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People that are caught dealing drugs on average spend MANY more years behind bars than child molesters, rapists, sexual abusers, etc. etc. Why is that? To me, someone taking some mind altering drug is far less a problem than the aforementioned yet it's considered worse, seems quite backwards to me. If anything, someone voluntarily taking drugs (and then usually only harming themselves) should be one of the LEAST worst crimes deserving of imprisonment. You want to screw up your own life? Fine by me.
While on the surface drug dealing seems to be simply the selling of an illegal product. But there is much more too it. It also consists of tax evsion, drig dealers are not prone to file taxes on their earnings.
Than you have the long bloody trail the got the drugs to the dealer, this includes various crimes including but not limited to:
Smuggling
forced labor
Organized crime and terrorist activities
along with residual crimes such as Prostitution, Murder, theft, bribery,
Location: Central Bay Area, CA as of Jan 2010...but still a proud Texan from Houston!
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Quote:
Originally Posted by goodbye_hello
Are you discussing dealing drugs or using drugs? Completely different issues.
And I disagree that drugs results in harsher penalties than molesters, rapist, sexual abusers etc. First example being the requirement to file yourself as a sex offender. Nothing involving drugs is as harsh as that.
Completely untrue about harsh drug penalties.
There are people serving life sentences without the possibility for parole for marijuana crimes alone. Truly sad IMO.
One reason is that, in one way or another, drugs are at the root of most other crimes. Addicts steal, rob, and murder to support their habit. Dealers are involved in violent crimes to protect their territories or to make more money.
They're not. Sex crimes are considered the worst of all crimes, even when there is no intent to harm. In some states (e.g. Minnesota), they are considered to be so heinous, that people convicted and sentenced can be (and often are) incarcerated for the rest of their lives, long after their maximum judicial sentence has expired. In every state, offenders are required to display a public stigma for the rest of their lives, a practice that otherwise expired in Massachusetts Colony in the 1600s.
"One of the World's biggest smugglers of hashish and marijuana, a Federal prosecutor said during opening arguments Tuesday. It was a characterization that accused drug smuggler John Knock's attorney didn't attack"
He was accused of drug and money laundering. As Woodraw pointed out, once you start involving large amounts of money all bets are off.
I find his punishment fair.
Funny you only picked out this guy to try and show that the punishment is fair.
What about these people? " Christopher Williams, who faces 82 to 85 years behind bars for providing medical marijuana and Patricia Spottedcrow, a mother of four who's serving a 12-year sentence for selling $31 worth of marijuana."
Location: Central Bay Area, CA as of Jan 2010...but still a proud Texan from Houston!
7,484 posts, read 10,450,730 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by goodbye_hello
I find his punishment fair. A lot of my friends in HS & College dealt marijuana mostly in small amounts. But some dealt heavy loads and even harder drugs and they enjoyed the spoiled riches: Home, cars, bottomless party money and the women that came with it. While not only was I busting my butt in college for free but actually building up a student loan debt, they were living the life at 20 years old.
That's not fair. Almost all of them got rolled to some extent by their 30's. Some wised up and decided to find real hard working careers like the rest of us but others decided it was how they would forever be. I had no sympathy for them.
Now it is clear why you don't find marijuana penalties' very harsh in the US.
I find it odd that people have such harsh opinions about marijuana but yet they are ok with alcohol, coffee and cigarettes and see no issue with people on Schedule II drugs or people who consume alcohol, coffee and cigarettes...all of these are CNS stimulants...some uppers and some downers.
Funny you only picked out this guy to try and show that the punishment is fair.
What about these people? " Christopher Williams, who faces 82 to 85 years behind bars for providing medical marijuana and Patricia Spottedcrow, a mother of four who's serving a 12-year sentence for selling $31 worth of marijuana."
Update on Christopher Williams
Quote:
1. Christopher Williams
A Montana medical marijuana provider is facing 82 to 85 years behind bars, due to mandatory minimum laws linked to some of his charges. Convicted of crimes like manufacturing marijuana, intent to distribute and possession of a firearm during a drug trafficking offense, Christopher Williams appeared to be in the for the worst. But in a rare move this September, U.S. Attorney Michael Cotter offered to drop four of Williams’ charges and bring his sentencing down to “as little as 10 years,” so long as Williams waived his right to appeal.
Williams refused the offer on moral grounds. The case isn’t about medical pot, says Williams, whose judge prohibited discussion of Montana’s medical marijuana program at trial. Rather, he says, it is about government abuse of power. “I have decided to fight the federal government, because for me not defending the things that I know are right is dishonorable,” Williams wrote to the Independent Record, “Every citizen has a responsibility to fight for what is right, even if it seems like the struggle will be lost.”
Michael Donahoe, Williams’ attorney, said that federal prosecutors often bring gun charges against medical marijuana defendants without the intent to prosecute them. Rather, they are hoping for a plea bargain — one Williams is not willing to take.
Her children are 11, 6, 5 and 3 years old now. The youngest was just 1 when Spottedcrow began her prison sentence two years ago.
If Gov. Mary Fallin hadn't approved Spottedcrow's parole and if the Pardon and Parole Board hadn't agreed to early consideration for her case, her children might have all been teenagers by the time she got out.
Spottedcrow was released from Hillside Community Corrections Center in Oklahoma City on Thursday morning after completing a community-level sentence required by the governor as a condition of her parole.
Her 12-year prison sentence for selling $31 worth of marijuana garnered widespread national attention after her story was featured in a 2011 Tulsa World series on women in prison.
Spottedcrow originally faced a 12-year prison sentence out of Kingfisher County for selling a "dime bag" of marijuana to a police informant. She entered prison in December 2010 after spending a few months waiting in the county jail.
After her story was published in the World, grassroots supporters lobbied officials to reconsider Spottedcrow's punishment. Advocates expressed concern for possible racial bias, disparate sentences for drug crimes, Oklahoma's No. 1 female incarceration rate per capita and the effects on children growing up with incarcerated parents
The point I am making is that some states in the US have outrageous penalties for marijuana related crimes. There is something very wrong with this mentality.
It goes back to the old Puritan control over the people. If it's fun, it's naughty and a no-no.
Maybe someday we'll grow up. Right now, we're keeping pot and other stuff out of the hands of those in pain.
I am of the opinion that we would have fewer people trying the stuff out if we didn't try so hard to make it a bad thing.
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