I just need to share the latest in The Man's gung-ho conquest to beat down the little guy who likes to smoke some pot. At whatever level of government, in this case at the state level (New Jersey's, specifically) there continues to be intolerant bastards with an illogical hate for marijuana, in contrast to the rather socially acceptable alcohol.
Guy has 14 marijuana plants in his backyard. Helicopter spots it, tells the state cops. Going on that (and as far as the
article tells) nothing else, the fuzz "found well-worn trails leading to the plants, some as tall as 6 feet. Authorities also found Miracle-Gro in a shed and psilocybin mushrooms and bags of processed marijuana in the dwelling, according to court papers."
Okay, lemme get this straight. They have no reason to investigate this guy besides a tip from a peeping tom helicopter. What gives them the right to investigate this further in the first place? If they had no reasonable "leads" that
this was the guy fueling the pot economy in NJ, they SHOULDN'T be able to put this guy in court against twenty years.
Twenty years.
Damn.
That's compounded with the fact that the guy - gee, I forgot to mention - has multiple sclerosis.
New Jersey is currently in line to be the 14th state to implement medical marijuana laws, too. Huh.
As far as the judge is concerned, using a drug commonly known to ease the symptoms of terrible diseases like, say, multiple sclerosis, is absolutely nothing worthy of being cited to a court. OF BEING CITED TO A COURT? A drug that is recently undergoing a well funded study that
has high hopes of finding positive benefits to its use.
The judge has this to say:
"If medical marijuana use is to be recognized as an exemption to our criminal law, the legislative process must produce that result. This court will not do so."
If the guy was just a healthy, regular dude, I would still feel bad for him, up against twenty years. Sure, a guy like that would probably sell to close friends and maybe make a little bit of money. But a guy with multiple sclerosis? Growing pot in his backyard with Miracle Grow?
So, will this guy, John Wilson, be processed without a trial that might give the guy a break for, heaven forbid, having a fair reason to break the law? Slipped under the radar a couple of years before NJ breaks into the medical marijuana fold? As easy to forget as his name? Or could he become a poster child for a movement in accepting cannabis and really put politician's feet on the fire and maybe, just maybe, get real lucky?
More people need to know.
And big deal, he had a bag of shrooms.
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I do agree that the police tactics described here are reprehensible and that 20 years for marijuana and shroom posession is overkill. Also, I fully support the legalization of Marijuana. However, I would never support the legalization of any other drugs. So the fact that this guy had some shrooms lying around leads me to have very little sympathy for him.
Grade-A skunk is just as likely (if not more) to flash your brain than a few magic mushrooms (naturally created by the Good Lord, what-what?). I've never heard of someone who is pro-cannabis that took a dim view of shrooms? Though I can understand why people would avoid psychotropics - they can quite easily be as fucking terrifying as they can be hilarious.
Crack is the evil drug, as is heroin abuse, and cocaine to a lesser extent, but a lot of the 'recreationals' are no more harmful to you (physically)* than your average headache tab.
*mental issues are a mine-field, that are often triggered by drugs, but seldom exclusively born of them.
By the way, not dissing you, I totally respect your view, just posing a different one.
Don't get me wrong, I used to eat mushrooms and LSD and all sorts of crazy stuff. But the fact remains if we want to legalize marijuana we have to separate it from the other drugs that don't have medical benefits. Psilocybin may be all natural and fun but it has zero medicinal value and therefore it's harder to believe this young man when he says he only uses the marijuana for medical use.
You can't look at this from our point of view, which is that shrooms are harmless (mostly). You have to look at it from the point of view of the lawmakers and the non-smoking public. They still see marijuana as a crack-like substance that will ruin your life. So in order to educate them, we need to show that marijuana is different from those other drugs.
Allowing yourself to be caught with shrooms and pot is just irresponsible. This guy may have been able to push the medicinal marijuana excuse if he hadn't had the mushrooms. But because of the shrooms, he will be labeled as just another pothead/druggie, which makes the rest of us look bad. So while I do have some sympathy for him (20 years, jesus christ) I'm still pissed that he made such a big mistake, because it hurts the fight for medicinal marijuana.
Our current max sentence for cultivation is 7 years... and this is rarely used. The sentencing for most major grow ops is usually less than 5 years and with good behavior they are out in one or two. This is merely a "cost of doing business" in Canada. In our neighborhood we've had both grow ops and dealers (the current trend is to rent a house and convert it totally into a grow op, harvest and move on to another rental). In Canada marijuana is gang business... and it's serious business. It's drive by shootings, it's break ins, it's guns, it's death and it's fear. The drugs aren't even sold in Canada, most are traded to Americans for illegal guns and harder drugs.
While I would like to see "personal use" cultivation laws changed... I have absolutely no sympathy for anyone who grows for a profit. In fact, the personal use cultivation should hopefully stop some of the current profit oriented violence. Maybe this guy shouldn't have gotten greedy.
:(
You bring up another reason why we (America) should absolutely legalize marijuana. It would take the control out of the hands of the criminals. If weed was legalized, it would be primarily grown and sold by the tobacco and alcohol companies, not gangs. I'm not claiming that gang violence would cease, but they would have one less thing to fight about, since most people would be buying their weed the legal way. Sure some people might stick with the illegal dealers, but people still buy cigarettes illegally everyday. It is my personal believe that legalizing marijuana in America could only be a good thing. I'll step down off my soap box now.
@Chaos
=)
I've not seen that research. That is very interesting. I can undertand perfectly how LSD could cure depression, but due to its potential side affects I can't see it being used seriously unless it was in seriously low doses. Like less than 25 micrograms.