Can you imagine spending twelve years in prison for a $31 marijuana deal? That's exactly the sentence imposed on Patricia Spottedcrow of Oklahoma. A judge did reduce her sentence to eight years, but that may still seem a bit extreme. OK, very extreme. And the judge maintained that she needed "more time to prepare and mature" before being released into society. Is this kind of crackdown on marijuana users really making our communities safer? 

AlterNet has a rundown of this and other abysmal stories in "10 of the Harshest Sentences for Pot in the U.S."

Or take Montana's Christopher Williams, a medical marijuana provider that got busted for manufacturing and intent to distribute. Now he's facing 82 to 85 years behind bars. You read that correctly. Due to mandatory minimums, Williams could spend the rest of his natural born life in a cell for growing medical marijuana.

According to this report from the ACLU, it costs $34,135 per year to house an average prisoner ($68,270 per year once that prisoner is 50 years old or older). For the sake of discussion, let's say Williams spends 50 years in prison without including the increase in costs for incarcerating older inmates. Fifty years at $34,135 per year will cost taxpayers $1.7 million to keep Mr. Williams imprisoned. Do we really need to spend nearly $2 million restricting medical marijuana access? 

The story of Jonathan Magbie might be the most heinous tale of them all. As Salon.com details:

Paralyzed from the neck down after being hit by a drunk driver at the age of four, Magpie was charged with marijuana possession in 2004 after cops found a joint and a loaded gun in a vehicle in which he was the passenger. Though he had never been convicted of a criminal offense and required medical assistance 20 hours a day, he was given a 10-day sentence in a DC jail. With no ventilator to sustain his breathing, he died in jail four days later. 

Something is seriously wrong with the drug policy of this nation when quadriplegics are being sent to jail to die for marijuana possession. 

For the rest of the ten, check out AlterNet's rundown.