Oklahoma: America's Indonesia

The Oklahoma bill making the manufacture of hashish punishable by a prison sentence of two years to life (which Matt Welch discussed on The Alyona Show yesterday) reminded me of a recent story by Joe Donatelli at The Fix: "The World's Scariest Places to be Busted For Drugs." In light of Oklahoma's marijuana penalties—which even without the new bill include two to 10 years for a second offense involving possession of any amount and two years to life for growing or selling any amount—the Sooner State may qualify as the Indonesia of America.

Comments

[TrickyVic]

And they are proud of it.

[Max]

Off-topic, but is Ron Paul a paying member of the John Birch Society or just a fellow traveler?

[Hugh Akston]

What's the penalty in OK for entertaining impure thoughts about elected officials?

[MaxiePad the hater?]

Are you now or have you ever been a member of the KKK? Admit it.

[The Immaculate Trouser]

I'd think you would know.

[Warty]

We don't smoke marijuana in Muskogee;
We don't take our trips on LSD
We don't burn our draft cards down on Main Street;
We like livin' right, and bein' free.

[Aresen]

We like livin' right, and bein' free.

Make a choice, Merle. One or the other.

[TrickyVic]

Lick the boot and enjoy the taste of freedom.

[cynical]

So, is the 8th amendment incorporated by the 14th?

[Clich? Bandit]

A bigger question: Are th 9th and 10th?

it is cyclical...MASS HYSTERIA...maybe that is why nobody pays attention to them.

I broke the constitution

[Really?]

Yes, but 1 1/2 pounds of coke can get you a (constitutional) life sentence.

[cynical]

Point taken.

[Otto]

No, not constitutionally - unless you don't pay income tax. I don't think there's an amendment that "legalizes" outlawing drugs, except for the 18th, which was repealed.

[Restoras]

So, Oklahoma is NOT O.K., in fact it sucks. Got it.

[TrickyVic]

That saying is just them trying convince themselves.

[Mister DNA]

I hear they're raising the drinking age in Oklahoma to 25.

It's all part of their strategy to keep alcohol out of junior high schools.

[jtuf]

They must have some very stupid 24 year olds left back in junior high.

[Bohica]

jtuf, way to clear up that punchline just in case there was someone out there who didn't get it.

[jtuf]

Boomer!

[jtuf]

the Sooner State may qualify as the Indonesia of America.

Nah, Indonesia sued the USA feds in the WTO over the fed's ban on flavored cigarettes. Oklahoma did nothing to oppose that ban.

[oft]

Kudos to Oklahoma. At least those people have a sense of morality. Okies are being easy on them. The founding fathers would be far more harsh. Oh how far we have gone.

[Thomas Jefferson]

Verily, I deserved the harshest penalty for growing cannabis.

[Mister DNA]

Juanita, is that you?

[Bradley]

I like it when conservatives stumble across H&R. They always make me feel smarter.

[Tony]

Oklahomans are getting a taste of what an all-Republican state legislature means for the first time. I fully expect the majorities to last indefinitely. As long as there are mexicans, gays, and arabs anyway.

[Hugh Akston]

As opposed to Democrat-majority states like CA, where people have never been freer.

[Tony]

Um that's what you have to say in the context of drug prohibition?

[Otto]

Oh, right. It was great that Democratic politicians like Feinstien, Boxer, and Brown all came out in support of marijuana legalization.

[Hugh Akston]

No, that's what I have to say in response to the implication that prohibition is a Republican issue.

Both parties have had ample opportunity to end it, and both parties are guilty of turning it up to 11.

[Tony]

Sounds like you're just making excuses for republicans. Which party donyou think is more likely to move toward drug law liberalization?

[Otto]

Besides the Libertarian Party, the only one to field Presidential candidate(s) supporting decriminalization or re-legalization is the Republican Party.

Give us a call when a Democratic Presidential candidate does that.

[Tony]

I said which party, not which fringe presidential candidate.

[cynical]

When you're looking at a field that includes Donald Trump, I don't know if the libertarian wing is actually the fringe anymore.

[Aresen]

Oh. You want us to say it's the party that nominated a guy who promised not to have the DEA pursue medical marijuana dispensaries when he became President.

[Busy Commander Obama]

Not my party, my justice department loves those pot-boutique SWAT-team raids.

[Colonel_Angus]

I would like to believe I could trust at least that one issue to democrats. I really would. But the facts of reality are reminding me otherwise.

[Tony]

Well you only have two choices. It's an issue that would take a political miracle on the national scale to get traction, that's true. Now imagine that miracle being a commanding majority of liberal democrats, or a commanding majority of teabagging Republicans. Which do you think would work to enact criminal justice reform/drug liberalization?

[Hugh Akston]

There are blue states all over the place with reliable democrat majorities, including California, where a voter-led referendum was the only hope to legalize marijuana.

The federal government has enjoyed a Democrat majority for the last two years, and has done absolutely nothing to end the war on drugs, especially when all they had to do was keep the president's promise to stop raiding pot dispensaries.

But seriously, keep telling us that the Democrats are the team that will end the drug war.

[Colonel_Angus]

None of the above.

[Barely Suppressed Rage]

Which do you think would work to enact criminal justice reform/drug liberalization?

Being that a lot of tea partiers I have heard talk on the radio tend to be libertarian-leaning (although yeah, a lot are right-winger conservatives), I'd have to say the tea party candidate.

The Dems are too busy running around with their chests puffed out, trying to look "tough on crime" and gun-friendly so as not to blow their reelection chance.

[The Immaculate Trouser]

Q: exactly who is promoting this garbage? It's an easy out to assume that it's religionists out with pitchforks, but there has to be something more to it.

[Zeb]

Wow. I'm never going to Oklahoma. (Not that it was on my list before I read this.)

[Tman]

Why anyone would want to live there is a giant mystery to me. Hot 'n shitty in the summer, cold as balls in winter.

I've been to two business conventions there and I've never seen a more confused city in my life.

[Bohica]

Hot with no beaches and cold with no mountains... I think I see why the Feds wanted to put the Indians there. I imagine the thinking went something like,

First BIA bureaucrat: "The only way to solve the Indian problem is to put them somewhere no white man would ever want to go, but where is such a God-awful land to be found?"

Second BIA bureaucrat: "Oh I think I have just the place!"

[Cytotoxic]

At least we're concentrating all the shittiness in one shitty state. Now if all these damn tornadoes would just go there and stay there.

[Aresen]

Maybe we should imitate TX Governor Rick Perry:

"Just one little half-mile wide nickel-iron asteroid, Lord, right at the junction of I40 and I235."

[Cytotoxic]

Did he actually say that!?!

[Aresen]

I was referring to the 'rain prayer' nonsense last week.

[Marshall Gill]

Why anyone would want to live there is a giant mystery to me

Extremely low traffic, very nice people, plenty of room. A very low ratio of dirty hippies too! Gun shows every single weekend is nice and while I haven't tried it yet they say that Lake Hefner is one of the best places in the world for kite surfing.

Actually, since much of it's charm is the limited number of people here, forget all that. You are right, it is a shitty, shitty place. Don't ever come here.

[Jim]

Eh, Texas across the border is just as sparse in people, and the law enforcement seems to be less draconian. Never thought I'd say that about Texas of all places, but it seems to be the case when compared to OK.

[Tman]

I did enjoy a great burger at Irma's, and the Memorial is pretty intense but that city made no sense to me. What is that giant gerbil farm near the convention center on Robinson? Weird city.

[Colonel_Angus]

They don't stone to death gerbil farmers in Oklahoma?

[capitol l]

drugs >> kite surfing

[Bohica]

Damn, my first thought too -- another reason to avoid Oklahoma, just in case anyone still needed one.

[Michael Ejercito]

Has there ever been a constitutional challenge to such laws, asserting that laws prohibiting thwe use of drugs violate the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment?

With all these drug cases I am surprised no lawyer ever tried this defense.

[Cytotoxic]

This is why States Rights are overrated. The federal government should cram freedom down their throats, Sherman style if necessary.

[Brandon]

It's more likely that the federal government would join in, after hearing expert testimony from Michele Leonhardt and a representative of a prison guards union.

[Cytotoxic]

But I can have fantasies!

[Uncle Sam]

I'm sorry, but we just banned having fantasies.

[Bradley]

And if innocent throats need to be cut for freedom, so be it! You can't make an omelette without breaking eggs, etc etc.

[Michael Ejercito]

This is why States Rights are overrated. The federal government should cram freedom down their throats, Sherman style if necessary.

Has the Supreme Court ruled anti-drug laws to be a violation of the substantive due process component of the Fourteenth Amendment?

Has any court?

[MNG]

+1

Many states are worse than the feds on issues like drugs, it's silly to wave Raich around and act like states rights would fix all the WOD repression in our nation.

[cynical]

Um, but right now the situation is that we use whichever set of laws is more repressive, so I don't see how antifederalism in the case of drug policy isn't a guaranteed improvement.

[Cytotoxic]

Someday we will have a pro-freedom federal administration. No shut up. Yes I'm being serious stop giggling like a fool. That pro-freedom admin is going to have to wage a Shermanesque legal war against repressive states-not just wrt drugs but immigration and ED too.

[Oklahoma City Thunder Owner]

I won't be able to field a team next season. This is horseshit!

[Ornithorhynchus]

We have so many evil laws in Oklahoma, it's scary.
We also have the strictest ballot-access laws in the country, to keep anyone from improving our Government. Paul Tsongas couldn't get on the ballot in 1988, and he was the front-runner at the time.

[MNG]

Its gotta be the work of all those progressives in OK.

[cApitalist]

Better to rape kids in OK than smoke pot. Awesome.

[Muhammad Inhofe]

Oklahoma: where we both ban and emulate sharia law.

[Typical libertarian]

But what's really important is low corporate taxes.

[cynical]

I was thinking the same thing. You guys really need to make up your minds.

[ZangoJoe]

that actualyl makes a lot of sesne dude.

http://www.web-privacy.eu.tc

[Law Student]

Them boys from Oklahoma roll their joints all wrong, they're too damn skinny and way to long. Well I ain't a holly roller so I just use a bong. Them boys from Oklahoma roll their joints all wrong.

[Ornithorhynchus]

More lunacy from the Oklahoma Legislature-- today the infamous Sally Kern said something about Black kids refuse to work hard in school and that's why they all end up in prison.

[Typical libertarian]

Sounds about right.

[Aresen]

Well, I did hear about some black kid from Honolulu who once used MJ and is now surrounded by Secret Service agents 24/7.

[Donald Trump]

It was just affirmative action, unlike the treatment received by my son-in-law and George W. "simian moron" Bush.

[cynical]

Affirmative action and legacies are different. One is stupid, ideologically motivated, and well-intentioned; the other is pragmatic, craven, and cynical.

[Relax]

The linked article states that only the Senate has approved the bill. Their House must vote on it, and their Governor must sign it. Only then will Oklahoma become Indonesia.

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