Two aspects of SHATTERED LIVES strike any open-minded reader. First, is the feeling that even though many of the people profiled have broken the law, the punishment is way out of proportion to the crimes. But second, and more profound, is the creeping, sickening, even enraging feeling that many of these people don't belong in prison at all! The medical marijuana prisoners fall squarely into this category. There is the story of Jimmy Montgomery, originally sentenced to life in prison for cultivating marijuana to medicate his spinal cord injury. There is the story of James Cox, sentenced to 15 years for growing marijuana to treat his cancer and radiation poisoning. For these victims of "the war," the injustice is compounded when the legal system takes their medicine away, forcing a substitution of drugs that are less effective, but create more side effects.

Then there are the stories of the deaths. There is the story of eight year old Esequiel Hernandez, tending the family goat herd, shot by a United States Marine patrolling the border looking for drug smugglers. And there is Donald Scott, shot and killed by LA County Sheriffs barging onto his 250 acre ranch, looking for drugs so they could utilize civil forfeiture laws to seize Scott's expensive property. (Their meticulous search found no drugs.)