Another outrageous prison sentence in the War on Drugs...

[Druidus]

http://cannabisculture.com/articles/4709.html

99 YEARS?

How many murderers, child molesters, or rapists get this length of sentence?

This is BULL****, people! Grade-A BULL****!

Yes, there was a danger to the public (explosion), and yes, there should be laws and penalties for such things. But this?

It just makes me even more sick to my stomach... Dammit!

If you say, "Would there were no wine" because of the drunkards, then you must say, going on by degrees, "Would there were no steel," because of the murderers, "Would there were no night," because of the thieves, "Would there were no light," because of the informers, and "Would there were no women," because of adultery.

- St. John Chrysostom: Homilies, c.388

Prohibition will work great injury to the cause of temperance. It is a species of intemperance within itself, for it goes beyond the bounds of reason in that it attempts to control a man's appetite by legislation, and makes a crime out of things that are not crimes. A Prohibition law strikes a blow at the very principles upon which our government was founded.

- Abraham Lincoln: Speech in the Illinois House of Representatives, Dec 18, 1840.

"Sweet Leaf"

Straight people don't know, what your about
They put you down and shut you out
you gave to me a new belief
and soon the world will love you sweet leaf

-Black Sabbath, Master of Reality, 1971

Stop the damned lies, ignorance, foolishness and moral righteousness.



:banghead3

 

[gnomon]

Yes, I think the sentence is outrageous.

I just wanted to pass this on to you, Druidus.

Happy D.A.R.E. day. Our benevolent president signed a proclamation a few days ago declaring today to be national D.A.R.E. day.

A bit of trivia you might wish to note.

 

[jeffrey]

Prison, period, does not work that well to deter drug crime. I believe the figure is around 80% of the prison population is due to, in one way or another, drugs. Most are re-offenders. There must be a better way.

 

[Ody]

What can you say, some people are idiots, and thats obivously those who are giving away such foolish sentancing!

 

[Druidus]

Prison, period, does not work that well to deter drug crime. I believe the figure is around 80% of the prison population is due to, in one way or another, drugs. Most are re-offenders. There must be a better way.

I don't see why there even has to be such a term as "drug crime".

I, hypothetically ( ), use several different drugs/psychoactives, for both religious and spiritual purposes. These include cannabis, DXM, alcohol (not often, really, I don't enjoy it very much), amphetamines and dextroamphetamines (again, not very often) and codeine (only twice).

I haven't killed or raped anyone. I haven't destroyed society. I haven't become a junkie and/or destroyed my life using drugs. I get good grades, I am mature and responsible, politically active, motivated (where I am interested, that is. Motivation is not applied to the propaganda I am taught in public school), and intelligent. I am the anti-stereotype of the "drug user". And none of the horrible things claimed about drug use are really existent. But we believe it anyway, because we are indoctrinated at a young age.

Do you consider this post well written, intelligible, and coherent? Hopefully, that's a yes. Well, it might interest you to know that I am severely inebriated (marijuana) right now. Yet I can still function as an intelligent member of society. Hmmm....

In fact, right now, I'm reading "Dragons of Eden" by Carl Sagan, even though I am "stoned" (moreso than ever before), so that I can see the inspiration for "Up From Dragons, co-authored by Carl Sagan's son, Dorian Sagan. Both of these are serious and legitimate scientific works on the evolution and development of human intelligence. Funny that a "stoner" is so interested in something so "un-stoner-like".

 

[jeffrey]

In my younger days, going back almost 30 years, I've done everything from pot to heroin. I have seen people that have acted violently on drugs, such as angel dust and crack. My girlfriend was murdered by someone high on crack back in 98. I've seen it change people. What people will do to get high. I also think alcohol is one of the worst drugs there is.

 

[Sunstone]

I'm not going to loose sleep over a meth producer receiving a seemingly excessive sentence, Dru. A marijuana grower? Yes. But not a meth producer.

 

[c0da]

I haven't killed or raped anyone. I haven't destroyed society. I haven't become a junkie and/or destroyed my life using drugs. I get good grades, I am mature and responsible, politically active, motivated (where I am interested, that is. Motivation is not applied to the propaganda I am taught in public school), and intelligent. I am the anti-stereotype of the "drug user". And none of the horrible things claimed about drug use are really existent. But we believe it anyway, because we are indoctrinated at a young age.

Just because you haven't done bad things on drugs, doesn't mean others won't.

My guess is that you are a moral, intelligent young man and even when on drugs, you would have a firm grasp of right and wrong. But the same can't be said for bad people, which there are a lot of. People who are bad in the first place who do drugs, are going to get worse when doped up.

I'm really not going to fret too much over this criminal getting locked up, even if it is an over the top sentence.

 

[michel]

I'm not going to loose sleep over a meth producer receiving a seemingly excessive sentence, Dru. A marijuana grower? Yes. But not a meth producer.

What can I say ? I agree with Sunstone. The penalty does seem excessive; maybe the penalties for other crimes are too lenient though.

Prison, period, does not work that well to deter drug crime. I believe the figure is around 80% of the prison population is due to, in one way or another, drugs. Most are re-offenders. There must be a better way.

I am sure you are right; do you have an alternative though?

 

[Valjean]

The sentence does seem excessive, but it sounds like the ball is still in play, so to speak. I expect at least some backroom bargaining, if not an appeal.

 

[CaptainXeroid]

I'm not going to loose sleep over a meth producer receiving a seemingly excessive sentence, Dru. A marijuana grower? Yes. But not a meth producer.

I'm with Sunstone on this one. Frankly, the thread title is inaccurate and fails to acknowledge the facts in this case.

...(District Attorney Joe Brown) said Carney's case began on April 25, when Whitesboro Police Lt. Scott Taylor and Officer Jason Withrow smelled an odor the believed to be a chemical involved in the manufacture of methamphetamine while driving through a Whitesboro neighborhood.

"The high concentration of the fumes caused the officers to have concern of a danger to the public from ingestion of the fumes or a risk of explosion. The odor was traced to an outside workshop in the backyard of 607 Carver Street. While standing outside, the officers could see through the opened doorway components of a methamphetamine laboratory," Brown said in a press release.

He said officers met Carney and Krisney Lemons at the rear door of the residence, and another man, Bobby Neal, inside the residence. All of them denied knowing the source of the odor, and denied making methamphetamine. The officers got a search warrant for the house and located a cellar in which chemicals had been dumped and mixed with runoff rainwater. They found two one-gallon jars with liquids that tested positive for methamphetamine...

Emphasis mine. Based on these sections and the growing concern over methamphetamine manufacture and usage, I would not be surprised if the sentence is allowed to stand on appeal.


Dru, I realize you condone the responsible use of drugs, and for the most part I'm with you on the fact that law enforcement resources would be better allocated catching more serious criminals than harmless pot-heads. However, you have got to realize that these guys are manufacturing a much more dangerous drug and putting a lot of people at risk through their irresponsible use of chemicals.

If you're trying to win people to opposing the 'War on Drugs', you need to let these 2 bone heads go. There's a MAJOR league different between a couple of stoners growing their own weed and a high volume meth lab.

 

[jewscout]

I'm not going to loose sleep over a meth producer receiving a seemingly excessive sentence, Dru. A marijuana grower? Yes. But not a meth producer.

i'm with sunstone on this
i'm all for decriminalizing pot, see nothing wrong w/ it...

but meth??? it's like, hi i like to put a gun in my mouth and see if i'll blow my head off.:bonk:

 

[Jaymes]

Happy D.A.R.E. day. Our benevolent president signed a proclamation a few days ago declaring today to be national D.A.R.E. day.

Alas! If only I had known this yesterday, I could have celebrated properly with some salvia divinorum...

 

[evearael]

I find it reprehensible that murders, rapists and child molesters are not given the death--I mean longer sentences. The drug manufacturing was willfully engaging in illegal activity, so a conviction does make sense, however the sentence is ridiculous. I am all for decriminalizing drug use, but I am adamantly opposed to legalization. That said, I've never use any illegal drugs, or abused legal ones, in my life. As a former pharmacy technician, I've seen more people abusing prescription drugs than illegal narcotics... with the willful or apathetic participation of the patient's doctor.

 

[Druidus]

Guys, I agree that he should get a strict sentence, but not because of the drug, only because of how it was made and where it was made.

This is clearly just a shock sentencing, and I can't condone that in any way.

Methamphetamine, as a psychoactive, is not the intrinsically evil substance the media makes it out as. I see no reason to criminalize this for possesion (part of this sentencing was that).

My close friend, one of only two that I have, was a meth-head for a while. He never killed anyone or did anything wrong, besides owning and using methamphetamine. Why was he ok? Because he had the money to support it. Without the money, that's where it breaks down. And if it were legalized, it would be much cheaper.

Anyway, that's just anecdotal evidence, nothing, in my eyes. Alcohol is responsible for FAR more deaths than methamphetamine, even if we only count the alcohol deaths since the emergence of methamphetamine. As a drug, methamphetamine is safer on many levels than alcohol (except for the damage it can cause the individual, which is why I won't use meth).

Punish this man for his crimes against people, with the dangers he caused of inhalation and explosion, not his possession.

 

[c0da]

:clap Good post.

 

[jewscout]

Anyway, that's just anecdotal evidence, nothing, in my eyes. Alcohol is responsible for FAR more deaths than methamphetamine, even if we only count the alcohol deaths since the emergence of methamphetamine. As a drug, methamphetamine is safer on many levels than alcohol (except for the damage it can cause the individual, which is why I won't use meth).

Punish this man for his crimes against people, with the dangers he caused of inhalation and explosion, not his possession.

if it's safer than alcohol then why don't you do meth?
or is it that you don't drink either?

 

[Shadow Wolf]

Happy D.A.R.E. day. Our benevolent president signed a proclamation a few days ago declaring today to be national D.A.R.E. day.

Alas! If only I had known this yesterday, I could have celebrated properly with some salvia divinorum...

I went further. I didn't know it was DARE day, but I took the advice of the song that goes "Go home, get stoned." What a way to celebrate DARE day. Sitting blissfully in your own little world while DARE is telling lies to little kids about what drugs do, and the lifestyles you live if your on them.

I do agree though that 99 years is harsh. While I do feel there should be a penalty for the lab and putting others at risk with a potential explosion, the drug its self should be decriminalized. After all, Mountain Dew is also known to rot teeth.

 

[Sunstone]

Dru, let's assume your claim that alcohol causes "FAR" more deaths than meth is accurate. Were the statistics you saw on that weighted for any difference between how many people consume alcohol versus how many people consume meth? If they weren't, then how do you know the larger number of deaths due to alcohol do not reflect the possibility that alcohol is consumed much more often and by more people than meth? And if the statistics were weighted, then how did the statistician arrive at a reasonable and factually based weight to give them? In short, I suspect the statistics you saw are relatively meaningless when it comes to comparing the dose to dose leathality of alcohol and meth.

 

[Druidus]

It was based on cities where methamphetamine use and alcohol use were close in percentage. The only time methamphetamine related deaths (murders, suicides, and overdoses) equaled or surpassed alcohol related deaths was when meth was combined with alcohol.

Methamphetamine doesn't cause as many problems as its made out to. Much is government propaganda and biased.

I agree, however, that producers of meth should be severely penalized.