Well known cannabis activist Shona Banda faces 30 years in prison because her son questioned what he was being told about cannabis in drug education class.
He told the class how his mother – Shona uses cannabis to manage Crohn’s Disease which gives her a better quality of life. He corrected the teachers when they referred to the plant as ‘marijuana’ by telling them it’s correct name is cannabis. Teachers called the police and they raided Shona’s home shortly after questioning her son at the school.
The state of Kansas has now charged Banda with five felony counts of possession of cannabis with the intent to distribute, manufacturing cannabis oil, two counts of possession of drug paraphernalia and one count of child endangerment where they found medicinal cannabis. Her son has since been taken from her and is also embroiled in a custody battle too.
Her lawyer hopes that Shona will avoid jail times and is hoping to use the case to stop this from happening to other families. More American states recognize the medicinal properties of cannabis so these laws will need updating to suit modern society. The Young Turks go into further detail…
Shona is the author of Live Free or Die – a book about how she used cannabis to save her life. Shona has a crowdfund campaign on GoFundMe.com to help with her legal fees, seeking to raise $15k. Luckily Shona has been over-whelmed with support and has managed to raise 3 times that amount – 48k.