A Local Reports on Mandatory Minimums
Interesting story in the Lost Coast Outpost from a local pot farmer on his mandatory minimum sentence for growing. I'm surprised at the negative tone of many of the comments to the story, although I guess it's true: Play with fire and you might well get burned.
His narrative is no surprise to me. I've heard the details before. I saw one of those cop reality shows some time ago where they followed Drug Enforcement Agency agents around for a night of raids. They'd make one small time drug bust, get the suspect to "rat" on the next guy, go get him, he'd rat and they'd go after the next guy up the ladder.
As I recall, all but one guy ratted so most of them pretty much walked. The guy who didn't rat I don't remember them following up on. He just said he wasn't saying anything and that was the last you heard of him and the end of that night's episode.
posted by Fred Mangels @ 9:07 AM
3 comments
3 Comments:
What worries me about what was said by Mr. MacFarland in the LoCO article was not so much the Mandatory Minimums (which definitely need to worked with) but the fact that on no real evidence anyone could be convicted of "conspiracy."
What that means is if someone were to get caught with a pickup truck load of weed and off the top of his or her head said, "MOLA:42 is part of the gang," I would go to jail.
How do I prove I never had anything to do with the stuff (I already hear half your readers guffawing at that notion but it is true, I'm dull as dishwater in my personal life too)?
The answer is you can't. Unless you have your entire life recorded on video there is no possible way to prove you haven't had anything to do with MJ. On the other hand, the Feds need no real proof you had.
I, and anyone else, are just one drugged out Federal detainee's word from going to the can for 5 years.
I'm free because I'm not interesting enough to the Feds to lock up.
And so are you.
The drug was is such a scam. Funny how the war on red wine ended so fast. Oh yeah, its white middle and upper class folks who drink red wine. Yet they either didn't learn a lesson from prohibition or they are purposely making criminals out of people who want to get high with other substances(aka brown and black people). Or maybe so many people are involved in the racket that they don't want it to stop. A steady flow of arrests are what the for profit prisons push for and the courts and lawyers and cops and detectives and judges and probation officers and jail guards and so on......a HUGE racket meant to put down the weak, the poor, the colored. Not meant to get drugs off the streets. Drugs are cheaper and more plentiful than ever. Not meant to deter violent crime. Drug use is a victimless crime. So is selling drugs. We have laws against theft and murder and so forth. We don't need to make getting high a crime!!!
The drug WAR is a scam!!!
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