Pot of Trouble

Grow marijuana for medical use in California, and you can get off. Do it in Oklahoma, and you can get 93 years.

Adam J. Smith from the May 1997 issue

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Crain says the sentence was appropriate "because it falls within the statute, and I think that the statute is appropriate."He adds that, due to Oklahoma's severe shortage of prison space, jurors feel they must hand out extremely long sentences to ensure that significant time is served. He notes that for parole and pardon purposes each charge is considered to have a 45-year maximum, and it is "possible"that Foster could be paroled on the 70-year cultivation sentence after serving as little as eight years. But cultivation in the presence of a minor carries a 50 percent minimum, meaning that Foster would have to serve at least 10 years of that 20-year sentence. At a hearing on February 27, Judge Beasley said the two sentences will run consecutively.

Foster, who is now in prison, may have grounds for appeal. It appears that Beasley mistakenly excluded two defense witnesses, based on the prosecution's assertion that Southerland did not give adequate notice of their appearance. Southerland says he has evidence that proper notice was in fact given, in which case an appeals court might order a new trial.

"The hardest thing was coming home after the verdict and telling those beautiful kids,"says Meg Foster. "They love him so....I don't think the jury ever thought about that. I wish for one day they could stand in my shoes. After all, we let out rapists, murderers, and child molesters in less time. Ninety-three years is a long time ...for what is only a plant that God put on this planet."The Fosters have already used up their children's college funds for Will's defense and had to borrow money from relatives. Meg, who is trying to keep her husband's business afloat, cannot bill his clients because the police have seized their home computer, along with all of Will's business records.

"Once upon a time this was a man who believed in America and what she stood for,"she says. "Right now, we are all just very disillusioned."