From Kay Lee -- AKA Grandma Lee

Many of you may remember Thomas J. Lowe #36414198
P.O. Box 15330 S.H.U.
Fort Worth, Texas 76119

T.J. was sentenced to 7 1/2 years for growing a room full of marijuana. "Manufacturing" they called it, I guess so people won't think of this plant as something natural like putting a seed into the ground and taking care of it.

When the weight discrepancy was resolved by the Sentencing Commission, it was made retroactive depending on the discretion of the judges. T.J. applied for the appropriate reduction in his sentence, but the angry judge in his case decided T.J. deserved "To rot in prison."

I think they were so angry because he felt he had done nothing wrong, and still refuses to be ashamed or repentant.

His ingenuity may have also added to the judge's harsh decision. He was good at what he was doing: His grow room was so well hidden that they could not find it in the search and had to get a snitch to come back with them to point out the entrance.

The records describe it as "elaborate."

T.J. was also a naturopathic physician and photographer before incarceration. The guys in the prison call him 'shaman.' He was incarcerated with Crohn's Disease, which he had kept under control for 10 years with the use of a cannabis and licorice root mixture, but now he has Hepatitis C, and a badly damaged liver from chemical medicines he was given in prison. Four years ago they said they could give him no more medicine because of the liver damage.

A year earlier, T.J. was airflighted from Lompac prison in CA to Ft Worth Medical Prison (notoriously know as the "Pine Box Prison" due to way too many prisoners being carried out of there dead) for emergency surgery for a stricture. He still has still never received the surgery, and still has the stricture, which could rupture any time. He has been very sick, but has done everything he can do to keep himself alive just so he can get out and tell the world what's going on in the hell of prison medicine.

T.J. Lowe was supposed to be released 9-9-99, but just two days ago he was put back in the hole for the 5th time. Charges? Marijuana same as the other four times. When the pain of 'screaming cramps' gets so bad that he cannot bear it, his only relief comes from chewing a tiny amount of marijuana. And he keeps getting caught.

I'm having him send me in his own words, "Why I can't quit using marijuana."

I know its because cannabis is the only thing that relaxes his colon spasms and stops the vomiting and cramps, but I want him to say it in his own words.

The first time he was sent to the hole for 30 days. We strongly 'urged' them to get him out of there and on the 22nd day, when they went in to get him, he was unconscious on the floor.

Last time he was in the hole for 9 long months and we wrote daily. If three days went by without a letter, we agreed, it meant he was in trouble.

I was amazed at the human spirit as T.J. wrote about being harassed by guards, filtering the smelly water, and finding ways to survive. He had a cable rigged to the commissary above him and they would drop stamps and candy bars toothpaste and yes, mj too, down to the guys in the hole. He was smuggled a tiny radio, which he kept strapped to his thigh, until the guards discovered it. He was heartbroken over the loss of that link to the world.

I went through the horror with him while he learned to use food and water medicinally, learned to practice meditation; found ways to exercise in the tiny cell. He was freezing all the time, sleeping on the concrete floor because the metal bunk was too hard and using his socks to keep his hands warm enough to write. It took months to get a Senator in Texas to make the reluctant doctor write a prescription for a much needed blanket, although an extra blanket is automatically given to all prisoners outside the hole.

T.J. would stop eating for many days at a time trying to stop the cramps. He fasted far too long sometimes. Once he said, if I never eat again, I may never have to hurt so bad. He fasted for so long that time that I could tell he was slipping away, hallucinating and talking very strange. I suggested that he stop before we lost him, and his next letter said, "I was knock knock knocking on heaven's door."

His ordeal left him with damaged knees, eyes, and nightmares.

The prison doctor has no use for T.J. When we began contacting the prison about the lack of treatment, the doctor (after two years of refusing to treat him) tried to get T.J. to take injectable medicine. T.J. didn't trust him at all and told the doctor flat out, "I don't need your junk, doc...All I need are my herbs."

T.J. witnessed much of the medical malpractice that caused Jim McDougal's death,
(Marijuananews note: Clinton’s former business partner, who died in custody after agreeing to testify against the President.) and the prison's efforts to hide the evidence. It's possible the prison doesn't want him on the outside talking about it. He's already done several interviews with the media on the subject.

T.J. is a warrior, a common man living through uncommon conditions. He has been through a lot and managed to retain his spirit and conviction. But his health is being destroyed by typical prison medical practices. It is a miracle he is still alive, but his nervous letter says, "Kay, I'm not sure I can make it this time."

He survived the last nine months in the hole only because so many people wrote him that the prison guards pretty much left him alone. Except the time they came in and removed everything, including the mail from his cell, saying it was a fire hazard.

The mail also kept his spirits up. Hopefully many people will help him again through this ordeal.

I will begin to try to build a page for T.J. and keep you posted on his progress.

Kay Lee AKA Grandma Lee
Sunny Key West, FL

The Truth As I See It http://www.zyworld.com/kay~lee/home.htm

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A Smuggler's Tales From Jails http://www.zyworld.com/kay~lee/garywaid.htm

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