San Marcos Seven

[6][7] Jeffrey Sefanoff, a Vietnam War Army veteran, and musician and painter Joe Ptak, before conspiring to get arrested for cannabis at the police station, published the Hays County Guardian, a free newspaper that focused on social justice issues.

[9]: 11–12 [10][11] Brett Stahl, a San Marcos businessman, was arrested in 1992 for marijuana possession when he went to the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts office to buy tax stamps for the cannabis.

[12][13] During the same week in 1991 as the San Marcos Seven protests, a drug policy forum sponsored by the Associated Student Government was held at Texas State University.

[1] Over nine days beginning March 12, 1991, nine people came to the sheriff's office in Hays County, Texas, to smoke a joint in acts of civil disobedience protesting laws against marijuana.

The seven who were arrested for smoking marijuana in the parking lot, Gaddy, Stefanoff, Angela Atkins, Ptak, Jody Dodd, Daniel Rodriguez Scales, and Bill O’Rourke, were charged with Class B misdemeanors, punishable in Texas by up to six months in jail and a $1,000 fine.

[4] The Fort Worth Star-Telegram speculated that Gaddy's sentence may have been influenced by the fact that his trial took place during national Red Ribbon Week, which honors Enrique Camarena, a Drug Enforcement Administration undercover agent who was tortured and murdered.

[16] On November 22, about 30 supporters demonstrated outside the jail, chanting “Let Joe go.”[19] He ended his hunger strike after 18 days, on December 2, when Sheriff Paul Hastings carried out a court order to feed Gaddy intravenously and had a needle inserted into his arm.

[5] He started a hunger strike when his sentence began, and said he would not eat until President Bill Clinton publicly accepted literature and a brochure about the usefulness of hemp from him.

[7][20][21] During Stefanoff's hunger strike, his supporters camped out in front of the jail in a tent city called Hemp Town, which grew as followers joined.

The San Antonio Express-News wrote that the protesters regard hemp as a “miracle herb” with great potential as a source of fuel, fiber and medicine.

They moved their tents across the street to the main square in front of the county courthouse in San Marcos until they were asked to leave by police on July 9.

At his trial he offered a medical necessity defense and said that he used marijuana to alleviate the symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder as a Vietnam War Army veteran.