Remember Rachel Hoffman.

Twenty grams. That’s the amount of marijuana that Rachel Hoffman was pulled over with in Tallahassee, Florida. The amount that began the unfortunate series of events that lead to her death.

She died one year ago today when two drug warriors, looking to advance their careers in their chosen fight, the War on Drugs, sent her off with a wire and $13,000 cash to buy 1,500 ecstasy pills, 2 ounces of cocaine, and a handgun.

What little training she had wasn’t enough. Had she been able to contact her lawyer, maybe he would’ve told her it was a bad idea.

But she was looking at prison time, a felony record. All that money and effort spent towards school? For what? Her degree would be worthless. And prison time for four years? She was in the prime of her twenties.

Death. Always the ultimate consequence but never more than fleeting in our minds, especially when you’re young. Perhaps that way of thinking is a necessity. A mental barrier needed to disguise the inevitable in certain situations, to keep us sane and focused, when in the current moment there is nothing but madness.

So she decided to do it.

Rachel Hoffman was just 23 years old, and yes, she smoked marijuana. And that’s how it all began.

I know Rachel Hoffman. I see her everyday. Little bits and pieces of her at least in half a dozen or so of the people I know.

She was the smartest girl in my class in college, who loved, of all bands, the Beatles, and smoked every single day but never drank alcohol. She was a girl I used to work with, who bought a little more than she needed and sold the rest to friends, so she could smoke for free in order to make rent and pay her way through school. The hippie girl I see on Wednesdays listening to the live bands play at the local bar.

Today is the anniversary of a day that deserves no celebrations, only necessary reflection. For all the victims of this insane war the government has waged against a plant and on those who can’t quite grasp, or refuse to accept, their official version of the truth.

Today we should remember Tarika Wilson, Ryan Frederick, Cory Maye, Peter McWilliams, Officer Ron Jones, Veronica Bowers, Charity Bowers, John Hirko, Isidro Aviles, Ashley Villareal, Alberta Spruill, Alberto Sepulveda, Mario Paz, Kathyrn Johnson, Anthony Andrew Diotaiuto, Clayton Helriggle, Derek Hale, Lynette Gayle Jackson, and last but not least, Payton & Chase, and so many others.