Letters to the Editor
domini
Published Letters: 1170 Editor's Choice: 79
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The kids are the problem
[Read the article: My husband went to jail for pot -- and now he's smoking again!]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]He's smoking it at home, and that puts the kids in danger of a police raid. The fact that it's illegal, and they've both been raided before, should at least have made him more cautious. Keep it in the car, off the property, and away from the family, so that if he's caught he's the only one in trouble.
If he is the one caught by himself, he's still hurting the kids. The fines are outrageous and the jail time is not fun. With the prevalence of background checks, if he wants to get a job (if the economy in his business sours), two felony drug convictions could really hurt his search, and endanger their finances.
Yes, I think weed should be legalized for medical purposes, but right now it is not legal. You have to obey the law. I want a 80 mph speed limit where I live, but it's not there. I don't drive 80, because I don't want the ticket and problems with insurance.
Take him to a counselor. He needs to keep it away from her and the children, at the very least. That way, when or if he gets in trouble, they will be safe.
Toking up is selfish when you have a criminal record. His kids need him. In a two strike state, a misdemeanor can cause a really long sentence. Is the ganga worth it?
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It doesn't matter if he's light or heavy
[Read the article: My husband went to jail for pot -- and now he's smoking again!]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]There's a lot of women in prison right now, who have lost custody, because their live in was dealing from a car (anything from crack to ganga). They didn't know it. They usually are charged as dealers or accessories, and have no knowledge of where the drugs came from to leverage a reduced and/or no sentence. The guys do have the knowledge, and you have the awful situation of the dealer guys getting less time that the innocent girlfriend, because the dealers can rat out higher level suppliers.
The letter said he served time; I suspect they had him for dealing, and arrested her to get him to roll. SHe did not say she was convicted. But the prior arrest is enough to get her fully charged and in some places (Texas, Mississippi, Idaho, etc) indicted by law and order types who think arrest = guilty. She can lose her kids. With his prior, he has no business using at all, especially not in the home.
It's not about the stupidity of pot being illegal versus alcohol being legal- that's been conceded by almost everyone here. It's about avoiding arrest for the sake of the kids.
How did they get raided last time? Someone probably ratted on them. To be honest, he's setting himself up for blackmail, or for being a stooge.
I have seen house raids for minor amounts of pot. Reagan and Bush both lowered the level of pot you need for confiscation, and the Supreme Court has backed it. You are supposed to have control of your property at all times.
He needs to stop.Period. He has kids, and this is not fair to him. It's not about addiction- it's about selfishness and putting the kids first.
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The wife is not overly panicky
[Read the article: My husband went to jail for pot -- and now he's smoking again!]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]He has priors. Someone set up that raid, and could do it again. It's the fact that he has served time that makes this so dangerous. Police like to keep an eye on people with just this type of record. If a bored cop runs the license plate, they'll find the conviction, and stop him for GP. If the cop sees something in the car that he/she thinks looks like weed (even simple grass on the floor), they can search the car on "probable cause".
""The War on Marijuana: The Transformation of the War on Drugs,", released Tuesday (May 2005) by The Sentencing Project, reports that from 1992 to 2002, the proportion of drug arrests involving marijuana increased from 28% to 45% of all drug arrests, while arrests for the much more dangerous cocaine and heroin decreased from more than half of all drug arrests to less than 30%...
Although only 6% of marijuana arrestees were charged with felonies, some 27,000 pot criminals were serving prison sentences in 2002, giving the lie to the oft-repeated claim by law-and-order types that "nobody goes to prison for marijuana." In fact, the study found, more than 6,600 people, or nearly one-quarter of imprisoned marijuana offenders, were doing prison time simply for possession, and apparently doing prison time simply for possession. (The Sentencing Project tables are ambiguous here; the 6,600 number includes those imprisoned for marijuana whose charges included "No weapon, No importation, No manufacturing, No laundering, No distribution.") More than 11,000 of those imprisoned were first-time offenders."
http://www.november.org/stayinfo/breaking3/WaronMJ05.html
Here is a state by state map to look at marijuana laws and penalties.
http://www.norml.org/index.cfm?Group_ID=4516
Here's information on enforcement
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/379/report1.shtml
The cops in my neighborhood are open about keeping an eye on people with prior histories of dealing. They are seen as recidavists.
The laws are draconian, and they are enforced. This man is not a simple middle class user, and simple middle class users are at risk as well.
Her husband is acting like a dumbass, given how harsh these laws are. Since he has a conviction, he will forever be under higher scrutiny.