Jim Finnel
Fallen Cannabis Warrior & Ex News Moderator
In 1995, Will Foster was a 36-year old father of two when Tulsa, Oklahoma, police officers appeared at his door with a "John Doe" warrant to search for methamphetamine on the basis of a tip from a confidential informant. They found no amphetamines, even after tearing apart his five-year-old daughter's teddy bear. But behind a locked steel door in his basement they found a 25-square-foot marijuana garden — plants Foster grew to treat the chronic pain of acute rheumatoid arthritis.
Foster had doctors' prescriptions for Percodan and Percocet, opiate narcotic pain killers, but he couldn't tolerate the moodiness they caused and worried about their addictiveness. With marijuana, Foster was able to manage his pain and could control his dosage better.
The Tulsa district attorney offered Foster a plea bargain, but he refused, convinced that a search of his home based on bad information would be thrown out. But the officer who got the warrant swore at trial that it was accurate, even though it had no name, only an address, and they found nothing listed on the warrant. Foster's demand to face his accuser, the confidential informant who told the police methamphetamine was being sold from the house, was rejected by the judge.
The prosecution told the jury that Foster had to have intended to distribute marijuana because his small indoor garden was producing the equivalent of 2,652 joints, far more than a single person could consume. Ed Rosenthal, a marijuana cultivation expert, testified that the yield would be at most 600 joints, a proper amount for a medical patent who uses marijuana as medication on a daily basis.
Even though Foster, a successful computer programmer with his own business, had only $30 in the house and no evidence of any sales, the jury convicted him in January 1997 of cultivation and intent to distribute. They also found aggravating factors of possession "in the presence of a minor under age 11" (his daughter) and failure to obtain marijuana tax stamps. The total sentence came to 93 years in prison.
"My medical use of marijuana never interfered with my work," said Foster. "I ran a successful business. I told my conservative doctor what I was doing, and while he did not really agree with it because of the health risk of smoking, he witnessed my positive results. I was minding my own business taking care of my health and my family. What was I doing to anybody that got me 93 years?"
Because of overcrowding in the Oklahoma prison system, Foster was transferred to a prison in Texas, 400 miles from his family. While there, prison officials refused to allow him any medical treatment for his worsening condition, until one ankle became so hideously swollen that it was in danger of amputation. Public outcry helped prompt prison officials to begin treating him.
In 1998, an Oklahoma appeals court found that the 93-year term "shocks our conscience" and reduced the sentence to 20 years, which introduced the possibility of parole for Foster.
The parole board quickly issued a unanimous recommendation for his release, but then-Governor Frank Keating (R) rejected Foster's parole. The following year, Foster again came up for parole, again received the recommendation of the board, and again was rejected by the governor. On Foster's third attempt at parole, Keating finally agreed to release him, and Will Foster walked free on April 26, 2001.
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