How Is Smoking Pot Like Beating an Old Lady?

Miami Heat forward Udonis Haslem was arrested for marijuana possession yesterday after being pulled over for speeding in Miami-Dade County. The Associated Press reports that "Haslem was charged with possessing more than 20 grams of marijuana, a third-degree felony which could bring maximum punishments of a $5,000 fine and a five-year prison sentence." Twenty grams is less than three-quarters of an ounce. Like the potential life sentence that Chris Diaz faces in Texas (though less dramatically), this case illustrates how harshly many states continue to treat cannabis offenses. Even without evidence of intent to distribute, possessing a small quantity of marijuana in Florida can get you the same sentence as grand theft, burglary, and battery of a police officer or an old lady.

NORML has a handy compilation of state marijuana penalties.

Comments

[The Gobbler]

There's reason why I have a car and driver...

[capitol l]

Dang man, a car and driver coupled with the monocle and top-hat, you are the image of the modern minority-hating poor people-stomping libertarian.

Bravo.

[The Gobbler]

FTR, I don't even own a monocle.

[capitol l]

Me neither, as it is much more sensible to lease, with monocle value depreciation and all.

[Rhayader]

Dude, monocle futures killed me last fiscal quarter. Capitol's right, the market is incredibly volatile.

[Fire Tiger]

Rule #1, if Lebron James ever asks you to "hold" something for him, the answer is no.

[FSU Alum]

There's a reason why I used to immediately sell or front everything down to 3/4 of an oz and quickly smoke 2 grams.

[? ?]

When did you graduate FSU? Aught six here.

[Deshawn]

"How Is Smoking Pot Like Beating an Old Lady?"

Both make you feel good.

[sage]

Both make you hungry.

[Rhayader]

Both can lead to sexual arousal, especially for females.

[Almanian]

Both burn well

[Pip]

Holy Fuck!

[Joe]

Both can be used to relax after a long day.

[John]

"Deadly Whooping Cough, Once Wiped Out, Is Back"

http://www.npr.org/templates/s.....mp;ps=cprs

Calling Jenny McArthy. Could you please come forward and set yourself on fire? You stupid fucking bimbo.

[ClubMedSux]

John, did you check out last week's Penn & Teller's Bullshit? It was good stuff...

[John]

No I didn't. But I read the other day that these barbarians create danger even if your kid gets vaccinated. It takes a while for the vaccine to build up your immunity. If you are exposed before your immunity builds up, you can get it even though you have been vaccinated. So these morons put other people's kids in danger. I really just want to hunt them down and beat them.

[DG]

I liked the point they made at the beginning that even if there was a link between vaccines and autism (which there isn't), the 1 in 110 chance of getting autism would STILL be better than dying from smallpox, polio, whooping cough, or any of the other nasty diseases we have vaccines for. I guess the anti-vaccine crowd hasn't really thought about that too much.

[Teh Childrenz]

What DG said...

[John]

Oh the good old days when one out of every four kids didn't live to see adulthood. But hey, no one had autism.

[Joe]

Or nobody cared that their kid was "odd" so long as he survived.

[BakedPenguin]

With the advances in treatments for autism, most autistic kids can lead a near-normal or normal life nowadays.

[Rhayader]

A plug of hash a day keeps the tantrums away.

[ClubMedSux]

Is there anybody less sympathetic than a member of the Miami Heat these days?

[-]

Cordoba Mosque opportunists?

[Carter]

Beating old ladies should be legalized and taxed.

[Rhayader]

The pathetic thing is that this line of argument has been used to expose the "flawed logic" of legalization. Some pecker-head was arguing against Prop 19 by saying that we might as well legalize and tax child prostitution.

[BakedPenguin]

We should legalize and tax the beating of idiots who use strawman arguments.

[bigbigslacker]

The obvious difference is that in child prostitution there is a victim. Consumers are not savvy enough to ensure the prostitution services they receive are of sufficient quality. It is for this reason we need a system of regulation to ensure consumers are getting the high quality sexual services they are paying their hard-earned money to receive. This is just another example of one of the pitfalls of a free market.

[Rhayader]

Huh?

The obvious difference is that in child prostitution there is a victim.

Yep.

Consumers are not savvy enough to ensure the prostitution services they receive are of sufficient quality. It is for this reason we need a system of regulation to ensure consumers are getting the high quality sexual services they are paying their hard-earned money to receive.

Different issue -- child prostitution is different from that among adults -- but yeah, sure. Preferable to prohibition of (adult) prostitution anyway.

This is just another example of one of the pitfalls of a free market.

Huh?

(If you were being sarcastic, ignore/ridicule me to your heart's content.)

[SIV]

we might as well legalize and tax child prostitution.
The evil ideological spawn of Mary Ruwart and Nick Gillespie could wholly support that.

[Psychic Octopus]

Maybe if there weren't so many families broken or impoverished for serving drug offences, less families would have their kids resort to prostitution.

[tarran]

Thank god they got that reefer out of his hands; that darkie might have started thinking he was as good as a white man!

[PabloKoh]

NOOOO! not that Satanic Jazz Music!

[Reefer Madness]

Faster! Play the piano faster!!

[Spartacus]

Is it wrong that I read the last sentence as "...battery of a police officer on an old lady"?

[SugarFree]

It's only wrong insomuch as that wouldn't result in the officer being charged with a crime.

[Spartacus]

Hey SF--

We start fall classes next week. How about you?

[SugarFree]

Yep. First day of classes start the 25th. Hopefully it will be a nice day, so old men can sit outside and ogle young girls.

[Ragin Cajun]

And if not, Aqualung can always use the library's computers.

[Virginia]

How big is an ounce of weed? Assume standard density (whatever that is). I have no real concept of what an ounce looks like.

[Pip]

If compressed, about the size of a pack of cigarettes.

[Rhayader]

Ugh yikes, that sounds like some bricked-up shit.

An ounce will usually do a pretty good job of filling up maybe 3/4 or so of your standard sandwich-sized ziplock bag.

[Irresponsible Hater]

Google Image Search "Ounce"
http://www.google.com/images?q.....mp;bih=660

[Rhayader]

Damn that troy ounce converter screen cap is badass.

[Pip]

Off Topic:

Obama abolishes 'ethics czar'

President Obama has abolished the position in his White House dedicated to transparency and shunted those duties into the portfolio of a partisan ex-lobbyist who is openly antagonistic to the notion of disclosure by government and politicians.
http://www.washingtonexaminer......z0wnSigHGM

[Warty]

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

This shit gets better and better.

[Spoonman.]

Reason linked this last week.

[P Brooks]

I never worked up a sweat smoking dope.

[Kristen]

Mississippi has decriminalized weed??? MISSISSIPPI?? Wow. I was clicking around teh map to find the harshest penalities, and I was sure MS would be one of them.

[BakedPenguin]

In the early 1970's, a state legislator's son was arrested for possession. He was sent to prison, where he was raped and murdered. They decriminalized marijuana shortly afterward.

[Rhayader]

Of course it would take the horrible death of an immediate family member to make these assholes even pay attention to the misery they so happily perpetuate every day of their miserable existence. I guess they thought prison was all pickup b-ball and fingerpainting classes before that happened.

[mr simple]

Along the same line of thought:

Kamenetz Moves To Ban "Synthetic Drugs"

[? ?]

He wasn't even smoking it. He was just driving around with it. Maybe it needed a ride somewhere.

[Brad Warbiany]

This is the problem with mandatory minimum sentences. For most normal people, 3/4 oz looks like "intent to distribute". When you have NBA dollars to spend, though, that's just how you roll.

[Daniel]

a highlight of bad marijuana laws...

see reason and free the leaf

http://www.facebook.com/free.the.leaf

[Daniel]

a highlight of bad marijuana laws...

see reason and free the leaf

http://www.facebook.com/free.the.leaf

[DidITweetThat]

How is Marijuana Possessions different than beating an old lady?

If you beat an old lady, you can have your sentence reduced and get released early.

Under Federal Mandatory Minimums, you serve more time.

Please kids, don't smoke pot, beat old ladies instead.