Doctor Sentenced to Die in Prison for Healing People with Weed as Child Predator Congressman Let Out Early

 The Free Thought Project first reported  on the story of doctor Gordon Piland III in March of 2017. He was  arrested after a school social worker reported that he was  giving cannabis-infused goat milk to his autistic son. 

When conducting a  follow-up search of Piland’s home, police found marijuana plants  growing in the backyard, two bottles of decades-old prescription pills,  and a small bag of poppy seeds, which was a gift from a horticulturist. Piland had one last thread of hope as his case moved through an  appeals court in North Carolina. Sadly, however, we live in a country  that gives doctors who heal people with a plant more prison time than child predator congressmen. 

On  Tuesday, the appeals court upheld Piland’s conviction and this doctor,  who is now 70, will likely die behind bars—over a plant. In an exclusive interview with TFTP,  Piland’s daughter Lucy Snow claimed the prosecution used the fact that  Piland was in possession of his deceased parents’ prescriptions, and his  property’s proximity to an unmarked daycare, as impetus to charge him  with trafficking in heroin. As a result, Piland was sentenced to 18-24  years in prison and a $500,000 fine. As we previously reported: 

“Monroe Gordon Piland III (69) has lived an amazing life  according to some estimates. In the late 1960s early 70s, Piland served  as a naval officer, during the Vietnam war. Upon his return to the  states, he earned a degree in nutrition from The University of  California – Berkeley, and later a medical degree from the prestigious  Wake Forest University, formerly a Southern Baptist university. He  completed his medical residency in Elizabeth City, NC, and was a board  certified medical doctor from 1979-1984.”

While Piland has managed to keep his love for cannabis under the  radar since in the 80s, he was going through a tenuous custody battle  over his autistic son. His son’s mother was not a cannabis advocate, yet  Piland would offer his son goat’s milk infused with cannabis as  treatment for his behavioral and cognitive deficits. When the school’s  social worker discovered this fact, she sent police to his home to  investigate. 

As TFTP has reported, many parents—including some politicians—are now giving their children cannabis for autism with astounding results. 

That home visit led to the medical doctor’s arrest and conviction in  March of 2017. At trial, Piland didn’t stand a chance. Snow said her  dad’s first mistake was to represent himself in court and take on  Assistant District Attorney Alex Bass head-on. 

“He was super content to go to court to share his knowledge of medical cannabis and let the chips fall where they may,” Snow said.  

“But, unfortunately, he couldn’t find a lawyer that wasn’t intimidated  by Bass’s trumped up charges and that was willing to fight for him, so  he resorted to representing himself, which had disastrous consequences.” 

Snow said that instead of charging Piland with possession of  marijuana, a misdemeanor in the State of North Carolina, Bass decided to  charge him with trafficking heroin. Here is what Snow said was found by  police when they searched Piland’s home: 

“What was found: A 2009 half-full bottle of  Percocet/Oxycodone in my grandmother, Lillian Piland’s name, that my dad  had failed to dispose of/recycle properly. A single full bottle of  Duramorph, belonging to my grandfather, but this wasn’t a charge or used  in court as the bottle was full. A few poppy seeds were gifted from my  uncle, my mom’s brother, who is a landscape architect and gardener.”

According to Snow, Bass used the Percocet belonging to Piland’s  deceased mother and the fact that a home daycare was located nearby to  throw the full weight of the law against her father. She said the fact  that he was in possession of several pounds of marijuana was never  presented in court, making the cannabis activist seem like a heroin  dealer and not the curative shaman that he was. “I don’t know why my dad kept the old pharmaceutical pills, but  he tended to be kind of a pack rat or just not be bothered by the little  things,” Snow said, noting that one of the key pieces of evidence used against her father was something he didn’t realize he had. “Dad says he didn’t even remember having them as they were found in the back of a drawer.” Snow said Dr. Piland was naive when he went to trial thinking, that  if he just told the truth about his cannabis activism, no jury would  convict him. 

“After the search and seizure of his house, I think my  dad really thought he had a chance to lay his life’s passion and work  all out there. I think similar to say, Caitlyn Jenner, somewhere inside  he just didn’t want to hide anymore, knowing what he knows and being the  ripe age of 70. He was super content to go to court to share his  knowledge of medical cannabis and let the chips fall where they may.”

After the prosecution presented its case, and without his own legal representation, the jury took less than 30 minutes  to convict Dr. Piland of trafficking heroin—presumably due in part to  his possession of 58 grams of poppy seeds. 

Here’s what about twice that  amount looks like:  

Snow told The Free Thought Project that she wishes her father had  been given a plea deal, but said the prosecutor knew he could easily get  a conviction, due to the fact that the senior citizen was choosing to  represent himself. As a result, the physician’s daughter now views her  father’s conviction with disdain, and especially resents ADA Bass who  she says lied about her father and mischaracterized him. 

“DA Alex Bass stated my dad had ‘a large cache of  dangerous and highly addictive opioid drugs for sale and distribution’  and he knows this is a lie. The truth is only a SINGLE nearly decade old  forgotten pharmaceutical bottle belonging to my deceased grandmother  and the happenstance of living near an unmarked daycare was used as  evidence for sending my non-violent father to prison for life.”

The teacher and daughter of a marijuana activist now accuses  prosecutor Bass of sending an innocent man to prison and says he knew  full well Piland was no heroin trafficker. “Bass’s decisions were not only immoral, but go against many standards that Prosecutors are sworn to uphold,” Snow said. 

“He  knows good and well, without a doubt, as does anyone who looks at the  evidence, that opium or heroin selling, trafficking, or usage was not  occurring.” Snow said the punishment does not fit the crime, and she pointed to  other cases where people were convicted of trafficking in heroin but  received much softer sentences. 

Piland’s life story might have been written differently had he  resided in a state other than North Carolina. To date, more than half  the nation has legalized medical marijuana in some form. In fact, in  some of those other states, Piland may very well have been able to serve  as a certifying doctor for medical marijuana, given the fact that he  once held board certification as a practicing MD. But he chose to live  in the state he loved, and now has to pay a heavy price for dabbling in  marijuana. 

Looking at the bigger picture, Piland’s case may serve as an  indictment of a justice system and a pharmaceutical industry that will  go to great lengths to ensure the truth about cannabis is never told.  

After all, Piland is a medical doctor who gave up his medical practice  to pursue a lifetime of research into cannabis. Unfortunately, anyone  who may want to glean from what he knows will have to go and visit him  in the Marion, NC Correctional Institute.