Let’s stop wrecking lives over a bag of weed

[xchrom]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/its-time-for-dc-to-stop-wrecking-lives-over-a-bag-of-weed/2013/05/24/e3bbc8cc-c314-11e2-914f-a7aba60512a7_story.html

In a little office on the third floor of Metropolitan Police Headquarters on Indiana Avenue NW is a small window to the future — open to some, closed to many. This is where you get your D.C. “police clearance.”

If you have never been there, that’s because you have never applied for a job flipping burgers, mowing lawns or cleaning restrooms in the District. Room 3033 is the human resources department for the poor, the young and the disenfranchised. The piece of paper you get there — if you have no criminal record — is what you need to land a job. Without it, you’re out of luck.

For 29 years, I have defended clients facing marijuana charges in the District. At every initial appearance, without fail, the judge admonishes the defendant either to stay in school or to hold down a job. In the majority of cases, however, a job is not possible because most employers in this town will not hire entry-level workers who do not have a police clearance.

What crime is increasingly tripping up those looking for work? Possession of marijuana.

[Newest Reality]

1. Many of us have been saying that

for several decades now.

There is some sort of serious flaw in a system that creates catch-22's like that.

With the added incentive of private prisons for profit, we have probably the most powerful barrier to having a more just legal system.

Profit always takes precedence over everything and anything else, so with that kind of system in place, there will be no concern whatsoever for gross miscarriages of justice and the trails of wrecked lives, (including the family and friends of the accused) it leaves in its wake.

If we are unable to realize that capitalism is, by nature, contrary to what we call values, morals, decency, etc., then we may stay on this path of disasters that that form of economic system forges in the sequestered board rooms where everything is beholden to the bottom-line of a fictitious entity that represents its wealthy, major shareholders, i.e., owners.

[Cooley Hurd]

2. Recommended!

[Cooley Hurd]

3. Apparently, xchrom, you have a rebuttal:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022899516

[xchrom]

8. i saw that...

[hootinholler]

12. Yep! That post puts the butt in rebuttal!

[Democracyinkind]

4. Recommend from someone currently not subject

... to the war on drugs. I used to think that the paranoia came from smoking weed. Little did I know that it actually came from the war on drugs. ONE aspect of the US that I will never, ever miss. Dearly, your dazed but unconfused and unparanoid Democracyinkind.

[CrispyQ]

16. This:

"I used to think that the paranoia came from smoking weed . . . it actually came from the war on drugs."

[Dustlawyer]

5. They need to buy their weed from a banker and then it will be ok. They will not be prosecuted!

You cannot criminalize morality. If drugs were legalized there would not be a large increase in the number of people doing them. I mean if Heroin was legal are you going to start using it? People who want to smoke pot already do. If it were legalized and sold in stores it would be harder to get than it is now for minors. The taxes on it would pay for treatment centers and we could empty over half of our prison population saving huge amounts of money. The war on drugs is a complete failure! Not only that it ruins lives and sentences those to a life of crime b/c they cannot get a job. We could not have come up with a worse way to handle this issue if we tried. That is b/c the alcohol industry, private prisons, and Big Pharma to name a few, pay our, correction, their politicians to keep drugs illegal. We need COMPLETE CAMPAIGN FINANCE REFORM (CCFR) to get most of the money out of politics. With public financing of elections there will be no fund raising (saving 60% more time to work on OUR problems), and thus reduce the rich and corporations to bribing the politicians illegally instead of the legalized bribery we have now!

[CrispyQ]

17. +++++!

So much truth in this post!

[gtar100]

23. We are currently having to suffer with the decisions of some very bad people who are willing to let

young people languish in prison so that they may prosper. That is just so wrong on many levels. I would like to see the whole DEA retasked with education rather than enforcement. But it seems that the whole business of governance and leadership attracts more people with control issues than those with a vision for a better world. We need a major paradigm shift to get to any semblance of sanity.

[Dustlawyer]

36. It attracts people who crave POWER & WEALTH!!!

We have to get a movement focused solely on COMPLETE CAMPAIGN FINANCE REFORM (CCFR)!!! The Tea Party has it partly right, we do need to take our country back, just not from the Democratic politicians, but from the Billionaires and the corporations! Conservatives should be behind this as well but they can only focus on Obama and their hate!

[fredamae]

28. Partly Correct

The Banker would Not be prosecuted for Selling it to you--but You'd get Busted for Possession with Intent to Distribute just so the LEO/PIC/Court Mandated Drug Treatment Facilities can keep Their profit margins up...imho

[Dustlawyer]

39. Too true!

[marble falls]

6. Every time I think that racism is finally dying, one of these reality check posts pop up ....

thanks. Racism is alive and still holding all of us back in some way every single day.

[Dustlawyer]

37. I think racism is a byproduct, the real reason is to keep blacks from voting by way of a criminal

record! We have seen the steps they are willing to take to disenfranchise minorities who normally vote for Democrats.

[marble falls]

38. And to give a false issue to poor undereducated teabillies to pin their frustrations on.

[RainDog]

7. k&r

I hope President Obama reads this article.

The federal govt. needs to decriminalize via removing cannabis from the drug schedules.

THAT will provide some protection against this discrimination in arrests for African-Americans. At least the federal govt. would no longer be participating in the New Jim Crow.

[Tuesday Afternoon]

9. DU Rec

[dorkzilla]

10. I don't smoke (i get paranoid) but...

I've always thought this to be the most ridiculous focus of law enforcement. Case in point? My brother was a cop in the suburban NYC-area for 20 plus years, and had to bust people for carrying weed all the time. Aside from a couple of big drug bust involving heroin, they were always a person carrying the equivalent of a couple of joints so it was never more than a fine but still.

He retired, and now smokes regularly. He's now a very vocal proponent of legalization.

Also, i may not smoke but my entire family does--and I mean entire, including my parents.

[xtraxritical]

19. Ask any policeman which he would rather deal with a drunk or a stoner.

[dorkzilla]

22. Oh yeah, my brother said it all the time. He always felt bad for busting stoners.

He said that they were always apologetic to the officers, whereas the drunks always wanted to fight, especially fight my brother; he is (still) a very muscular ex-Gunny with a square jaw and he was a magnet for drunks who thought they were bad asses after a couple shots of tequila.

[JackN415]

11. Although I never have anything to do with weed or drugs in my life...

I once encountered the injustice and drama that brought down my faith and pride in the US system of justice (including law enforcement).

A close friend's nephew is a foreign student who is as straight and narrow as anyone can be. One day, he was charged with possession of marijuana with the intention to distribute, in other words, a drug dealer.

What happened was that he held a friend's stuffs in his backpack, and a group of friends were arrested together. Despite the fact that he proved to the cops that those things were his friends that he carried without knowledge, they booked him, put him in jail that scarred him quite a bit.

When his uncle finally hired a good lawyer, they dropped all charges against him. The evidence? a pinch of weed in a wrap of paper, inside a bag with personal belongings of his friend, that he put in his backpack. He did it for that friend who had to carry bags of grocery for their party.

The irony is that the friend who had weed admitted to the cop later that the bag was his belonging and not this kid's. Yet, they kept the charge against him as a drug dealer.

Of course, with the good lawyer, they had to drop all charges against him. The lawyer said there was no chance they could convict him and any judge with common sense would dismiss. But the damage was done. The kid was traumatized, all for making a simple mistake of holding someone else stuffs.

What is so ridiculous about this is why LE has to be so zealous to the point of losing common sense and transgressing justice for things like this.

[mike_c]

13. quite aside from the obvious problems with cannabis prohibition...

...this story brings to mind the cold war propaganda fed to us as kids about the horrors of living in the totalitarian Soviet Union. I distinctly remember one of the examples of Soviet trampling of human rights was that Soviet citizens had to secure police permits in order to get jobs, travel, etc.

[In_The_Wind]

15. Kick!

[JEB]

18. Yeah, but how else can we

supply 95%+ occupancy for the Private Prisons. What next? Prison for jaywalking or thought crimes?

[ReRe]

27. Clear out the prisons and...

... start filling them up with too big to fail bankers and corrupt government officials who do their bidding. Just a suggestion...

[JEB]

33. I like it, but

people don't normally send themselves to jail. I truly believe that the wrong people are calling the shots in our country. And many people are wrongly serving time in "our" prisons.

[ReRe]

34. Everything's bass ackwards, JEB

... nothing's as it should be. Right is wrong, and wrong is right. I agree with everything you said.

[wildbilln864]

20. k & r! nt

[Shadowflash]

21. Or

The other option, you know, is to not break the law.

That might go a long way toward fixing the issue.

[Fumesucker]

24. No matter how stupid, unjust and counterproductive a law is

It's always possible to find someone on DU who thinks it's a good idea.

[Warren DeMontague]

25. Yeah. I suppose that would have been the answer to Gay couples in Texas pre-Lawrence, too.

"Tsk. Tsk. You could just not break the law. It's your own darn fault that cops are in your house arresting you for consensual adult same-sex relationship."

CUZ It's THE LAW THE LAW THE LAW THE LAW IS ALWAYS RIGHT THE LAW LAW LAW LAW LAWWWWWWWWWW




....

[ck4829]

26. Stop the insanity. K&R.

[Chathamization]

29. Everyone should be aware of jury nullification

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jury_nullification

If you serve on a jury you have the right to acquit a defendant because you disagree with the law. People need to know that they have the right to follow their conscience on this issue.

[Bonx]

32. The're more of us out there than they think...

Who are willing & ready to throw down with some nullification. I hope I get a chance.

[fredamae]

30. LE Priorities

In Oregon-this woman needed help from LE in Josephine County, but because she Wasn't being Assaulted and Raped during "Business Hours" there was No Help for her
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2329375/Woman-choked-raped-abusive-ex-boyfriend-dispatcher-informs-cops-help--instead-tells-victim-just-ask-attacker-leave.html

But--There Is Plenty of Money to Bust MedCanna Resource Centers in Jackson and Lane Counties
For Cannabis, however-which is Apparently More Urgent, More Dangerous and More Violent than an individual who Rapes and Assaults--I understand there were 70 Officers available-Choppers and etc to arrest folks who posed no danger (imo) to society
http://www.registerguard.com/rg/news/local/29918122-75/marijuana-medical-hopkins-greener-county.html.csp

[ReRe]

31. K&R

Let's do (stop wrecking lives over a bag of weed.) Weed is a fucking weed. It grows from the ground. It's a fucking plant. A part of nature. And government in it's "wisdom" criminalized it. It's like criminalizing air or water. Just think. If they decriminalized it, we could empty the prisons and just maybe, just maybe some government officials who have kept it criminalized it all of these decades would light up and mellow the fuck out for once in their lives.

[Go Vols]

35. Gotta fill

those private/for profit prisons.

:/