Most Americans want pot to be legal, and as many as 70% of Americans want to legalize it for medical use. Nonetheless, the war on pot rages on. The Obama administration has actually increased raids on state-sanctioned medical pot programs, prosecuting both patients and their providers. Medical pot defendants have little protection in the justice system, which denies as evidence mention of their marijuana prescription or state-sanctioned use. A review of some of the sentences over the past few decades — punishments that plague individuals for decades, even after release — reveals the injustice of the drug war. Here’s a rundown of the people who received the harshest penalties handed down for pot in recent history.

1. Christopher Williams

A Montana medical marijuana provider is facing 82 to 85 years behind bars, due to mandatory minimum laws linked to some of his charges. Convicted of crimes like manufacturing marijuana, intent to distribute and possession of a firearm during a drug trafficking offense, Christopher Williams appeared to be in the for the worst. But in a rare move this September, U.S. Attorney Michael Cotter offered to drop four of Williams’ charges and bring his sentencing down to “as little as 10 years,” so long as Williams waived his right to appeal.

Williams refused the offer on moral grounds. The case isn’t about medical pot, says Williams, whose judge prohibited discussion of Montana’s medical marijuana program at trial. Rather, he says, it is about government abuse of power. “I have decided to fight the federal government, because for me not defending the things that I know are right is dishonorable,” Williams wrote to the Independent Record, “Every citizen has a responsibility to fight for what is right, even if it seems like the struggle will be lost.”

Michael Donahoe, Williams’ attorney, said that federal prosecutors often bring gun charges against medical marijuana defendants without the intent to prosecute them. Rather, they are hoping for a plea bargain — one Williams is not willing to take.

“We know this for two reasons,” Donahoe told the Missoulan, “First, because the government readily agreed to dismiss the firearms counts for virtually every other medical marijuana defendant in those cases where firearms violations had been charged. And second, because insofar as [Williams’] ‘conspiracy’ is concerned, every other defendant had no real choice but to plead guilty in exchange for the firearms charges being dropped.”

He added, “Given the government’s conduct here that was a false choice inspired by an abusive exercise of government power, considering that it was the government’s reckless decision to change its medical marijuana policy that was the first cause of all these problems.”

2. Patricia Spottedcrow

Oklahoma mother of four Patricia Spottedcrow learned firsthand how a small-time pot bust can completely derail an offender’s life. A $31 pot sale got her a stunning 12-year prison sentence. In the two years she has been incarcerated, she has seen her children only twice. What’s more, her good behavior behind bars, including completing her GED and other self-improvement programs, has not reduced the confusing back-and-forth from the Pardon and Parole Board.A judge recently reduced Spottedcrow’s sentence to eight years, because “she needs more time to prepare and mature.” The latest frustration in her case came at the close of this summer, when the parole board withdrew her parole restrictions before suspending them, delaying her beginning of a work-release program. She spent just minutes at the work-release facility, Hillside Correctional Center in Oklahoma City, before being sent back in cuffs to Eddie Warrior Correctional Center in Taft. Unfortunately for Spottedcrow and her family, who are surviving on a limited income, they can afford to make the trip to make the trip to Hillside, but not to Eddie Warrior.

Spottedcrow told KFOR-TV in Oklahoma, “I’m not gonna give up until I walk out the gate…I’ve got my mom and my kids out there waiting on me. Whatever it takes to get me to them I’m going to do it. I’ve been doing it.”

3. Jonathan Magbie

Jonathan Magbie’s story is a stunning example of the cruelty that can accompany an arrest for medical marijuana. 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.

Magbie’s marijuana punishment was a death sentence. Without their medication behind bars, pot patients who make it out alive have endured days, weeks or years without their medication. Even after release, conditions of parole, including urine tests, may prevent patients from accessing their medicine.

4. Robert Platshorn

Robert Platshorn is famous for being a marijuana trafficker. A leader of what the DEA dubbed the “Black Tuna Gang,” Platshorn spent the mid- to late-’70s smuggling weed into the US from Colombia before he was busted in 1978. Authorities accused him of importing as much as 500 tons of pot, and Platshorn gained infamy for his connection to what the DEA said was the most sophisticated drug operation it had seen yet. He was sentenced to 30 years, 28 of which he served until he was released on parole in 2008. Because Platshorn served nearly the full length of his sentence, he has taken on another label, this time as the man believed to have spent the most time locked up for pot in America.

Now almost 70 years old, Platshorn is a marijuana activist who has managed to stay in the public eye. He recently toured America with the Silver Tour, speaking with seniors about medical marijuana. His most recent brush with law enforcement went down this summer. In May 2011, Platshorn received a letter from the parole board apparently releasing him from service. But this July, after his parole officer had passed away and two days before he was to speak before the American Bar Association, a new parole officer named Scott Kirsche showed up at his door and demanded he give a urine sample. Platshorn — who says his former parole officer allowed him to travel to pot-related events and also approved his use of cannabis oil for skin cancer — failed the test and was ordered to immediately stop treating his cancer with cannabis oil.

Then, in one of the most shocking elements of Platshorn’s life story, he received what is effectively a gag order: Platshorn told South Florida’s Sun Sentenial that he is banned from travel “to promote the legalization of marijuana without the express permission of the U.S. Parole Commission.” Platshorn was specificallytold not to appear at an upcoming High Times medical event in San Francisco, and to cut ties with patient and fellow Silver Tour board member Irvin Rosenfeld. In July, U.S. District Judge Donald Middlebrooks ordered Platshorn to remain under parole supervision, while claiming his request for freedom to speak at marijuana-related events conflicts with his criminal record.

5. Will Foster

US Army veteran and business-owner Will Foster was suffering from widespread rheumatoid arthritis when he started growing marijuana. In 1997, Oklahoma police discovered his marijuana garden and just $28 cash after a “confidential informant” helped them procure a “John Doe” search warrant for methamphetamine. His sentence was reduced to 20 years and he was paroled to California in 2001. The Oklahoma Department of Corrections was unhappy when Foster completed parole, and attempted to extradite him back to Oklahoma — a fight Foster won.

But in 2008, Foster’s marijuana grow, legal by California standards, was raided. Foster sat in a California jail for a year before local authorities dropped the charges. Unfortunately for Foster, Oklahoma officials showed up at the Calif. jail, shackled Foster and drove him back to Oklahoma, where he remained until he was released in late November 2009.