Mrs. Marlowe, known to her friends as "Jean," was arrested and charged with several federal felonies, based on her receipt of a package of marijuana from Switzerland. Jean, 45, has several rare and debilitating diseases, and had obtained the marijuana for her personal medical use. She suffers from porphyria (a congenital liver abnormality), degenerative disk disease, rheumatoid arthritis, and fibromyalgia. These diseases cause Jean constant, severe pain and the pain causes Jean to vomit repeatedly.

Because of her liver condition, Jean can not take conventional pain medications. Dr. Frederick Bissel, Jean’s treating physician, explained at a recent hearing that conventional pain medications can harm Jean’s diseased liver, while marijuana is a highly effective analgesic and does not damage the liver.

Jean’s attorneys asked the Court for leave to present evidence of her medical need for marijuana, but the Court refused. Without the option of asserting her only defense, Jean was found guilty by a jury on June 8, 1998. She retained her right to appeal the court’s refusal to permit her to raise a medical necessity defense.

While out on supervised release awaiting sentencing, Jean continued to smoke marijuana to alleviate pain, causing her to fail several court ordered drug tests, and resulting in her bond being revoked and Jean being incarcerated on November 9, 1998.

During her first nights in jail, she had to sleep on the floor of an overcrowded, cold cell with no blankets. Eventually she was moved to solitary confinement since that cell had a bench for sleeping. The cell lacked a sink or toilet, however, and Jean was forced to urinate and vomit into a crack in floor.

Pain is a part of Jean’s family history. Jean’s father died from multiple sclerosis, and her brother recently killed himself because of the ravaging effects of multiple sclerosis. Jean visited her brother in his hospital room as he lay dying from his own hand. After he died, Jean walked to the hospital parking lot with her husband, Steve, where she was surrounded and arrested by law enforcement officers for her medical use of marijuana.

The NORML Legal Committee (NLC) has been involved in this case for some time, and in a separate, earlier state prosecution. We are sending NLC member Joe Bondy, a federal sentencing expert from New York City, down to North Carolina to assist Jean’s attorney, Brent Conner, at the sentencing hearing on Tuesday, armed with an affidavit from Dr.John Morgan. We had offered to make Dr. Morgan available as a witness at the sentencing hearing, but the judge again ruled against permitting any medical evidence to be introduced. We will also be helping with the appeal of her conviction.

NORML would urge folks NOT to call the US Attorney regarding this case. The goals are (1) to try to get Jean Marlowe out of jail as quickly as possible, and (2) to appeal the judge’s decision not to permit her to raise the defense of medical necessity at trial. Goading or harassing the prosecutor just prior to the sentencing hearing is not likely to help with the first of these.