Interesting article in my morning paper (sorry, can't find a link on the S-E's really badly designed web site -- sure wish that redesign would hurry up) about some marijuana ash found in a church classroom in South Weber.
Some ash, some soda cups and an empty 7-up bottle. Obviously, the work of hardened criminals! Either that or a coupla teens goofing.
My bet? The latter.
Even so, it's obviously serious because it made the paper. In the story, says Weber Sheriff Sgt. Susan Poulsen, they found fingerprints which "will be held in the data base, so if any of the people involved want to come forward now, the consequences would be better than if we have to track them down or find them at a later date."
Track them down, for smoking pot in a church classroom?
Actually, this is not an idle threat. One marijuana conviction on your record can harm employment possibilities for decades to come, the current occupant of the White House not withstanding. And the current bruhaha over government snooping shows just how wide that database can go, and probably does.
Did you catch the deputy's tone in the paper? I have every confidence she is a good, dedicated law enforcement officer, but the quote in the paper makes it sound as if she, or someone, is going to take great joy in chasing down these drug fiends, even if it takes years, and throwing them in the slammer. Surrender now and it will go easy on you!
This already happens a lot -- 1.8 million drug arrests per year in this country, most for possession of small amounts of mary jane. The US already imprisons, at great expense, almost as many people as China, which has four times our population, because of the idiotic war on drugs.
None of this has to be. Legalizing pot -- let's hear it for Colorado! -- would stop a lot of that. The drug cartels would face vastly reduced profits, kids wouldn't have to sneak around breaking into churches, to use it, and deputies who find a little bit of ash from MJ would just say "It's just a coupla kids goofing," and let it go at that.
Which, you know, is precisely what the officer would have said if it had been beer bottles they found instead of ash and 7-Up.
Not condoning breaking into churches, mind you, but let's get a little perspective. Make MJ legal, treat stupid incidents like this like the stupid incidents they are.
Then the law enforcement folks could work on more serious stuff, and those kids wouldn't have to worry about this silly incident ruining their lives in 20 years if they apply for a job that requires a security clearance.
If marijuana is finally legalized again, it should be regulated like cigarettes and drinking: not sold to minors, and consequences for dui. It could also be taxed if grown and sold for retail. That would remove the extra curiosity/excitement draw of “doing something forbidden”. It would also remove the financial incentive for the big drug cartels’ involvement. That doesn’t include the costs involved from the “war on drugs” including pot garden raids, law enforcement, trials, and incarceration.
ReplyDeleteBesides all of that, we could once again have a productive hemp industry. It is used for medicine, rope, clothing, paper, and many other useful products, opening up farming, manufacturing, and sales jobs. More paper can be produced faster from hemp than from trees.
Hemp the non fun brother of MJ which is also illegal to grow or possess...is very versatile you can make oil, lotion, food,paper, bracelets and T shirts (but can't get you high)....and it grows almost anywhere like a weed.. I was reading about this building in England I think.. all the walls are made with hemp sheet rock and it resists water damage A LOT...think about if they used it in areas where flooding is common place....no we can't grow it but we can import it from Canada...America wants to be the lead exporter but we are too slow and wimpy...we are imprisoning 5% of the WORLDS population in our prisons...5% who can't go to work...instead we pay to arrest them judge them and house them for years then after they get out maybe pay a guy to go to his house to check on him..he can't get a job now so we subsidies his life his kids....we didn't get any taxes off that weed just some other criminals did...the USA is still acting like diamond Jim Brady...a Prison cell for you and you and you...you all get to go to Prison we will build more bigger ones with more guards and more Judges and if need be we will hire more Cops to replace the ones that get killed but at least we are tuff on Pot....The ex President of Mexico says he would grow it if it were legal...take a bite out of the cartels illegal so protected cash crop...yeah because we don't want the tax money
ReplyDeleteIt's not about the money, money, money We don't need your money, money, money We just wanna make the world live in our Penal Facility Forget about the price tag
Ain't about the cha-ching, cha-ching Ain't about the ba-bling, ba-bling Wanna make the world imprisoned Forget about the price tag
As some wag noted years ago now: "The war on drugs is over. We lost.". --- Bob Becker
ReplyDelete... so when someone in Utah gets charged with possession, it is listed as "possession of Under One Ounce ..."; this includes small personal pipes or vaporizers with only residue in them. Very bad.
ReplyDeleteTLJ
So we should stop making things illegal based simply on the fact it may ruin their future? Life is about making choices. If you choose to do something like this then you should be ready to take responsibility for your actions. Legalizing drugs is a silly argument. People involved in drug use don't usually stop there with breaking the law.
ReplyDeleteI found it shocking that people with marijuana charges faced more jail time (in some cases) than child molester's ... Justice system flawed much?!?
ReplyDeleteGreedy Wall Street brokers and Corporate bankers have done more harm to the country in the last 5 years than all of the people in jail for marijuana convinctions combined. Yet none of the brokers or bankers seem to be in jail.
ReplyDelete