55 years for selling mary jane!
 

“If he had been an aircraft hijacker, he would have gotten 24 years in prison. If he’s been a terrorist, he would have gotten 20 years in prison. If he was a child rapist, he would have gotten 11 years in prison. And now I’m supposed to give him a 55-year sentence? I mean, that’s just not right...”

said the Federal judge that put a 24 year old man to jail for a 55 year sentence without the possibility of parole.

Here's the story.
https://gma.yahoo.com/former-federal...opstories.html


The judge publicly regrets his decision and discusses it publicly with a reporter. What do you think? Should this fellow be in jail for the vast majority of his life simply because he sold marijuana?

Re: 55 years for selling mary jane!
 

in a fascist state, individual lives are unimportant; it is corp profits that matter. One must understand that pot smokers have lower incidences of heart problems, cancer, and many other diseases, thus eroding the profits of Big Pharma.

Re: 55 years for selling mary jane!
 

I agree about the government, but I just lost a 43 year old cousin indirectly to C.O.P.D. from years of marijuana and tobacco use. Our lungs never were meant to be a chimney. 55yrs is crazy.

Re: 55 years for selling mary jane!
 

It is indeed crazy but there are some who would defend such sentencing.

I wonder where they are.

Re: 55 years for selling mary jane!
 

Happy birthday president Reagan

Re: 55 years for selling mary jane!
 

The judge put him away for 55 years but says he doesn't agree with his own sentencing?

It is not "happy birthday Reagan" but "happy birthday Winston Smith".

Re: 55 years for selling mary jane!
 

I think the judge felt like he had no choice because of the laws.

Reagan did have something to do with this, unfortunately.

Re: 55 years for selling mary jane!
 

yup

Re: 55 years for selling mary jane!
 

you read my mind.

Re: 55 years for selling mary jane!
 

pot is a miracle, and has been made anathema to us. Big Pharma simply cannot compete with it, the same way Bid Industry cannot compete with hemp. How hard it was for me to see. You don't have to get high on it--cannabidiol from hemp is legal in all 50 states. Billions of dollars were invested to sway our perceptions here.

Re: 55 years for selling mary jane!
 

Pot is a gateway to the spirit world, not a miracle. Kinda like peyote and other mind altering drugs.

The reason that the big pharma is after it is that they don't control the profits, not because they think it is wrong.

Re: 55 years for selling mary jane!
 

hmm; seems like a stretch to compare the effects of pot with peyote; especially in their natural state? Granted, we cultivate pot into a fairly strong drug, but it isn't that way naturally. And even then one would be hard pressed to compare it to peyote, don't you think? Pot, and hemp, are loaded with omega3; they are high in protein. The Constitution was written on hemp. Henry Ford built a car made from hemp, and powered by hemp. It used to be required (of Colonial landowners) to grow hemp. Nixon inadvertently demonstrated that pot shrinks brain tumors. oops.

Also, I'm finding that while the "gateway" argument was certainly true when i was young, this does not seem to be near as true now. Again, i do not advocate smoking pot; especially for those younger than their mid to late 20s, which is when our prefrontal lobes finish developing. While lung cancer increases significantly in those who smoke both pot and cigarettes, this is not true for those who smoke only pot ("National Cancer Institute" link; all links included for transparency)
https://www.google.com/webhp?sourcei...cancer&es_th=1
while chronic pot smoking has been found to decrease prefrontal lobe mass slightly--and ps it is interesting to note that the prefrontals are the seat of our "will," so i'm not convinced a slight decrease there is all bad--it has also been proven to increase neural connections drastically.

So, can pot be abused? Can it be smoking you, as you are smoking it? You bet.
However, are there possibly benefits that have been concealed from us, and have we been lied to and manipulated for someone's evil agenda? No question, imo.

I'd hang out with George Washington and smoke hemp on his front porch anytime!

Re: 55 years for selling mary jane!
 

You must be Democrat, not Muslim.
They are the ones that stick to their talking points after they have been proven wrong!

Re: 55 years for selling mary jane!
 

Fortunately, Rand Paul and Cory Booker are working on a sentencing reform bill. I know it's too late to correct time for some, but it could have an early release for many. It's called the Redeem Act.

"The REDEEM Act proposal would encourage states to raise the age of criminal responsibly to 18 years of age; expunge or seal the records of juveniles who commit non-violent crimes before they turn 15; place limits on the solitary confinement of most juveniles; and establish a system to allow eligible nonviolent criminals to petition a court to ask that their criminal records be sealed. Sealing the records would keep them out of FBI background checks requested by employers and likely make it easier for those former offenders to secure a job."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/...ng-reform-bill

S.2567 - REDEEM Act113th Congress (2013-2014)
https://www.congress.gov/bill/113th-...nate-bill/2567

Re: 55 years for selling mary jane!
 

I have never voted for a democrat. Except for John Breaux. Doesnt mean I am happy with the trickle down bubble paper economy and the corporate prison system we got sold.

Re: 55 years for selling mary jane!
 

From your link, which wouldn't open today.
I happened to run across this article by Jason Riley, WSJ. Totally great article to take the time and read! :thumbsup

Race Relations and Law Enforcement
Some insist that our jails and prisons are teeming with young black men due primarily to racist drug laws, but the reality is that the drug laws are neither racist nor driving the black incarceration rate. It’s worth remembering that the harsher penalties for crack cocaine offenses that were passed in the 1980s were supported by most of the Congressional Black Caucus, including Rep. Charles Rangel of Harlem, who at the time headed the House Select Committee on Narcotics Abuse and Control. Crack was destroying black communities and many black political leaders wanted dealers to face longer sentences. In other words, black legislators in Washington led the effort to impose tougher drug laws, a fact often forgotten by critics today.

http://imprimis.hillsdale.edu/race-r...w-enforcement/

Re: 55 years for selling mary jane!
 

fixed

Re: 55 years for selling mary jane!
 

Pressing On,
The gentleman in question is not black and the drug in question is not crack.

Re: 55 years for selling mary jane!
 

I like this idea.

Re: 55 years for selling mary jane!
 

That doesn't take away from the fact that the Congressional Black Caucus got the ball rolling on harsher penalties for drug use - including MJ. Jason Riley clearly puts out the fact that the drug laws were NOT white racism.

Re: 55 years for selling mary jane!
 

Ok.

Re: 55 years for selling mary jane!
 

Kind of shocking to find out the truth of the matter, huh? So, shocking you have to say, "ok", because you don't want to believe it's true.

Re: 55 years for selling mary jane!
 

Nope.

You're taking the conversation down a road that I don't want to go down in this thread. This thread is not about race. This thread is not about crack. While some people believe that all of the strict drug laws were born out of racism, I was never one of those people.

There was a time where I thought the crime of drug dealing deserved to be treated as harshly rape and murder.

However, now I think the law's blindness of the differences between crack, heroin, crystal meth, and marijuana does a disservice to the justice process.

Re: 55 years for selling mary jane!
 

OK

I don't agree.

Anyway, here you are blaming Reagan, but is was actually the Congressional Black Caucus who saw the problem with drugs...perhaps Reagan working with them. Much like LBJ worked with MLK on civil rights.

Maybe Ava DuVernay and Oprah can make another historically inaccurate movie showing that Reagan didn't work with the black community being the culprit instead of it being Charlie Rangel.

Re: 55 years for selling mary jane!
 

Ok.

Re: 55 years for selling mary jane!
 

Drug law, most notable hemp laws, need to come into the 21st century. Do your research, and you will find hemp laws to be full of outdated racist dogma. I am a christian and a pot smoker for health reasons and am not ashamed to say it.

Re: 55 years for selling mary jane!
 

Is it digging too much to ask for the specific health reason behind your decision to smoke pot?

Did it seem hypocritical to you, atleast in the begining, to resort to "drugs" for your treatment?

Re: 55 years for selling mary jane!
 

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1010/43552.html

https://search.yahoo.com/search;_ylt...yfp-t-339&fp=1

Don't try to re-write history-- and I'm done responding to your bait.:nod

Re: 55 years for selling mary jane!
 

This has probably already been mentioned, but our current drug laws disproportionately effect minorities. As JD pointed out, why does a committing a non-violent crime of selling pot get a harsher sentence than someone who did act in violence?

Re: 55 years for selling mary jane!
 

I am using it to help with Chemo related side effects. I am resorting to drugs when I take Chemo. Hemp is not a drug to me.

Re: 55 years for selling mary jane!
 

There are those who claim that the desire on the part of some to abolish the IRS is born out of racism. I'm glad you see past all that garbage.

Re: 55 years for selling mary jane!
 

So, Reagan DID work with the Congressional Black Caucus. Who knew? Oh, I did. :heeheehee

In his remarks, Reagan singles out his wife, Nancy Reagan, for her anti-drug efforts, as well as Rep. Charles Rangel (D-NY).

"There've been some real champions in the battle to get this legislation through Congress: Senators Bob Dole, Robert Byrd, and Strom Thurmond; Congressmen Bob Michel, Jim Wright, Benjamin Gilman, Charles Rangel, and Jerry Lewis."

http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/in...abuse+act&st1=

Re: 55 years for selling mary jane!
 

Well, you totally blew my imagine of "mellowing out" when getting high. :heeheehee

Re: 55 years for selling mary jane!
 

:lol
ya much more potent stuff these days

Re: 55 years for selling mary jane!
 

:heeheehee

Re: 55 years for selling mary jane!
 

Not sure of your situation, but is there any way you could get these same benefits from the marijuana without smoking it? Some sort of pill form or injection? I understand that hemp oil is being used to fight cancer.

Re: 55 years for selling mary jane!
 

The act of smoking mj is still unhealthy but I guess some people are in situations where they have to make the tougher decisions in their lives.

Re: 55 years for selling mary jane!
 

I vape the oil. It has very little THC so I dont get baked.

Re: 55 years for selling mary jane!
 

cannabidiol from hemp is legal in all 50 states. it can be delivered to your door.

Re: 55 years for selling mary jane!
 

and again, in those who only smoke pot, this does not seem to be supported--unfortunately, most pot smokers seem to smoke cigarettes too...