Katelyn Baker
Well-Known Member
In November 2007, Marjorie and Bill (the names used in this story are pseudonyms) celebrated their 35th wedding anniversary. The same year, calamity struck their family after Marjorie, 72, fell off a skateboard and hit her head while playing with her grandson at her daughter's house in East Tennessee. The damage was devastating: Marjorie's brain swelled, and doctors and the University of Tennessee Medical Center had to remove between 25 and 50 percent of her skull to relieve pressure on her brain.
With that part of her skull on ice, she remained in critical condition for more than a month. From there, she underwent more than three months of intense physical and occupational therapy to learn to walk, talk and write again.
After the accident and surgeries, Bill, 77, says Marjorie was "kind of like a new wife. I mean, everything about her changed: her laugh, her mood. I mean everything: her memory."
Doctors told the couple that Marjorie, who'd worked in a professional setting, would likely not be the same after the incident. Marjorie's progress was "very, very, slow," Bill says. "The doctor had told me that they couldn't give us any idea on the progress. He couldn't make a [definitive] statement, and that if she survived, she would be at a new level of normal."
A few months after the surgery to put the aforementioned piece of skull back where it belonged, Marjorie was still suffering from tremors, depression, seizures and confusion. She didn't like this level of normal, and grew frustrated and angry. She took countless medications prescribed to her by doctors before a friend told her about using marijuana for treatment. At first, both Marjorie and Bill had reservations about using marijuana. Neither had ever chosen to use it, or any other drug, recreationally. The couple rarely even drank, they say.
But eventually, Marjorie did try marijuana, and she found smoking it severely reduced the seizures and depression brought on by her brain injury. At first, she bought small baggies of it from a friend who would deliver it to her, but at some point during Marjorie's self-treatment with cannabis, the couple decided they didn't like the hassle of going through somebody else. They set out to use the seeds from the bottom of the bags they bought to grow their own marijuana plants.
"We were rookies, novices," Bill says. "We really didn't know what we were doing."
In August 2015, the plants were mostly thriving, but they hadn't grown very large yet. While he helped cultivate the plants, Bill, who had a career as a studio musician, never smoked the marijuana they bought.
"His job was to water the plants," says Marjorie, a petite woman with small wire-frame glasses and shortly cropped ashen hair.
It was clear to Bill that the pot worked for Marjorie. That's why he decided the risk was worth it.
"Her mood and her temperament was considerably different," Bill says. "She wasn't incapacitated or blacked out or anything like that, but she did mellow out a little bit. It seemed to really ease the anxiety."
That August, while the couple was out running errands, someone attempted to break into their home in North Nashville, and their home alarm system went off.
They couple wasn't there, and when police arrived, they eventually found themselves standing amid a large group of potted plants on Bill and Marjorie's covered back porch. The Metro Nashville Police Department found upward of 20 plants, and when the couple showed up 15 minutes after the alarm company alerted them, the Crime Suppression Unit was there to meet them. Officers also found a small amount of loose pot and a pipe, but no evidence of drug-packaging materials or a scale, which would indicate the couple was selling marijuana.
The couple also grew a single plant - one they affectionately named "Lonesome Bill" - down the fence line in their backyard. Their statement that they didn't really know what they were doing was evidenced by horticulture books found in the house and that the couple didn't know the difference between a female and male marijuana plant. Female pot plants produce the flower that is dried and smoked.
In Tennessee, cultivation of between 20 and 99 plants is a Class C felony and can lead to incarceration of between three and 15 years with a maximum fine of $100,000. The district attorney's office agreed to a suspended three-year sentence, which meant the couple wouldn't serve any jail time for growing weed, but wouldn't agree to a diversion as part of a plea deal.
The judge, Steve Dozier, however, decided that because neither had been in any trouble with the law before, they both qualified for a diversion. After a three-year probation period and more than $5,000 in fines and court costs for Bill and Marjorie, they will have the charges dismissed and records expunged.
During the couple's sentencing hearing, the prosecutors didn't ask Bill any questions, and only asked Marjorie whether she knew she lived in Tennessee, and whether she knew marijuana was legal other places, but not here, ending with the question: "So you knew you were smoking marijuana, no matter what the reason, it was illegal?"
"Yes," Marjorie replied.
The couple's lawyer Robert Vaughn, of Robert T. Vaughn Law Office in Nashville, is also on the advisory board of NORML, the national organization that works to reform marijuana laws.
"The bottom line was that the plants were marijuana, and they were against the law," Vaughn says. "They admitted they were wrong and accepted responsibility, but wanted the court to understand that [Marjorie] received such a benefit from the marijuana that they chose to do what they did."
Rarely ever does Vaughn represent a couple of this age in the position they're in. In his 30-plus years in criminal defense, he says, this couple's circumstances more than any were "based solely on the tragedy that happened in their lives."
Per terms of her probation, and of course, because Tennessee law forbids it, Marjorie doesn't smoke marijuana anymore. At the time she was arrested, she was using it solely to mitigate the aftereffects of her brain injury.
"If you look at the all the states who have medicinal use, you ain't going to find one of them below the Mason-Dixon line," Vaughn says. "Likely Tennessee's going to be one of the latter states to approve medicinal, or recreational, marijuana."
While Tennessee did pass a law approving medicinal use of CBD oil - a substance with the psychoactive properties of marijuana extracted - as of Marjorie's hearing, she couldn't find a doctor willing to prescribe it. She's back to a regimen of different pills for every ailment, a level of normal she doesn't enjoy.
Do the pills work the way marijuana did?
"No," Marjorie says.
News Moderator: Katelyn Baker 420 MAGAZINE ®
Full Article: Elderly Couple Found Help For A Brain Injury Through Marijuana - Then Police Found 20 Pot Plants At Their Home
Author: Amanda Haggard
Contact: Nashville Scene
Photo Credit: None Found
Website: Nashville Scene
With that part of her skull on ice, she remained in critical condition for more than a month. From there, she underwent more than three months of intense physical and occupational therapy to learn to walk, talk and write again.
After the accident and surgeries, Bill, 77, says Marjorie was "kind of like a new wife. I mean, everything about her changed: her laugh, her mood. I mean everything: her memory."
Doctors told the couple that Marjorie, who'd worked in a professional setting, would likely not be the same after the incident. Marjorie's progress was "very, very, slow," Bill says. "The doctor had told me that they couldn't give us any idea on the progress. He couldn't make a [definitive] statement, and that if she survived, she would be at a new level of normal."
A few months after the surgery to put the aforementioned piece of skull back where it belonged, Marjorie was still suffering from tremors, depression, seizures and confusion. She didn't like this level of normal, and grew frustrated and angry. She took countless medications prescribed to her by doctors before a friend told her about using marijuana for treatment. At first, both Marjorie and Bill had reservations about using marijuana. Neither had ever chosen to use it, or any other drug, recreationally. The couple rarely even drank, they say.
But eventually, Marjorie did try marijuana, and she found smoking it severely reduced the seizures and depression brought on by her brain injury. At first, she bought small baggies of it from a friend who would deliver it to her, but at some point during Marjorie's self-treatment with cannabis, the couple decided they didn't like the hassle of going through somebody else. They set out to use the seeds from the bottom of the bags they bought to grow their own marijuana plants.
"We were rookies, novices," Bill says. "We really didn't know what we were doing."
In August 2015, the plants were mostly thriving, but they hadn't grown very large yet. While he helped cultivate the plants, Bill, who had a career as a studio musician, never smoked the marijuana they bought.
"His job was to water the plants," says Marjorie, a petite woman with small wire-frame glasses and shortly cropped ashen hair.
It was clear to Bill that the pot worked for Marjorie. That's why he decided the risk was worth it.
"Her mood and her temperament was considerably different," Bill says. "She wasn't incapacitated or blacked out or anything like that, but she did mellow out a little bit. It seemed to really ease the anxiety."
That August, while the couple was out running errands, someone attempted to break into their home in North Nashville, and their home alarm system went off.
They couple wasn't there, and when police arrived, they eventually found themselves standing amid a large group of potted plants on Bill and Marjorie's covered back porch. The Metro Nashville Police Department found upward of 20 plants, and when the couple showed up 15 minutes after the alarm company alerted them, the Crime Suppression Unit was there to meet them. Officers also found a small amount of loose pot and a pipe, but no evidence of drug-packaging materials or a scale, which would indicate the couple was selling marijuana.
The couple also grew a single plant - one they affectionately named "Lonesome Bill" - down the fence line in their backyard. Their statement that they didn't really know what they were doing was evidenced by horticulture books found in the house and that the couple didn't know the difference between a female and male marijuana plant. Female pot plants produce the flower that is dried and smoked.
In Tennessee, cultivation of between 20 and 99 plants is a Class C felony and can lead to incarceration of between three and 15 years with a maximum fine of $100,000. The district attorney's office agreed to a suspended three-year sentence, which meant the couple wouldn't serve any jail time for growing weed, but wouldn't agree to a diversion as part of a plea deal.
The judge, Steve Dozier, however, decided that because neither had been in any trouble with the law before, they both qualified for a diversion. After a three-year probation period and more than $5,000 in fines and court costs for Bill and Marjorie, they will have the charges dismissed and records expunged.
During the couple's sentencing hearing, the prosecutors didn't ask Bill any questions, and only asked Marjorie whether she knew she lived in Tennessee, and whether she knew marijuana was legal other places, but not here, ending with the question: "So you knew you were smoking marijuana, no matter what the reason, it was illegal?"
"Yes," Marjorie replied.
The couple's lawyer Robert Vaughn, of Robert T. Vaughn Law Office in Nashville, is also on the advisory board of NORML, the national organization that works to reform marijuana laws.
"The bottom line was that the plants were marijuana, and they were against the law," Vaughn says. "They admitted they were wrong and accepted responsibility, but wanted the court to understand that [Marjorie] received such a benefit from the marijuana that they chose to do what they did."
Rarely ever does Vaughn represent a couple of this age in the position they're in. In his 30-plus years in criminal defense, he says, this couple's circumstances more than any were "based solely on the tragedy that happened in their lives."
Per terms of her probation, and of course, because Tennessee law forbids it, Marjorie doesn't smoke marijuana anymore. At the time she was arrested, she was using it solely to mitigate the aftereffects of her brain injury.
"If you look at the all the states who have medicinal use, you ain't going to find one of them below the Mason-Dixon line," Vaughn says. "Likely Tennessee's going to be one of the latter states to approve medicinal, or recreational, marijuana."
While Tennessee did pass a law approving medicinal use of CBD oil - a substance with the psychoactive properties of marijuana extracted - as of Marjorie's hearing, she couldn't find a doctor willing to prescribe it. She's back to a regimen of different pills for every ailment, a level of normal she doesn't enjoy.
Do the pills work the way marijuana did?
"No," Marjorie says.
News Moderator: Katelyn Baker 420 MAGAZINE ®
Full Article: Elderly Couple Found Help For A Brain Injury Through Marijuana - Then Police Found 20 Pot Plants At Their Home
Author: Amanda Haggard
Contact: Nashville Scene
Photo Credit: None Found
Website: Nashville Scene