‘This is bigger than Shona Banda’

Shona Banda at the 2011 Med Can Cup via Facebook

By now, most cannabis advocates are familiar with the tragically
unfolding story of Shona Banda. Banda is currently attracting attention as
a Kansas mother and activist who was arrested after her son revealed in a D.A.R.E. class
that she medicates with cannabis to treat her crippling Crohn’s Disease. Immediately
following this, her son was taken into custody by protective services and instructed
to make a statement. Banda is not only facing a life without custody of her son
and the medical relief she needs from cannabis oil, she is facing up to thirty
years in prison once this case goes to trial.

CULTURE spoke with
Banda’s lawyer, Sarah Swain, regarding these pending charges and the future
Banda is fighting against. “The charges are incredibly serious,” Swain told us.
“I haven’t seen any of the police reports at this point, but I have some pretty
extreme concerns about the constitutionality about the way that the police
officers conducted themselves, the way statements were obtained from her son,
and the way the house was eventually searched. These will all be things that will
be explored. I hope that I can declare the search of her house
unconstitutional, and then the charges would have to be dismissed, as the
evidence would be inadmissible.”

“Our goal in litigating this case is to try to make changes ultimately to the way cannabis is scheduled.”

While clearly getting the charges dismissed as unconstitutional
would be the best case scenario, the justice system may not lean in Swain and
Banda’s favor to that affect. If this is the case, Swain would like to
challenge the entire status of cannabis as a Schedule I drug, and have the
substance completely rescheduled.

“Our goal in litigating this case is to try to make changes
ultimately to the way cannabis is scheduled,” she stated. “Right now, it is
still a Schedule I drug, but as reported frequently, the only way a drug can be
a Schedule I drug is if there are no medicinal benefits to the drug. It’s only
if we are able to make some kind of change on a federal level that she would be
able to use a drug like cannabis.”

Swain goes on to state, “Our goal is to use this case as the
face of a person who is being forced to choose between the medicine that keeps
them alive and their ability to be free and be a parent. I don’t believe that
in this country, in 2015, people should have to choose between being alive and
being able to parent their child. It is undisputed at this point that medical
cannabis saves people’s lives. People with seizures and other serious
conditions rely on it. This is bigger than Shona Banda. At the moment, her face
is just the face of change that is so desperately needed in this country.”