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http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17611941/wid/11915773?GT1=9145
Could we get just a little more inhuman in this country?
Yes, that story is sad. I’ve been following it since it started, but I knew how it would end. I mean is marijuana worse than alcohol? How many people do you hear of killing someone in a auto accident or abusing family members because they smoked one? I hope the day comes when it is legalized or at least decriminalized. I actually gave a persuasive speech in college a couple of years ago regarding decriminalization. I have included the outline here.
Quote:Isolated in a cell with no way even to call for help, paraplegic Jimmy Montgomery endures the stench of his untreated infections, suffers the pain of having to tear off soiled bandages without any ointments, and runs the risk of life-threatening kidney and bladder infections because guards cannot find the urine bag that his mother sent him. Meanwhile, Governor Keating’s office claims to be doing everything possible. His office keeps telling callers that Montgomery must have done something far worse than the trial records indicate, because they do not want to believe that good people in a small town, serving as jurors, could have done something so terrible. He may be reluctant to recognize that the hate propaganda fostered by the prohibitionist ideology that he supports could result in such a great injustice. The good people of Oklahoma have been the victims of a crime of unspeakable evil, but it is necessary to say that we are not damned by the evil done to us, but rather by the evil done by us.Jimmy Montgomery was sentenced in 1992 to ten years in prison for possession of less than two ounces of marijuana. In 1993, after serving almost a year of his sentence and nearly dying twice because of the failure of the state of Oklahoma to provide adequate treatment for the highly communicable infections, Montgomery was released on an appeals bond. He was re-sentenced on April 4 to serve ten years in prison but was released on July 27th thanks to the hundreds of phone calls and letters from concerned citizens, NORML members, and the press. Sadly though, many people continue to sit in jails and prisons for possession of marijuana
Marijuana should be decriminalized because it would free up legal resources to deal with more serious crime, it causes far more harm by criminally prohibiting it than by the use of marijuana itself, and it does not lead to greater marijuana use.
I. Marijuana decriminalization frees up legal resources to deal with more serious crime.
A. Marijuana possession account for nearly 90% of all marijuana arrests.
B. Taxpayers annually spend between $7.5 billion and $10 billion arresting and prosecuting individuals for marijuana violations.
C. 135,000 individuals are behind bars for marijuana offenses at a cost to taxpayers of $2 billion per year.
D. Police arrest more Americans per year on marijuana charges than the total number of arrestees for all violent crimes.
E. The state of California saved nearly $1 billion dollars from 1976 to 1985 by decriminalizing the personal possession of one ounce of marijuana.
F. Group determined that marijuana decriminalization “will result in greater availability of resources to respond to more serious crimes without any increased risks to public safety.”II. Far more harm is caused by the criminal prohibition of marijuana than by the use of marijuana itself.
A. According to the Institute of Medicine (IOM), “Except for the harms associated with smoking, the adverse effects of marijuana use are within the range tolerated for other medications.”
B. The Institute of Medicine’s 1999 report on marijuana explained that marijuana has been mistaken for a gateway drug in the past.
C. More than 76 million Americans have admittedly tried marijuana.
D. In the past decade, more than 6.5 million Americans have been arrested on marijuana charges.
E. The annual rate of American deaths caused by drugs indicates that marijuana is responsible for 0 deaths.III. Decriminalization does not lead to greater marijuana use.
A. States and regions that have maintained the strictest criminal penalties for marijuana possession have experienced the largest proportionate increase in use.
B. Citizens who live under decriminalization laws consume marijuana at rates less than or comparable to those who live in regions where the possession of marijuana remains a criminal offense.
C. Government studies conclude that marijuana decriminalization has had virtually no effect on either marijuana use or beliefs and related attitudes about marijuana among American young people in those states that have enacted such a policy.
D. There is no evidence that marijuana decriminalization affects either the choice or frequency of use of drugs, either legal (such as alcohol) or illegal (such as marijuana and cocaine).Hi all,
after having been busted for growing recently …. I have to go to a bunch of counselling … etc. AA classes ….. you name it.
I was lucky to stay out of jail. I wasn’t drivng under the influence …. not selling …..
okay … I broke the law and got caught. I’m doing what the courts have told me I have to do.
but as I sit in these classes its rediculous. The definition (by their own accord at AA) is someone who starts and can’t stop. Well you can only get so stoned no matter how much you smoke.
I sit in my court ordered counselling across from people who were ……… well one was busted because as he was eating his supper a cop walked past his car and said he smelled pot. The guy said he’d not even smoked any (I have little reason to doubt his honesty .. in this class …. its no shame to talk about such things) but he looks like a stoner .. and anyway he has some on him and got busted for possession.
the guy wasn’t bothering anybody. What a threat to society!
This sort of thing happens everyday. People who have jobs, pay taxes … and in every way are going about their lives not bothering anybody. Finding themselves in a position where in some cases they could literally do more time than if they killed somebody. That’s no exaggeration.
Now what really bothers me is the people in charge of making our laws are the people who grew up in the times of the late 60s … early 70s ….. and these people for the most part … if not having done it themeselves at some time ….. at the very least have a good understanding of what a pot smoker is capable of …. you know …… serious threats to society like falling asleep in front of the tv. getting the munchies and eating everything in the fridge. Serious stuff like that.
Why, Why, Why? don’t they get the balls to own up to what they themselves know?
I know part of it is money. Pot is a money making deal for the underworld. They don’t want to see it legal so their influence will likely never let it get that far. But the decriminalization is boggling. Who is it that is fighting this so hard?
I don’t have any answers. I don’t understand the thinking behind most of it. If I could at least blame it on the people who make money on prohibiton I could begin to understand it but that doesn’t even hold water in terms of decriminalization.
Keep on selling booze. that only results in huge number of related deaths every year for everything to killing innocents by those who drive DUI … to health issues that are life-threatening serious.
That’s okay. And don’t even get me started on tobacco .. and I smoke.
There’s even a fuel that can be made from pot seeds that burns completely clean …. they say if it was grown on such a level to supply enough to make fuel .. (not to mention paper saving all those trees) that the fields would literally produce enough oxygen to replace the loss of our diminishing rain forests.
Where is the wisdom? Who are these people so willing to comdemn these otherwise innocent people to prison for doing something that has no effect on others? Especially those sick and that could use it for medical reasons. These are the really sick-minded IMO.
Oh and btw: thanks to the fact that alcohol leaves your system quickly . .. I can and do drink regularly now. before I hardly ever drank. by the time I get thru this bullshit I’ll be lucky if I’m not an alcoholic ….. thanks to the gov’s infinite wisdom. I can already tell its going to be hard to stop drinking and switch back once I get this under my belt.
everybody has their “fix” .. whether its eating, drinking … or kniitting …… as long as its not hurting anybody else ….. why in the world would you persecute them?
What fascinates me about court ordered AA meetings is that it’s a violation of the separation of church and state. AA is pretty clearly a religious organization, although they’d never admit it, and the US government forces people to go there when they break the law. If that’s not a violation of the establishment clause, I don’t know what is.
The whole marijuana situation (and the “recovery” phenomenon) is bizarre and baffling to me.
You are not being ‘forced’ to go to AA meetings… you are doing it ‘voluntarily’! LMAO If you consider ‘Volunteering’ vs Jail an option, that is!
Alcohol is a far woser problem…. I know… I’m an alcoholic, althought I have not drunk for over 25 years now…. funny thing? It was smokin pot that helped me get through the painful withdrawal process I went through when I quit drinkin! LOL
