. There, above the fold, was a news story that made me sick to my stomach.
The article was about the death of Jonathan Magbie, a 28-year old black wheelchair-bound paraplegic, a first offender who died while serving a ten-day jail sentence for the possession of one single lousy joint! The year was 2004, it happened right in our nation’s capitol, Washington DC. At the epicenter of the “Land of the Free”, the cops and courts had put a paralyzed man in jail for pot! He died of respiratory collapse on day-four of his ten-day sentence in the custody of our government.
Judge Retchin’s sentence, ‘ten-days-in-the-hole’ was a cruel response to Jonathan’s honest and forthright answers that he used marijuana to help ease his pain and that he intended to use marijuana again, after he was released. After all, the people of Washington DC had voted overwhelmingly for medical marijuana in 1998—it passed with a 69% yes vote! But then, the marijuana prohibitionists in Congress constructed the Barr Amendment, a federal appropriations rider that blocked the implementation of the will of Washington DC’s voters: So, District of Columbia, if you want your operating money from the federal government, to hell with the voters’ say on medical marijuana.
A victim of alcohol, one of America’s lethal but legal drugs, Jonathan Magbie was struck and paralyzed for life by a drunk driver. Shown here with President Ronald Regan, Jonathan Magbie was a national poster boy for MADD, at the age of 8.
Before Judge Retchin was a young man who had been in a wheelchair for 24-years, ever since, as a four-year old child, Jonathan had been hit, with tragic irony, by a drunk driver and paralyzed for life. For two and a half decades, Jonathan was imprisoned inside his own body, a punishment so cruel that no judge’s sentence could ever come close to matching it—until the application of Washington DC “justice”.
As my eyes moved down through the text of the Post story, in this horrible tragedy, I began to see how easily this loss could have been my own. Jonathan was the very same age as one of my sons. When I finished reading and I looked back up at Allen, there were tears streaming down my face. The Washington D.C. courts could just as easily have killed one of my own sons! And over what??? I screamed…Over what??? Jonathan had died in the hands of our government over one single friggin’ joint!!! Jonathan’s family had faithfully cared for him, all his 28-years, despite the horrendous health complications of being paralyzed below one’s chin. But, after just four days in the care of Washington DC’s jailers, they had killed him!
No one took responsibility for the death of Jonathan Magbie. With the help of the ACLU, Mrs. Scott, Jonathan’s mother, successfully sued Washington DC and was recently granted a large undisclosed award. But, as any parent can tell you, no award could ever compensate for the lost of a child.
And, why, oh why, was Jonathan arrested and put in jail, in the first place? MARIJUANA.
Jonathan was just one of the 20-million Americans who’ve been arrested on marijuana charges, and 89% of them, just like Jonathan, for a very small amount intended for personal use. Bush’s Drug Czar, John Walters, recently claimed that jailed marijuana offenders are as rare as unicorns. Well, what about Jonathan Magbie, the Patron Saint of Unicorns, who died for one joint, jailed just blocks from the White House and Drug Czar’s very own plush and cozy office?
The Congressional marijuana prohibitionists continue using the Barr Amendment to tell Washington DC’s voters to take their will and “shove it”. These beltway prohibitionists encourage local D.C. judges that they want to see a lot see more of that good old ‘Retchin justice’. You say a 69% voter approval rating for medical marijuana in D.C.? Well—screw that!! Congress’ pot prohibitionists, like the Republicans’ minority leader, couldn’t care less if DC’s voters had given the measure 99% approval. The arrest, conviction, sentencing and subsequent death of Jonathan Magbie is the ultimate implementation of the Barr Amendment. Jonathan’s blood is on the hands of all members of Congress who voted for it.
The War on Drugs is, in reality, a war on the people who use drugs; coercion and incarceration, the prime tools of the trade. As a way to demonstrate just how tough the courts are with those ‘so-called medical marijuana patients’ in our nation’s capitol, Judge Retchin decided, paralyzed or not, Jonathan Magbie needed to be taught a lesson. Well Judge, what do you think he learned?
And…what should America learn from the death of this innocent and defenseless young man, Jonathan Magbie, Patron Saint of Unicorns?
THE BALLAD OF JONATHAN MAGBIE
© 2006 George Rohrbacher and NORMLConfined to a wheelchair ever since he was four years old,
The life of President Regan’s poster boy has needlessly run cold.
No matter that Jonathan Magbie was paralyzed below his chin
He got a death sentence for using pot as his medicine.Over a single lousy joint, he got hauled up before the law,
Ten days in the hole! Judge Retchin hammered with her claw.
Up under the jailhouse this first-offender would be sent,
A-Gasping for air, Magbie’s jailtime would be spent.Chorus
If Jonathan’s story doesn’t break your heart, you ain’t got one
If this family’s tragedy doesn’t cry for Justice, there is none.
What ya’ gonna’ tell a frantic mom how you’ve killed her son
A casualty in the war that can’t be won.Demented justice…Judge Retchin’s justice…
Prison life is tough, so much tougher when you’re driving with your chin
Officials pointin’ everywhere, “ain’t my fault we killed poor Jonathan”.
Washington D.C.’s voters said medical cannabis was “O.K.”
And then, our stinkin’ Federal politicians blocked the People’s say.Slowly drowning in a mucus mess
Jonathan’s dead now, let’s call the drug war a success
So what about jailing a cripple, over a little blunt of weed?
Did this cruel and unusual punishment meet some social need?Chorus
If Jonathan’s story doesn’t break your heart, you aint’ got one
If this family’s tragedy doesn’t cry for justice, there is none.
What are ya’ gonna’ tell a crying mom how you’ve killed her son
He’s as dead as if you’d shot him with a gun.Demented justice…Judge Retchin’s justice…wretched injustice
When Jonathan smoked the ganja to make himself feel right,
He puffed away his pain with the safest drug in sight.
That one bud could bring a hurtin’ man, ten un-do-able days in jail,
Then compassion, common sense, and Justice–even human kindness fails.Burying your child is the hardest thing that’s ever to be done in life.
A death caused by those charged “to protect and serve” cuts deeper than any knife.
We’re left with chains of earthly bondage, now that Jonathan’s been set free,
Let’s ask ourselves, is this the world we want for him, or you and me?Chorus
If Jonathan’s story doesn’t break your heart, you ain’t got one
If this family’s tragedy doesn’t cry for Justice, there is none.
What ya’ gonna’ tell a grievin’ mom how you’ve killed her son
Another casualty in the war that can’t be won.Demented justice…our country’s Retchin justice… it’s a wretched injustice
***
Listen to George Rohrbacher read ‘The Ballad of Jonathan Magbie‘ here.
Wedgwood 2009: People of color are arrested and incarcerated for marijuana at rates hugely disproportionate to those of whites. NORML has updated the world-famous anti-slavery medallion produced in 1787 by Josiah Wedgwood. This medallion was the visual symbol of the first successful movement working to end slavery in the world. This image was about as famous, in the 18th and 19th centuries, as the peace symbol is today. Wedgwood produced 20,000 of these anti-slavery medallions. In the campaign to change public opinion on the issue of slavery, the image became a touchstone. The slave trade was finally ended in England in 1807.
NOTE: Josiah Wedgwood’s daughter was Charles Darwin’s mother. Born 200 years ago and on the very same day as Abraham Lincoln, Charles Darwin’s hatred of slavery shaped his views on human evolution.
The NORML Jonathan Magbie MUSIC CHALLENGE:
NORML challenges other musicians to take this meager effort forward…to write a better song, to record your own version of this song, to perhaps write different music for these words, or produce a hip-hop or rap version, country, blues, or whatever. But—let ART do its part in telling Jonathan’s story.
How can we sit by and not say something about Jonathan Magbie to others? The pain and tragedy of this story is so deep, what else but music could express it? Can you help? Send NORML your recording of “The Ballad of Jonathan Magbie”.
100 Responses to “A Marijuana Valentine To Jonathan Magbie: Patron Saint Of Unicorns”
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[...] Before Judge Retchin was a young man who had been in a wheelchair for 24-years, ever since, as a four-year old child, Jonathan had been hit, with tragic irony, by a drunk driver and paralyzed for life. For two and a half decades, Jonathan was imprisoned inside his own body, a punishment so cruel that no judge’s sentence could ever come close to matching it—until the application of Washington DC “justice”. (more…) [...]
I am sending a copy of this to my Congressman. The Barr Amendment must go.
This is sickening… what type of messed up country do we live in?
What has become of Judge Retchin… she should be reminded of Mr. Magpi’se death every day and sent this poem every year on Valentines Day. The only consolation that exists is that Mr. Magpie is now free and that the good Judge Retchin will herself be judged one day.
Herb don’t kill the evil ones do
how distorted we can be out of ignorance/stupidity.
If only the liers in GOV. die !! i to am a child of the liers!! age 52 R.I.P Jonathan Magbie
This tragedy also highlights one very overlooked complication of marijuana prohibition. To put it plainly, people for whatever reason have showed prejudice and a judgmental attitude towards marijuana users. Whether it be the media, government, or corporate influence, people patronize cannabis users without question or hesitation…and what is worse than prejudicial ignorance has yet to be worldly discovered.
The government is playing God and will use the war on drugs, especially cannabis, as a measurement of your loyalty to your masters and their wonderful ubiquitous cold callous system that always upholds and bases everything it does on how it treats and respects the individual is a farce and it is so far from the truth in application.
Judges have become merely administrators not allowed to judge an individual.
The system itself is inert to destroy the individual and treat everyone like an artificial person.
Most judges have been conditioned and chose to ignore the individual only looking at black letters on the background of white in a rule book. Everyone is getting paid in one form or another, from the top to the bottom is doing well, it doesn’t matter who pays the cost or how much they pay as long as I got mine at the expense of them we can go home after getting drunk on power.
Jonathan and his families are victims of this assembly line of chaos and order.
It is repulsive and incomprehensible what happened to Jonathan.
How many have suffered like him?
How many more? Could you or a loved one be next?
He is not a poster boy anymore he is an individual.
We must remember him on this day forever.
February 14th is The patron saint of unicorns day.
It sucks he had to go that way,,hopefully soon this will end,,,its rediculous that anyone should be jailed for mj……alcohol is so much more damaging..when will they get it,,,,sooooonnnnn
The hypocrisy of our government never ceases to amaze me…………what an appalling miscarraige of justice….all over the possession of the buds of a plant put on earth by God…………..the same God that those corrupt pitiful excuses for human beings exploit again and again in an effort to get votes…….How sad that the ignorant cattle of this country continue to elect the 2 major political parties that have raped our constitution for decades….in a way Jonathan Magbie is as much a victim of voter apathy as he is the victim of the aforementioned corrupt politicians…may he rest in peace and may they see the error of their foolish ways
Another victim in the “War Against the People”
How sad it is the USA has declared war against its own citizens!
The “War Against the People” must end!!!
Thanks George………I wish all sane adults could get over the madness causing such sadness.
WEED HELPS!
2006 AMMA “Rap Song Of The Year”
From the CD “SOMETHING TO SMOKE TO 2″ THE INDIVIDUALS
All Pro-Marijuana organizations can get the single at cost. $1.00 each and sell them for $2-$3 to raise money for Medical Marijuana Groups.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4V1K9EfiJUk
[...] NORML Blog » Blog Archive » A Marijuana Valentine To Jonathan … [...]
As bad as this whole case is, his mother is going to get a lump of money that ” WE THE PEOPLE” will have to pay for. Not the freakin’ judge nor the city of DC. It will be taxpayer paid. Though this is one of the few times that I am happy to pay taxes. As I know it’s going to a good cause.Though I hope it’s spent towards other disabled people and not a phat house or car. It’s like the woman with the 8 new babies, who’s going to be gettin’ government money, or should I say money from “WE THE PEOPLE” again and again.
doug
God bless Jonathan Magbie, and God damn the morally retarded judge that murdered this defenseless man.
For the last several months i have holding my states Congressman Rahall feet to the fire. with every opportunity i bring the cause of medical marijuana to his attention. all the commissions reports, every legislative opportunity. His every reply is answered with the same standard wording. he believes marijuana is a gateway drug. how sad that jonathan was paralyzed for life by a drunk driver and it just so happens congressman rahall was arrested for drunk driving. of course WV is a state where tobacco is a major cash crop and we all know about our moonshine. i cannot help but think those lobbyist dollars outweigh the voters who have continuously voiced anywhere from 65% to 72% approval of medical marijuana nationwide. the only way to “change” the status quo will be by the vote, or so we’ve been taught, but how does the congress and the senate and the judiciary disregard the will of the people so callously. i will remember jonathan.
The sad thing is this is business as usual and
it will go unnoticed by any conventional media outlets.
That’s why it’s so important to support NORML and other
organizations efforts to end this insanity. To support
them you can donate, join or even just write your
congress person and tell them how you feel. That’s
one of the last free things you can do in this country
is express your opinion by email or letter, so make
use of it anytime you get a chance to!
The tragedy is that the war on drugs is not driven by a desire to protect, but by greed. As with most struggles for power, which is what the war on drugs is all about, money (read as “pharmaceutical giants”) is at the root.
This tears my heart out. How can people be so cruel? What ever his family got from D.C wasnt enough.
Words, they make me angry, but they don’t change laws.
Writing to congress doesn’t change laws
Protesting 40 years ago didn’t do a damnm thing.
I wonder if even norml’s lobbyists are getting paid
Because in this world only money means a damn thing.
I agree. This is very sad. We must stand together against the drug war especially when it comes to cannabis!
I say that if weed is illegal then shall be liquor, beer and wine. Liquor, beer and wine does more harm then weed does to the brain and body. Liquor, beer and wine also kills more people on the roads and we allow this to happen. What kind of people have we become now?????? And now the justice system is allowed to legally kill and get away with it in the name of justice….I say HELL NO to this!!!!! Stand up and fight for our rights and let the GOV. know that they have over stepped their bounderies. When will the people stop bitching and do something about it???? All you do is complain about it, stand up and do for once. Get it together and man up for once…….
What a shame.Hello Congress,are ya listening? How loud do we need to yell? We’ll yell,& then when you don’t hear,we’ll yell louder.
Jonathan was not the first casualty in the “War on Drug Users” and will certainly not be the last until extreme measures are taken to reform our nation’s drug laws and end this despicable assault on human liberties.
How Can OuR OWN Government Do Tis To A DisableD Man???
Stop Being Selfish…
That really is heartbreaking and sickening. His story would be great for a pro-legalize commercial though.
Powerful.
If my voice was anything above “dead cat dying” I would be on this already.
I am so sickened, demoralized and saddened to have read this moving story and ballad of Jonathan Magbie. How could he have been treated with such cruelty and negligence? How his heart ached, as he realized he was dying, unable to feel the loving embrace of his beloved family.
I am tortured constantly by excruciatingly painful diabetic neuropathy; my legs are paralyzed and feel like they are being pierced by red-hot needles and nails. I want to use marijuana, but I don’t, as I believe I will be incarcerated and sacrificed as Jonathan was. I vow that I will fight so that Jonathan
did not die in vain, all because he wanted to alleviate his suffering. Sentenced to Death because he smoked some weed!! Why!?!
“But then, the marijuana prohibitionists in Congress constructed the Barr Amendment, a federal appropriations rider that blocked the implementation of the will of Washington DC’s voters: So, District of Columbia, if you want your operating money from the federal government, to hell with the voters’ say on medical marijuana.” – isn’t that unconstitutional. Whatever happened to “for the people by the people”?
we will continue to be the nigger queers of modern american politics until we come out and get uppity. On April 20th of this year wear a marijuana leaf on your left arm. Ask your friends to do it too. Let’s show the politicians just how many of us there are.
Maybe Retchin doesn’t know what it is like to suffer. Maybe one day she will find out and regret her actions.
Then maybe we can get something done and fix this injustice. Of course sooner would be better than later… before anyone else has to needlessly suffer so someone else can line their pockets up and get re-elected.
ugh, that story breaks my heart.
This does not surprise me. When will the government wake up?
As long as “WE THE PEOPLE” continue to pay these idiots salaries they will continue to bend us, ( WE THE PEOPLE)over. There will nothing done to the judge, or anyone on the judical side. Don’t cost them a dime to ruin someones life. NOW, Al Gore’s son ain’t doing no time. How about Robert Kennedy Jr. and his smack problem. NO FINES there either. I would also like to bitch slap the punk who took Michael’s picture. Gee what a nice friend!!!!!!!!!! No worries about making a buck off another human. That’s part of our troubles is that most people will jump a flaming trench to make a buck off someone else. Work for that money, NO WAY, we’ve go lawyers for that.
Even tho medical cannabis is legal in WA, “my” congressional delegation still vote against cannabis relegalization every chance they get. Time to end their reign of terror against our own people. Time to throw all three of them out.
How do yours act? Time to throw them out, too? Wonder what would change if every congressional district in the nation (except Ron Paul’s) were to initiate recalls against their congressional delegations for crimes against the Constitution and the people?
As for political parties, I’m libertarian and this is what I sent to the LP’s hq (with a link to this article) just now:
This is just one of the many reasons I and many other REAL libertarians could not bring ourselves to vote for Bob Barr. I remembered, during the campaign, this death and the many other non-libertarian actions Barr took in Congress. Next election how about putting up a REAL libertarian for our presidential candidate, someone we REAL libertarians can vote for without holding our noses or betraying our principles?
The original article states police found a gun and cocaine in the vehicle in which Magbie was stopped in April 2003.
I’m assuming he wasn’t driving, but because he was in the car that had the gun and cocaine he was given a stiffer sentence. (The judge is known for giving out harsh punishments)
As tragic as this is, this really isn’t about marijuana. It’s about the jails not being fully able to care for a paralyzed man. He died because of poor care.
Ref: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A63478-2004Sep30.html
The judge that sentenced him deserves to be in the same cell! I feel so much sympathy for this man being pictured by the ones that pertetuated his demise.
What do you expect from the same government that allows gang stalkers to openly and notoriously stalk, harass, torture and murder with poison and radiation?
.
The reason this goes on is that there is a segment of voters who believe that they have the right to impose their own religious and/or moral views on everybody else (it is a sin to get high)and none of our political “leaders” have the stones to go against this group. These are often the same people who are outraged that Christian prayer is no longer allowed in our schools, and call damnation down upon the ACLU. They have forgotten the value of individual liberty and the principles upon which this free nation was founded. The irony is that arrogance, self-righteousness and intolerance drive those who, in the exercise of their own fundamental right of religious freedom, seek to infringe the same rights of others who do not share their views. Let’s say it like it is.
Judge retchin’s = puke
eventully carma will come for Judge Retchin and the payback sentence will be enourmous.
The law is the law. Unless its unconstitutional. An American is an American even if they smoke or posses pot. Anyone that commits or engages in an act of war against American people with witnesses is committing an act of treason as stated in the constitution. Treason is a crime, and “NOBODY IS ABOVE THE LAW”.
I have thought over the yrs. that the laws on marijuana are very stupid… Drinking , smoking cigs kill more people.. It seem our gov. does not work for the people.. only what is good for them.
[...] Before Judge Retchin was a young man who had been in a wheelchair for 24-years, ever since, as a four-year old child, Jonathan had been hit, with tragic irony, by a drunk driver and paralyzed for life. For two and a half decades, Jonathan was imprisoned inside his own body, a punishment so cruel that no judge’s sentence could ever come close to matching it—until the application of Washington DC “justice”. (more…) [...]
I am crying as I write this letter. Sometimes I think I cry now that I`m older and don`t care what other people say about a man crying. I suffer from advanced arthritis and degenerative disc disease and several other problems. My pain become so terrible some days I just whant to give up. I`m pretty much on the highest dose of morphine and duragesic I will get. But what Jonathan had to survive for so many yrs. and to be taken down by totally uncaring, sadistic and ignorant judges and jailers, is totally unbeleiving. This man deserves to have a national day for all of us Norml members and all people who do care about one and other, sister, brother, mother, father and all who know what should have been done, instead of what happened. My love goes out to his family and all others who have suffered under what seems to becoming a totalitarianisum country. Enough is enough. I would not mind at all if this published. Michael E Modlin
ONCE AGAIN, MY GOVERNMENT MAKES ME ASHAMED TO BE AN AMERICAN CITIZEN. COULD IT BE THE PROBLEM HERE IS THAT OUR GOVERNMENT LEADERS HAVE SIMPLY NOT READ THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES AND BILL OF RIGHTS? TO BE FREE, AN INDIVIDUAL’S RIGHTS TO FREEDOM OF CHOICE, FOR WHICH THEY ARE FULLY ACCOUNTABLE AND RESPONSIBLE, MUST EXTEND TO THE POINT WHERE THE FREE EXERCISE OF THOSE RIGHTS INFRINGE ON THE SAME GOD GIVEN RIGHTS OF OTHERS. ANYTHING LESS IS SLAVERY. REGRETFULLY, MOST AMERICANS ARE LIKE SHEEP BEING HERDED TO SLAUGHTER. RARELY IS THERE SO MUCH AS A BLEAT HEARD UNTIL THE EXECUTIONER’S BLADE IS DRAWN ACROSS THEIR THROATS. MOST AMERICANS DON’T EVEN BOTHER TO VOTE. MAY GOD FORGIVE AND HAVE MERCY ON US ALL.
PLEASE DELETE 45. AND THIS MESSAGE. A TYPO, I INITIALLY LEFT OUT THE LETTER “N” IN “GOD GIVEN.”
THANK YOU.
WE ARE A REPRESSED NATION . MOST EVERYONE IS SCARED TO PUT THEIR REAL LAST NAME DOWN BECAUSE WE FEAR OUR GOVERNMENT .
What is sad about this story is that the Drug and alcohol companies are spending millions to snuff out marijuana for fears their sales will drop if marijuana is legal . Regarding , Michael Phelps….if it’s all about sending the wrong message to children then why is nothing said about all those televised ads & billboards along our highways telling us to drink alcoholic beverages ???!!!