Voters legalized medical cannabis, but some patients are still being incarcerated for it. 

By Niko Vorobyov, Filter

On June 23, 29-year-old Ray Breer walked through the gates of the Western Reception Diagnostic Correctional Center north of Kansas City into the arms of his family.

“My girlfriend, my mom and my son were all waiting for me on the other side of the gate,” he told me over Zoom. “We got yelled at by the guards ‘cuz we’re all stood there, taking pictures….”

There was a lot of catching up to do. He’d missed the birth of his son, having been taken into custody a few weeks before, in February.

And his “crime,” which cost him his liberty? He’s a registered medical marijuana patient, serving probation for… a marijuana charge. He initially got in trouble with the law for a possession charge back in August 2019, and went to prison for a short spell in 2020 after getting kicked out of drug court for smoking joints. In order to stay safe while on probation, he obtained a medical marijuana card, as is his constitutional right in Missouri.

Yet after a pee test came up positive for THC, that was enough for his probation officer to send him to prison. In court, they told him it’s a privilege to be on probation and that in the future, they are most likely not going to offer probation to medical marijuana patients.

Breer was one of many drug-war prisoners in the Show-Me State supported by the Canna Convict Project (CCP), which brought in expert witnesses to try and sway his case.

“Probation and Parole and DOC is not recognizing a patient’s ability to medicate while on supervision.”

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