TEXANS MOURN FUGITIVE

Advocates for Medical Marijuana Use See Him As a Victim of the
Government's Policy

Medical marijuana advocates in Texas lament the fate of a cancer
patient turned federal fugitive who was shot and killed during a drug
raid last week at his North Raleigh home.

Stephen Scott Thornton, 45, of 5401 Alpine Drive died Friday
afternoon from wounds received as sheriff's deputies and Wake County
Alcohol Beverage Control officers forced their way into his home that
morning to search for evidence of marijuana plants.

On the Web site of Texans for Medical Marijuana, a grass-roots
organization that lobbied for legalizing the drug for pain
management, Thornton in 2006 described himself as a thyroid cancer
survivor who used marijuana to control chronic pain, eliminate nausea
and gain weight.

A Wake County sheriff's deputy, Sgt. Ronnie Byrd, was shot in the leg
during the raid. Byrd was treated at WakeMed and released.

The State Bureau of Investigation is investigating the incident,
standard procedure when a law officer shoots someone. No ABC officer
or Wake deputy has been placed on administrative leave as a result of
the shootings. ABC Chief Lew Nuckles declined to comment Tuesday.

"It's being investigated by the SBI, and we don't want to hinder
their investigation," Nuckles said.

When sheriff's deputies and ABC officers entered Thornton's home,
they found evidence of a full-scale marijuana-growing operation,
including 43 marijuana plants in various stages of growth, soil
additives, lights and plant-growing chemicals, according to a search
warrant made public Monday. Thornton was wanted by the U.S. Marshals
Service. He fled Texas in late 2005, before he was to be sentenced by
a federal judge for possession of a firearm by an unlawful user of a
controlled substance and for distributing marijuana and marijuana plants.

Texans for Medical Marijuana disbanded in May after two bills the
group supported to legalize the medical use of marijuana stalled in
the state legislature. Its former executive director, Noelle Davis,
did not know Thornton but said that he was likely living with a lot
of shame because he had to use an illegal substance for relief from
his illness and that his fear of prison was probably compounded by
the prospect of receiving inadequate medical treatment.

"It could have been a death sentence for him," said Davis, who now
works as a consultant for the Marijuana Policy Project, the largest
marijuana policy reform organization in the United States.

A Republican activist and medical marijuana advocate, Ann Lee of
Houston, called Thornton a casualty of a failed war on drugs. "They
took a life because of it," said Lee, whose paraplegic son is a
medical marijuana user. "Why have they spent $30 billion and not
achieved a single goal?"

Davis said Texans for Medical Marijuana did not endorse the
distribution of marijuana, but the organization did acknowledge the
practice. "We have to understand why people go to those extremes,"
she said. "When your quality of life is on the line, you are going to
take a risk."