Hey, I didn't get to chip in on the gun hijacked thread

[music man]

Originally Posted by mr. softie

I guess my point being that just because a person has been convicted of a crime idoesn't mean they committed one. So before we start executing them we had better be damn sure they did something to deserve getting arrested in the first place. Not just because of a quota or a personal grudge. Arrests are made all the time for a variety of reasons, not all of them bona fide.

Which is exactly why I said ONLY people that beyond a shadow of a doubt did what they did, not only that, what is the likely hood of you getting falsely convicted of a felony, go to prison, get out, get falsely convicted of another felony, go back to prison, get falsely convicted of another felony and go back to prison a third time.

Now I am not saying that in the history of the legal system this has NEVER happened, but I doubt the prisons are overflowing with them. No I would have to say that AT LEAST 99% of the people that are in prison for life because of the three strikes law, COMPLETELY deserve to be there. Now the number of people who are in prison that don't deserve to be there either because they are innocent or did something like buy a sack of weed from the wrong person, well that is a whole different number all together.

[patrick_777]

Originally Posted by music man

...did something like buy a sack of weed from the wrong person...

Who buys weed from someone they don't already know? Those people SHOULD be arrested...for being stupid.

:bong: :crackup

[alanmcorcoran]

Legalize it. We need weed dealers on the tax rolls. Need to recycle that unemployment money back into the good old USA. Stop growing corn for ethanol and start growing weed (to increase consumption - of pizza, Pink Floyd and twinkies.) Stoners don't drive, so that'll cut down on our foreign oil dependence. We can reduce the prison population and the costs that go with it. Focus the police on violent crime and terrorism.

We could export it. Weed grows great here in the US. We could do for wacky terbacky what we done for regular terbacky.

Plus, once it's legal, kids won't smoke it just to be cool.

It's a win-win. Why are we so GD stupid about it?

[music man]

[quote=patrick_777]

Originally Posted by "music man":2290f71c

...did something like buy a sack of weed from the wrong person...

Who buys weed from someone they don't already know? Those people SHOULD be arrested...for being stupid.

:bong: :crackup[/quote:2290f71c]


Who said anything about buying weed from someone they don't know, that wrong person could be someone you have been buying it from for years that got busted and decided to help the police wrangle in all his buddies.

[patrick_777]

Originally Posted by music man

Who said anything about buying weed from someone they don't know, that wrong person could be someone you have been buying it from for years that got busted and decided to help the police wrangle in all his buddies.

Then perhaps, you probably never really "knew" that person very well.

[alanmcorcoran]

Nah, this goes on all the time. But typically in the other direction.

In the seventies, a lot of law enforcers used to look the other way for possession and small scale dealing. (Don't ask how I know.) In New York, for a while, they would just give you a ticket if they caught you with weed. Most cops didn't even bother. Some made you get rid of it, some took it. Most didn't even care - as long as you weren't driving high, smoking in a public area or selling to kids.

At some point, there was a change in plan and they started throwing the book at weed dealers in a lot of jurisdictions. Typically they get casual "user" to give up his dealer, then they go after the small dealer to get to HIS dealer. And so on. First one that does not roll, goes to jail. Roll on the wrong guy, or be at the wrong part of the weed chain and you could get the death penalty (from the rollee).

In California we have pretty relaxed weed laws - you can basically buy weed at a store. Unfortunately, the Federal douchebags won't give it up, and they continue to raid, prosecute and otherwise be general dicks about it. Shot a guy that was growing weed in his backyard a few years ago on a "raid." I think he had just the one plant, but he was sort of a mouthy *uck. He's dead though, so society is safe. Probably took his house from his survivors as "ill gotten gains."

One of several reasons my weed days are are a distant memory.

[Easy Rider]

Originally Posted by alanmcorcoran

At some point, there was a change in plan and they started throwing the book at weed dealers in a lot of jurisdictions.

Pressure from the Fed's.

A lot of those in Washington (and one party in particular) seems to think that they "need" a war on something.......to keep us "peons" occupied so we don't think as much about things that really matter..........like regulating financial institutions so they don't F... up the whole world worse than a war would do.

Sometime back about the early '80s (Regan was Pres. ??) we just ran out of wars.......so we created "The War on Drugs". Now that we have several "real" wars to keep us occupied, we somehow forgot that we could stop fighting the made-up one.

There IS hope, however. Alas, some will whine and moan and claim that it will be a big mistake to stop putting pot smokers in jail.

We need the space for the "white collar" criminals.

[alanmcorcoran]

This morning I almost inhaled my Rice Crispies when I opened my LA Times to this story on the front page of the "California" section:

Reporting from Sacramento -- Could Cannabis sativa be a salvation for California's fiscal misfortunes? Can the state get a better budget grip by taxing what some folks toke? An assemblyman from San Francisco announced legislation Monday to do just that: make California the first state in the nation to tax and regulate recreational marijuana in the same manner as alcohol. Buoyed by the widely held belief that cannabis is California's biggest cash crop, Assemblyman Tom Ammiano contends it is time to reap some state revenue from that harvest while putting a damper on drug use by teens, cutting police costs and even helping Mother Nature.

"I know the jokes are going to be coming, but this is not a frivolous issue," said Ammiano, a Democrat elected in November after more than a dozen years as a San Francisco supervisor. "California always takes the lead -- on gay marriage, the sanctuary movement, medical marijuana."

Anti-drug groups are anything but amused by the idea of California collecting a windfall from the leafy herb that remains illegal under federal law. "This would open another door in Pandora's box," said Calvina Fay, executive director of Save Our Society From Drugs. "Legalizing drugs like this would create a whole new set of costs for society."

You can read the rest here: http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me ... 4269.story

[Easy Rider]

Originally Posted by alanmcorcoran

This morning I almost inhaled my Rice Crispies when I opened my LA Times to this story on the front page of the "California" section:

In adddition to all of my other talents, I am also psychic.
I knew they were going to print that !!!! :smoke:
:crackup

[dan_]

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