Ep105 - This Reggae Icon’s Son, Jawara McIntosh, Died From a Pot Bust
“As a nonviolent offender, my brother faced the ultimate consequences of what cannabis prohibition really does to families.”
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“As a nonviolent offender, my brother faced the ultimate consequences of what cannabis prohibition really does to families.”
On June 15th, 2013 Jawara McIntosh, musician, cannabis activist, and son of reggae genius Peter Tosh, was pulled over on the New Jersey Turnpike, not because he was speeding but more likely because of his dreadlocks. The cops found sixty five pounds of marijuana in his car and locked him away in a county jail for six months. After being released on $200,000 bond, Jawara, who performed under the name Tosh 1, pled guilty to possession with intent to distribute and took a plea deal which landed him in Bergen County Jail in Hackensack, NJ, with a one-year sentence.
On February 21st, 2017, just six months shy of his release date, Jawara, then 37, was attacked by another inmate. He sustained a traumatic brain injury (TBI) that left him in a coma, unable to speak, move or care for himself for three agonizing years until his death, July 17, 2020. Like his dad and the rest of his family, Jawara was a Rastafarian who used cannabis as a religious sacrament.
In honor of International Peter Tosh Day, which occurs on 420, Jawara’s sister, (and Tosh’s youngest daughter), Niambe McIntosh, joins us to tell the story of her brother’s death and how it spurred her into action on his behalf.
What Niambe, who today heads the Peter Tosh Foundation and is a cannabis entrepreneur, failed to tell me in this interview was that her brother’s story bears an eerie resemblance to an incident that happened to her father. Back in 1978, a gang of 8 policemen saw Peter Tosh standing outside of a recording studio in Kingston, Jamaica with a joint in his hand. They beat him with Billy clubs, then locked him in jail. According to reports, his skull was shattered in several places, his ribs were broken, and his hands had been crushed. When Bob Marley visited his former Wailers’ bandmate in the hospital and saw the battered body, he wept.
We’re bringing you this podcast in celebration of 420, 2021, as a reminder that despite the progress that the march toward legalization has sustained in the last years, the fight for justice and criminal justice reform is still far from over.
Please have a Happy High Holiday but take a moment to remember all of those who came before who contributed to making this High Holiday possible.