How $31 of pot gave mom a 10-year-prison sentence

[serpicostraight]

wasnt weed made illegal about time reefer madness came out?

 

[ATOMonkey]

First it is marijuana. After a few years then its cocaine, then LSD or meth. Any substance abuse can be a gateway drug to all the others. I have seen it time and time again. I deal with them on a weekly basis.

Anything can lead to anything else. Internet porn can be a gateway activity to Pimping out hookers.

Football can be a gateway activity to armed robbery.

Basketball is apparently a gateway activity to just about every other illegal activity, since all criminals play basketball.

People make connections so their world makes sense to them. Doesn't always mean it's true. It takes a lot of humility to step back and examine your own opinions objectively and seriously consider the possibility that you're wrong.

 

[88GT]

We are a nation of LAWS!!!!
Not personal opinions!!!
Someones opinion of the validity of a law does NOT negate the fact that it's the law.
If I didn't agree with the law prohibiting dueling would it be OK for me to disregard it and engage in duels?
After all, it doesn't hurt anyone but the participants in the duel.
Hell, it's a victimless crime!!

Really, so gun laws are perfectly valid because your opinion doesn't account for ****?

Apparently you aren't familiar with the fact that 99.99%* of the laws on the books are the result of someone's opinion on how we should live our lives and not on any adherence to a standard of protecting the sovereignty of the individual. Put that in your bong and smoke it....or not!

X2...complicated ain't it? No sympathy from me. I despise dopeheads especially ones that have guns.

Yeah, I despise right wingers, especially because they have guns.

Show me in the Constitution where it gives the people the right to smoke marijuana and that the right shall not be infringed. Don't try calling me out on bull**** when you have never met me.

I apologize that I was raised that you shouldn't use drugs. I've never seen marijuana contribute anything positive to our society, unless lack of caring and motivation are positives for us. I don't dig for the stuff but when it is placed right in front of me, you will be arrested as much for your stupidity as for your using marijuana.

We aren't dealing with illegal searches, no-knock warrants, gun seizures, open-carry or anything that is genuinely protected by the Constitution so try comparing apples to apples in the future.

You have zero understand of the Constitution if you think it that it must be in the Constitution for the people to have the right to do it.

The Constitution is a document that enumerates the powers of the federal government. IOW, only those powers granted to Congress specifically in the Constitution are they ones they have justifiable authority to exercise. The Constitution places NO limits on the actions of the individual.

The premise of freedom espoused by our founding fathers was such that the individual was free to act in any what he saw fit providing that it did not infringe on the rights of another individual and/or pose a risk to the sovereignty of the government. Ergo, by default, Americans have the right to ingest any damn substance they so choose.

So by TWO standards, the federal government has zero authority and powers to regulate the legality of a substance: it was neither granted such authority in the Constitution and it infringes on the sovereignty of the individual.

As a direct comparison, if tobacco were made illegal tomorrow, would you accept that?

How about unpasteurized milk? Or sodas? Big Macs?

No such freedoms to partake in those are in the Constitution. Are you going to suggest that no such freedoms exist then?

Tory Convention indeed. Hammer, meet nail.



*Documented fact created in my brain this morning. Because I said so, it is true. Kinda like the validity of the law being discussed.

 

[INGunGuy]

Show me in the Constitution where it gives the people the right to smoke marijuana and that the right shall not be infringed. Don't try calling me out on bull**** when you have never met me.

I apologize that I was raised that you shouldn't use drugs. I've never seen marijuana contribute anything positive to our society, unless lack of caring and motivation are positives for us. I don't dig for the stuff but when it is placed right in front of me, you will be arrested as much for your stupidity as for your using marijuana.

We aren't dealing with illegal searches, no-knock warrants, gun seizures, open-carry or anything that is genuinely protected by the Constitution so try comparing apples to apples in the future.

Please make sure to include ALCOHOL, and TOBACCO products that are LEGAL because of the millions of dollars that the lobbyists pump into the FEDGOV...

INGunGuy

 

[iwearcowboyboots]

The 10 year sentence is a little bit crazy over $31 worth of weed. Then again, we had a guy in the town I live in go to jail for 20 years over selling 2 oxys ($90 street value) so it doesn't shock me. Not pro drug dealer... Instead I'm more pro Bill of Rights kind of guy (in this case the 8th Amendment). Sounds like she would have been better off if she was found guilty of accidentally causing the death of someone else.

Instead, they should have just flagged and monitored her and then busted her on tax evasion when she didn't claim that income. Who knows, if she was collecting from unemployment or social programs maybe they could have gotten her on fraud too for being self-employed and earning more than what's allowed for those programs.

 

[E5RANGER375]

Instead, they should have just flagged and monitored her and then busted her on tax evasion when she didn't claim that income.

thats how they got al capone. the govt doesnt approve of illegal activities but they have no problem collecting taxes on it if your gonna be gangsta, pay taxes on yo ****!

also they love all the money they make selling their own drugs on the street. yeah, the u.s. govt is the biggest illegal drug dealer in the world.

 

[Stainer]

That is what happens when you sell illegal drugs! Hope she learned her lesson! You know how many people get shot and killed over drug deals gone bad? I don't know the exact number but I know I have been on multiple cases like that. Do the crime and you have to do the time. Good on the prosecutors where ever she was for ensuring she got what she deserved!

 

[E5RANGER375]

id hardly call 10 years "what she deserved"

 

[ATOMonkey]

That is what happens when you sell illegal drugs! Hope she learned her lesson! You know how many people get shot and killed over drug deals gone bad? I don't know the exact number but I know I have been on multiple cases like that. Do the crime and you have to do the time. Good on the prosecutors where ever she was for ensuring she got what she deserved!

If drugs were legal would you have the same shootouts?

Food for thought.

 

[level.eleven]

First it is marijuana. After a few years then its cocaine, then LSD or meth. Any substance abuse can be a gateway drug to all the others. I have seen it time and time again. I deal with them on a weekly basis.

Maybe you haven't gotten the memo but the drug enforcers aren't using the gateway theory anymore. No one buys it, particularly a public where 50%+ of people have smoked pot and not shot junk. It got sent to the trash heap along with smoking pot supports Osama bin Laden. The current boogey men are the Mexican Cartels....you know, the ones our government is selling firearms to.

 

[j706]

but I think some of that has to do with who people choose as friends, and also addictive personalities.

Yep some people don't progress to the heavier stuff but I think way to many do. Some go from successful careers,marriages and nice homes to nothing in a few short years. I just always hate seeing it in a very bad way.

 

[dross]

If there is anything at all we know from history is that it is always a simple matter to fill the enforcement arm of the government with people who are willing to put their own sense of right and wrong aside and do whatever they are told.

If they passed a law tomorrow not next year, not in ten years, but tomorrow, that members of a certain group could be rounded up, or that torture was okay in interrogations, or that guns must be consfiscated, there would be people in uniforms willing to enforce it.

Sending someone to jail for selling a naturally occurring plant to someone else in a situation where no coercion is involved is oppression and tyranny pure and simple. We may have grown used to it, but that's what it is.

Just because it's a law don't make it right. Just because someone is following orders doesn't excuse them for what they've done.

From Roman centurions, to Nazi SS, to the Stasi or the KGB. Alway, always there is someone willing to cash their blood money checks on the backs of citizens exercising their natural rights.

Shame.

 

[IncendiaryGunner]

Although I feel prohibition of marijuana is ignorant, until we change the law it is illegal.

That being said, the punishment should fit the crime. Felonies for marijuana is insanity.

 

[USMC_0311]

I'm not trying to get into a LE vs civilian pissing match here. We can complain all we want about how laws should be changed but that doesn't change them. When marijuana becomes legal, I'll let you smoke it out of a bowl on the hood of my squad car. I am paid to enforce laws as they're written on the books.

That is what happens when you sell illegal drugs! Hope she learned her lesson! You know how many people get shot and killed over drug deals gone bad? I don't know the exact number but I know I have been on multiple cases like that. Do the crime and you have to do the time. Good on the prosecutors where ever she was for ensuring she got what she deserved!

Makes me want to go find a bowl of weed and a squad car or 2.

And they say cops won't obey orders to confiscate guns.

And then they complain about the LE bashing.

 

[bassplayrguy]

Yeah...shooting people is a lot like ingesting a natural growing plant that makes you feel funny, hungry, and sleepy...totally awesome analogy there Mike.

The thing that bothers me the most about people like you is you are so clueless it's nearly impossible to have any sort of argument with you. The law banning marijuana came about through opinions that it made you crazy and killed your brain cells. Neither of these things are true, so the ban certainly wasn't based on any facts.

We became a nation through the opinion that we should become a nation. Every law and every action is formed by opinions. The only people who believe we are a nation of opinion-less laws are the Mr. Robotos who go around enacting laws and arresting people over plants with no regard for liberty or the long-term damage this **** does to us as a country.

And we aren't even a nation of laws. We are a nation of laws for most. Our lawmakers and law enforcers get to run prostitution rings, steal and sell drugs, disarm the good guys, and lock us up the first chance they get to make some more money off of us. As long as it's legal for a police officer to buy or sell marijuana as a tool to arrest a citizen for selling or buying marijuana then we are not a nation of laws. We're a nation of only tyrants and "criminals" where the law bends like a bow to suit those who are in charge.

All I can say is wow. That could not have been said any better.

 

[alloyguitar]

It's not like there's an honor system for criminals. If a uniformed LEO walked up to a drug dealer and asked if he was selling drugs, he'd most certainly say no, so I fail to see the issue with undercover officers...unless, of course, you're dealing drugs yourself.

And, honestly, I don't give a damn if Mother Theresa was caught selling pot. It's still illegal, and she still knew it was illegal. Ten years may be a bit harsh, but probation would be too lenient in my opinion.

...also, saying that it's just a plant is like saying meth is just household chemicals.

 

[Stainer]

If there is anything at all we know from history is that it is always a simple matter to fill the enforcement arm of the government with people who are willing to put their own sense of right and wrong aside and do whatever they are told.

Yup that's my job, I don't make the laws, the guys in suits and ties in who are currently in Illinois do. If I didn't want to enforce these laws, I would quit and find another career and I can guarantee someone else would step into take my spot.

If they passed a law tomorrow not next year, not in ten years, but tomorrow, that members of a certain group could be rounded up, or that torture was okay in interrogations, or that guns must be consfiscated, there would be people in uniforms willing to enforce it.

I still have morals so I don't think I would be torturing anyone. If someone told me I was forced to do it, I would quit.

Sending someone to jail for selling a naturally occurring plant to someone else in a situation where no coercion is involved is oppression and tyranny pure and simple. We may have grown used to it, but that's what it is.

So Cocaine should be legal too? I don't think so.

Just because it's a law don't make it right. Just because someone is following orders doesn't excuse them for what they've done.

What are you excusing me from? Arresting someone who was possessing an illegal narcotic? Excuse me for being part of the "tyranny."

From Roman centurions, to Nazi SS, to the Stasi or the KGB. Alway, always there is someone willing to cash their blood money checks on the backs of citizens exercising their natural rights.

That's a pretty big jump comparing me to a Nazi. If you want to exercise your natural rights more, then feel free to move to another state or country where they can be exercised. No one is stopping you.

Although I feel prohibition of marijuana is ignorant, until we change the law it is illegal.

That being said, the punishment should fit the crime. Felonies for marijuana is insanity.

She was not just possessing marijuana though, she was dealing according to the article. Little more serious then possession in the case of charging. Who knows what her history was either. There are a lot of factors that could go into this. If this was a first offense, and all she got hit on was dealing $31 dollars worth of marijuana, which would likely be a less than 30 grams amount, then she did get a pretty steep punishment. Different states, different laws.

 

[IncendiaryGunner]

It's not like there's an honor system for criminals. If a uniformed LEO walked up to a drug dealer and asked if he was selling drugs, he'd most certainly say no, so I fail to see the issue with undercover officers...unless, of course, you're dealing drugs yourself.

And, honestly, I don't give a damn if Mother Theresa was caught selling pot. It's still illegal, and she still knew it was illegal. Ten years may be a bit harsh, but probation would be too lenient in my opinion.

...also, saying that it's just a plant is like saying meth is just household chemicals.

The biggest issue with undercover officers, is the ridiculous cost involved.

How much money should we spend on meth peddlers, while cutting teachers and saying we cannot balance our budget?

Meth is not household chemicals. The difference is a chemical reaction that actually creates something different, that is not a household chemical. Pot, on the other hand, grew wild before the human race existed. Deer eat naturally growing marijuana, along with many other animals. How many animals eat meth?

 

[IncendiaryGunner]

So Cocaine should be legal too? I don't think so.

Cocaine, contrary to popular belief, does not start out in the plant in the same form you find it on the street. It, like many other drugs, are processed.

But yes, if people want to do stupid things that do not effect others, let them.

Should smoking cigarettes be illegal? Many show that nicotine itself is more damaging to the human body than cocaine.

Trans-fats maybe too. Considering the widespread death that is caused by the overweight, maybe we should limit people's food intakes also.

Alcohol? We saw the problem with the alcohol prohibition, and the eerie similarities the prohibition of marijuana has had. Both create a underground network of cartels and drug dealers, and the prohibition of these things itself causes crime.

 

[lashicoN]

For the record, marijuana is just a plant, no matter how many ignorant ho-hums say it isn't. I'll be back later to address some of the other complete trash that has been said in this thread.

I would like to state now though, that it is crystal clear who creates the People Vs LEO mentality around here, and it's only a select few.