THE MICHIGAN STATE POLICE Forensic Science Division finds itself embroiled in scandal as newly released emails paint a picture of a crime lab in turmoil over how to classify marijuana. Attorneys and medical marijuana advocates accuse Michigan prosecutors of pressuring the state’s crime lab to falsely classify the origins of THC found in hash oils and marijuana edibles as “origin unknown.”
Prosecutors exploited the ambiguity to charge medical marijuana users for possession of synthetic THC, despite the fact that the personal use of medical marijuana has been legal in Michigan since it was approved by voters in 2008. Under Michigan law, possession of synthetic THC constitutes a felony, whereas possession of marijuana and its derivatives by someone who is not a licensed medical marijuana user is a misdemeanor.
The emails were obtained by Michael Komorn, lead lawyer for Max Lorincz, a medical marijuana patient who lost custody of his child and now faces felony charges after the lab’s misleading classification of hash oil found in his home.
“I’d never seen a lab report reporting origin unknown,” Komorn told The Intercept. “What was produced for us was the most unbelievable set of documents I’ve ever seen.”
The emails show that as Michigan forensic scientists debated how to classify oil and wax produced from marijuana plants, they were pressured by police and prosecutors to classify the products in a way that would facilitate harsher drug convictions.
“It is highly doubtful,” a forensic scientist named Scott Penabaker wrote in May 2013, “that any of these Med. Mari. products we are seeing have THC that was synthesized. This would be completely impractical.” And in February 2014, the supervisor of Lansing, Michigan’s controlled substances unit, Bradley Choate, wrote that a misleading identification of THC “could lead to the wrong charge of possession of synthetic THC and the ultimate wrongful conviction of an individual.” Lab inspector John Bowen, referring to the THC in edibles and oils, agreed: “Is it likely that someone went to the trouble to manufacture THC and two other cannabinoids, mix them up, and bake them into a pan of brownies? Of course not.”
Despite the unlikelihood that Lorincz and others were somehow cooking up synthetic THC, Andy Fias, a state police lieutenant with West Michigan’s regional drug task force, reached out to the Forensic Science Division in January 2015. “We are encountering a significant amount of THC wax and oil,” he wrote. “If we were to seized [sic] the wax/oil from a card carrying patient or caregiver and it comes back as marijuana, we will not have PC [probable cause] for the arrests.”
Fias had heard that lab analysts were classifying some oil as marijuana rather than THC. He asked: “Is there a way to get this changed? Our prosecutors are willing to argue that one speck of marijuana does not turn the larger quantity of oil/wax into marijuana.”
That aggressive — and intellectually dishonest — prosecutorial mindset explains what happened to Lorincz last year.
On September 24, 2014, Lorincz called 911 from his Spring Lake, Michigan, home when his wife experienced an emergency. “The paramedics came in to assist my wife, and while they were assisting my wife the sheriff came in from the outside,” the 35-year-old father told me. It was then that the officer discovered hash oil on the kitchen counter. “The whole thing is ridiculous,” said Lorincz, who at the time possessed a Michigan medical marijuana card. “I didn’t commit any crime.”
Authorities didn’t see it that way.
The Ottawa County Prosecuting Attorney’s office, led by Ronald Frantz, charged Lorincz with misdemeanor marijuana possession. Instead of pleading guilty, he fought the charge on the grounds that his medical marijuana card allowed him to legally possess the hash. Prosecutors responded in February by charging Lorincz with possession of synthetic THC, a felony.
Because the crime lab claimed to be unable to determine the origin of the THC in the hash oil, prosecutors were able to allege that Lorincz’s oil was not made from marijuana.
Jeff Frazier, a former ACLU attorney who is also working on Lorincz’s case, accuses the state’s prosecutors of circumventing the medical marijuana law passed in 2008 because of their intense opposition to marijuana.
“The lab is intentionally reporting nonexistent felonies,” said Frazier, “and the prosecutors are going after medical marijuana patients with these lab reports that are fraudulent.”
Activists believe that Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette may be behind the pressure on the crime lab. In 2008 Schuette led the opposition to the successful initiative. “He’s been opposed to medical marijuana since the get-go and has used his office to circumvent the law,” said Charmie Gholson, a drug policy reform advocate based in Michigan.
Gregoire Michaud, director of Michigan’s Forensic Science Division, wrote in a July 2013 email that “In my meeting with PAAM [Prosecuting Attorneys Association of Michigan] it was decided that any questions regarding law interpretation (e.g., recent controlled substance cases) will be directed thru the applicable Technical Director who will then reach out to Mr. Ken Stecker.”
Kenneth Stecker, an official with PAAM, stridently opposes medical marijuana usage and in a 2012 speech said, “I literally every night look at websites, blogs, everything for two to three hours dealing with the medical marijuana issue.” At the time, Stecker said that he had given “over 150, 200 presentations” on the “hornet’s nest” of medical marijuana.
A December 2013 email quotes Stecker as saying, “THC is a schedule 1 drug regardless of where it comes from.” He neglected to mention that penalties for possession very much depend on where it comes from.
John Collins, a former director of the Forensic Science Division, told Fox 17 television, which first reported Lorincz’s case earlier this year, that prosecutors were playing politics with science. “In my experience, it was just a nonstop political game that really got frustrating, and it wore down the morale of our staff, and it quite honestly, it wore me down.”
“It was really a big deal for me to let people understand that our laboratories were not in the prosecution business, they’re not in the conviction business, they’re in the science business,” Collins told Fox 17. “And if we don’t position ourselves as being in the science business, then we really start to go down a path that’s going to lead us to a lot of trouble.”
The Michigan State Police provided the following statement:
The ultimate decision on what to charge an individual with rests with the prosecutor. The role of the laboratory is to determine whether marihuana or THC are present. Michigan State Police laboratory policy was changed to include the statement “origin unknown” when it is not possible to determine if THC originates from a plant (marihuana) or synthetic means. This change makes it clear that the source of the THC should not be assumed from the lab results.
Bill Schuette and Ronald Frantz did not respond to requests for comment. Kenneth Stecker declined to comment.
Meanwhile, Max Lorincz’s life remains in limbo, and his 6-year-old son is in foster care. Currently, he gets a few hours per week of visitation, but father and son have been apart for over a year now.
“It’s been the worst year of me and my wife’s life,” Lorincz said. “You’re talking about taking away an entire year of bonding with our son. It’s something we can never get back.”
This isn’t the first time conviction-hungry Michigan prosecutors have destroyed the lives of medical marijuana users.
In 2014, prosecutors charged Kent County sheriff’s sergeant Timothy Bernhardt with running a drug house because he received and distributed marijuana butter. Bernhardt was a licensed medical marijuana patient but not a licensed caregiver and thus was not permitted to distribute the drug to other users.
In a lab report from Bernhardt’s case, the crime lab classified Bernhardt’s marijuana butter as THC and investigators claimed to be unable to identify its origin. Armed with that report, prosecutors in Kent County went after Bernhardt with full force. Bernhardt eventually pleaded guilty to the drug house charge and was forced to resign after 22 years with the department, even though the butter was being used for medical purposes. He faced up to two years in prison, but a month before the sentencing hearing he killed himself.
“They killed him,” said Gholson. “They have blood on their hands.”
Just days before Bernhardt’s suicide, a Kent County prosecutor named Tim McMorrow told a state court that Michigan voters, despite their overwhelming approval of medical marijuana, do not have the final say. “The voters do not have a right to adopt anything they want,” McMorrrow said. “Something doesn’t become valid because the voters voted for it.”
Remember folks, these trumped up charges also mean these American citizens will be stripped of their constitutionally guaranteed second amendment rights. This is the kind of thing that happens when you treat rights as if they’re mere privileges and allow the government to determine which American’s ‘deserve’ which rights.
“The voters do not have a right to adopt anything they want,” McMorrrow said. “Something doesn’t become valid because the voters voted for it.”
That’s not true!
“The voters do not have a right to adopt anything they want,” McMorrrow said. “Something doesn’t become valid because the voters voted for it.”
That’s not true. Many laws have been enacted by voter approval that defied our laws.
I closed up one of my factory locations outside of Kalamazoo and moved it to Illinois because the politics are scary in Mi. 212 employees lost their jobs. Sorry Governor but you are an as$ ho#e. I hope my former employees are on the dole. Dickweed!
Hear the story first hand here from attny Komorn himself. It is a very deep hole the Michigan State Police and atny gen and governor have dug for themselves potentially invalidating ALL CASES ever brought to the state pice labs!
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/planetgreentrees/2015/11/06/pgt-episode-274-on-the-road-omaras-v-honoring-our-us-veterans#
McMorrow told a state court that Michigan voters, despite their overwhelming approval of medical marijuana, do not have the final say. “The voters do not have a right to adopt anything they want,” McMorrrow said. “Something doesn’t become valid because the voters voted for it.”
what an arrogant little prick
Nothing like burning a bunch of bridges you’ve never crossed. In just a couple years there’ll be a double-digit number of states avoiding prosecutors like little Timmy McMorrow, with his history of corrupt anti-cannabis crusading, specifically because of their voters.
It’s also hoped in the next few years the feds will cease their lying drug war insanity, particularly with regards to cannabis / hemp, and upend their corrupt and dishonest Controlled Substances Act scheduling. It’s tobacco that should be the Schedule 1 substance – and the harmless, beneficial, medical, vegetable plant cannabis that should NOT appear on CSA scheduling at all.
Thankfully, Colorado has a more enlightened concept of democracy, the will of their people – and the value of the plant. FYI: Snoop’s big business “Leafs” products just turned up in Colorado dispensaries the last few weeks and seem to be well received. He’ll probably do good being first – but I hear Willie’s and the Marley’s products will soon show big, also.
Aside from the millions of absolutely senseless arrests and prosecutions like Bernhardt, I frequently get angry about the endless kids suffering everywhere because of the feds insane DEA global eradication programs against cannabis. Because while that’s still happening they’ve about-faced (except to the public) since their 2003 patents – and the U.S government’s currently favoring only British companies for trying to corner the world markets on ALL cannabinoids, starting with CBDs for epilepsy at England’s GW Pharmaceuticals.
http://www.tokeofthetown.com/2011/06/worth_repeating_govt_holds_patent_for_cannabinoids.php
So many decades they lied just to perpetuate their phony marijuana war against ordinary people everywhere, destroying lives at every turn for racial discrimination purposes – and corporate profits. And the little Timmy’s with their bully heads so far in the sand they lose sight of their humanity seems by far the greater crime.
Great article, Juan, an endless war on people (drugs – or Muslims) serves the empire in so many ways.
I guess that last one should’ve been, “…Timmies.” Oh, well.
A blizzard’s hitting here for the next 18 hours or thereabouts. So I ‘m staying in tomorrow, except to feed birds afterwards, and cooking a huge pot of French Onion Soup. Winter comes and goes quickly at 7000ft though and it’ll probably be 60 degrees in a few days.
“The voters do not have a right to adopt anything they want,” McMorrrow said. “Something doesn’t become valid because the voters voted for it.”
So who decides then — the cops?
The problem is the adversarial style of law has run amuck.
Prosecutors get to cherry pick those they prosecute. If they tried this stuff to any one with means to pay for a good set of lawyers they would get shredded.
Since most of us don’t have hundreds of thousands of dollars to fight back fairly the justice system is used as a hammer to beat us down.
There is one way to fight back, we need laws that limit what a prosecutor can spend on a case or the state has to provide the similar amount to the defendant that the prosecutor will spend. Prosecutors will then have pressure not to waste tax payers money on BS prosecutions. This will also mean we will cut down on wrongful convictions. The public defender will then work only till a grand jury hands down an indictment from then you get exactly the resources of the prosecutor.
“we need laws that limit what a prosecutor can spend on a case or the state has to provide the similar amount to the defendant that the prosecutor will spend. Prosecutors will then have pressure not to waste tax payers money on BS prosecutions. ”
That’s actually a really brilliant idea. Seriously… That’s an amazingly simple fix for the broken public defender system.
I think a lot of you don’t understand how/when the Government takes your children and will hold them from you and your family until you play ball with their rules.
Since your children are just considered civil property – they are confiscated – much like asset forfeiture.
Yes, some of us do! I believe that reality is a sick way of thinking. Ask rrheard to explain. He pulls some obscure law out of his ass that gives the government the right to do it, at least according to him/her.
To me the verbal diarrhea I hear from him/her is due to the BAR approving the law degree any particular institution provides. Law schools teach trade craft and NOT constitutional law. There is no money or very little money in constitutional law. So this country shits out piles of pieces of shit called lawyers, thus you hear verbal diarrhea from people like rrheard. Look at what one of the best attorneys on the planet had to go through in the name of constitutional law, Glenn Greenwald put his life on the line for me, you even rrheard. Look at Family Court. Family Law is unconstitutional but members of the BAR make more money on that than any other form of law so the country is filled with pieces of shit making money tearing families apart.
Having a family is a SELF EVIDENT TRUTH. We don’t need to see it codified to know that we can do it. Lawyers want us to think that everything we do has to be with an attorney because “it’s complicated.”
This piece has been on my mind constantly since reading it yesterday. There is so much that is completely wrong and it happened. Judges, litigators, scientists, police-colluded to ruin people.
Civil rights violations like this should be addressed immediately! Judges need to be put on trial. Attorneys need to be put on trial. Scientists need to be put on trial. Police need to be put on trial.
America appears to be better off if we lost WWII. At least people would clearly understand that these type of things are being perpetrated by the enemy. This stuff is so un-American and nobody tries to hold those responsible accountable? Do we have to resort to kicking ass?
“Something doesn’t become valid because the voters voted for it.”
Treason.
wrong, he is an excellent candidate for Third Assistant Persecutor for Empire…
he’ll go far…
+1
The irony of law enforcement officials becoming vigilantes is, sadly, probably lost on these bigoted idiots.
Alcohol prohibition in the US was directly responsible for the massive expansion of organized crime in our nation. In its wake, murder, mayhem, lawlessness and destruction. Once the damage was done we were smart enough to repeal the complete idiocy of alcohol prohibition. Our government was stupid enough however, to go forward and repeat the exact same mistake regarding other vices like cannabis, further strengthening the crime lords we were desperately trying to rid ourselves of.
The “War on Drugs” that was launched from our shores and is still being foisted on other nations has been a complete global disaster. Shooting ourselves in the foot wasn’t bad enough. We then held a fiscal gun on other nations like Colombia, Israel, Canada, Mexico, Jamaica etc. and forced them to repeat the exact same mistake. This total debacle has resulted in the creation of huge powerful global crime cartels and a crime wave of epic proportions destroying the lives it was supposed to protect.
Time to end the failed war on cannabis and legalize!
note to self… file under
A. Reasons why Michigan is the most fucked up state in the nation.
B. One more reason why I can’t wait to see this shit hole state in my rear view mirror.
I’ve lived from Washington, Oregon, California, to Maine, and Texas. While Texas is a close second, and I spit on California, Michigan is the most dumbass, rude, rednecked, weird piece of shit state I’ve ever lived in. Never seen a state where one block off a main potholed filled hiway, town streets are STILL dirt. The state motto should be… “The Land that Time Forgot”.
Just days before Bernhardt’s suicide, a Kent County prosecutor named Tim McMorrow told a state court that Michigan voters, despite their overwhelming approval of medical marijuana, do not have the final say. “The voters do not have a right to adopt anything they want,” McMorrrow said. “Something doesn’t become valid because the voters voted for it.” – this nicely sums up the world we live in, no rights just obligations
“IF CANNABIS were unknown, and bioprospectors were suddenly to find it in some remote mountain crevice, its discovery would no doubt be hailed as a medical breakthrough. Scientists would praise its potential for treating everything from pain to cancer, and marvel at its rich pharmacopoeia—many of whose chemicals mimic vital molecules in the human body.”
— “Reefer madness — Marijuana is medically useful, whether politicians like it or not”
The Economist — April 27th 2006
Obama needs to “go with the flow and the fro” and deschedule cannabis. Why not be the president that ended nearly 8 decades of outrageous lies and millions of people caged because of one of the most versatile plants on the planet?
Given FDA-approved medications are a leading cause of death in the U.S., depriving sick people of one of the few substances that cannot kill from toxicity is unconscionable and unforgivable.
Only homo sapiens would declare war on a plant.
I can’t believe they took his child away for over a year. That’s insane. They are monsters. No better than child kidnappers. These officials should be on wanted dead or alive posters.
If ever they call me in Jaun I’m going straight for the banks and blackmail then ill let the ACLU eat sheriff ass and ill let the FBI take Mary’s fingerprint. Never will I be charged because it was apparently all a mistake. Right tear gas Mary?
Overreach and over prosecution by prosecutors,(both state and federal) Mostly on drug laws is the number one problem within our justice system. Their methods have become so underhanded and unscrupulous that no justice or civil system nor person can long tolerate or withstand them. Their ability to compel and manipulate jury’s and to extort confessions and testimony has completely removed justice from within the justice system.they should all be required and held to a much higher standard.The same as judges or higher.At present, they are held, only, to very low standards,no more than any ambulance chaser yet are allowed to make decisions of national import.This allows villains and tyrants to flourish, all hiding behind legal status. Many use their office only to play politics. The protection of our Civil and Human Rights are supposed to be protected by these louts.Instead they completely ignore their responsibility. Most should be tarred and feathered before being ran from town.At the very least, most should be brought before the board and dis-barred on ethical grounds for total disregard and subversion of our Civil Rights as well as incompetent irresponsibility.The Boards who are supposed to censer or control these villains need to be removed for inaction
In Canada which operates under the British system, the prosecutor is seen to be part of the court and as such, required to be impartial, yet present the case that law enforcement has brought. In most situations and depending on the Province, the Crown (prosecutor) has to approve charges on the likelihood of obtaining a conviction. They have very serious obligations to ensure that justice is provided to the accused. All of this is not to say that we haven’t had some very serious miscarriages of justice, usually when these gatekeepers have wandered from the path.
I believe that in the U.S., the District Attorney is much more involved in the bringing of a case. I don’t know if they have the same mandated commitment to impartiality as in Canada and others under the British system.
“Because the crime lab claimed to be unable to determine the origin of the THC in the hash oil, prosecutors were able to allege that Lorincz’s oil was not made from marijuana.”
Sounds like the opposite of innocent until proven guilty.
Shhh!
Delta Nine THC, the primary intoxicant in Cannabis, has been on the market as an FDA/DEA approved med since 1985 (currently a mere Schedule 3 Substance – Marinol).
It is possible, as I understand it, to run lab test (GC/GS?) to determine whether the “THC” metabolites were derived from the FDA/DEA approved, synthetic analogue of the primary intoxicant in Cannabis Delta Nine THC, Marinol, or from the plant (or some “potion”/”wax”/etc. derived from the plant.
As so few scripts are written for Marinol, it would be simpler to perform a test to determine what, if any, “approved synthetic” was on board (and whether the patient had a legitimate Federally approved Script written by a Licensed Physician, for the Marinol).
Makes me wonder if the authorities didn’t hope to ride the whole “synthetic marijuana” (NOT Marijuana or Marinol) scare into rounding up some more convictions with which to scare potential Med MJ patients into suffering under the additional burden of believing themselves to be criminal miscreants , instead of just citizens purchasing a non-toxic palliative (safer than Ibuprofen) .
Marinol has draw backs. It takes approx. 1.5hrs to take effect and one cannot titrate the dose (inhaled preps of plant derived material offer immediate relief and one can titrate, i.e., “this much and no more” the dose with exquisite precision. Also, though Marinol is Schedule 3 (doc can write for 5 refills) the Feds frown upon prescribing it to any patients who aren’t near death (chemo/AIDS). That is the Fed method of preventing THC from being used more widely – threaten docs writing for “off-label” uses with having their permission to prescribe Scheduled Drugs, pulled.
Default condition? The “origin” is plant material. Extraordinary Evidence should be required to prove otherwise
Excellent Ambrose! Just great answers and facts providing insights about human Evil now allowing our response ie the ACLU actions among many, many other such struggles of good influencing bad. Unfortunately, leaders submit to the irrational like school children in the playground. This is simply and plainly NOT mature, rational adult behavior. When was bullying cool, again?
Not knowing whether the THC molecule is synthetic or natural?
rrheard explain why the attorneys involved in these illegal acts shouldn’t be disbarred and charged with crimes? These pieces of shit litigators use their personal opinions as law. I’m confident they lack possession of a synthetic THC molecule to use as their control for comparison. And/or they lack possession of scientifically recognized data of a synthetic THC molecule.
If the prosecutors have no foundation for the charges and they go through with prosecuting anyway, they have committed very very serious crimes! The equivalent of kidnapping, false in prisonment, extortion to name a few.
SYNTHETIC THC molecule is different than naturally occurring THC molecules.
SYNTHETIC THC molecules is different than naturally occurring THC molecules.
That’s the problem big pharma has with synthesizing THC. Profit depends on owning the synthesized molecule. Therefore it will always be the exact molecule, a recognized and accepted molecule owned by so and so pharma Corp.. I bet prosecutors didn’t charge those people with theft of or unauthorized use of intellectual property……….
Each marijuana plant has its own unique molecule.
Once again the BAR will fail to act? What a fucking joke!
The criminal prohibitionists still can’t respect the will of the people but to deny sick people their medicine and (try) to make criminals out of them is beyond the pale. It makes these employees of the state the ultimate abusers. And when a young child is involved that they would gladly withhold that lifesaving medicine from, that would make them even worse. Wouldn’t they be then state employed child abusers?? These people are pathetic…
Scientifically, it is hard to blame a lab for saying it does not know whether a chemical was synthesized naturally or artificially. After all, they are supposed to be scientists, stating only what they know.
Legally, this ought to be a no-brainer. If there is a reasonable alternative theory of the crime, there should be reasonable doubt and a not guilty verdict.
I assume the trick here must have something to do with an “affirmative defense”. That is a legislative maneuver to get around reasonable doubt and put it on the defendant to prove he did something the one way he is allowed. Poor paperwork, uncertain lab results … equal a good chance of a guilty verdict.
It might be interesting to know more about how the trick was done, but the sad thing is, all America is being ruled by tricks. Use the right trick and you can take someone’s house, take away their constitutional rights, or leave any injury you do to them to be remedied by a Sharia court. When people put legal tricks ahead of ordinary decency and compassion, the result is inevitable.
Yeah, I’m not blaming the lab. They’re under pressure, but they know the THC isn’t synthetic.
Prosecutorial misconduct (or should we say, criminality) is a big problem in this country. While many now are making efforts to reverse the imprisonment of non-violent drug users, the rabid dog prosecutors are trying to fill them up again with innocent medical marijuana users. Crazy country.
So true.
Analytic equipment is only as good as the agenda running it. I always thought it was suspect for the police to operate forensic labs — if you want a real chill, look up the trial of Cameron Willingham, and the career of Gerald Hurst. Willingham was put on trial for arson and murder after his house burnt down and killed his children, convicted on the basis of a “scientific” arson investigation, and executed in 2004.
Hurst was a real scientist, who happened to pay attention to their “investigative” process, and noticed its flaws; he essentially became a professional witness and testified in a lot of cases to exonerate people convicted of arson on the basis of so-called “forensic science”.
What was happening was that police investigators had literally never tested any of their hypotheses about what constituted “signs of arson”, and what they had used as “indicators” of accelerant use, deliberate staging, et cetera were actually normal things that occurred in just about every house fire.
It’s amazing to contemplate the number of people who have rotted in prison, been executed, or had their lives ruined based on the assumption that prosecutors would never lie to a jury.
This is the results of prohibition, corruption of law enforcement at all levels. Those responsible need to be arrested and given life without parole. This is why people can no longer depend on justice in America.
END Prohibition now!
Yes, yes.
This is a complete waste of precious law enforcement and court resources! Lazy cops picking soft targets instead of fighting real crimes. Back to work cops on, unsolved murders, rapes, assault and theft and leave harmless cannabis alone!
Some of our politicians and lawmakers would rather destroy the lives of citizen and children than step out of line with their corporate masters. With the CDC statistics below becoming common knowledge it is time for the next step in logic. Either politicians and lawmakers who are against cannabis legalization are not up to speed, or they are corrupted by the alcoholic beverage, tobacco and pharmaceutical corporations. Corporations swimming in multi billion dollar profits while directly responsible for killing over 650,000 US citizens each and every year.
Figures directly from the CDC dot gov web site
Numbers of deaths per year in the USA
* Prescription Drugs: 237,485 + 5000 traffic fatalities
* Tobacco: 390,323
* Alcohol: 88,013 + 16,000 traffic fatalities
* Cocaine: 4,906
* Heroin: 7,200
* Aspirin: 466
* Acetaminophen (Tylenol): 179
* Marijuana: 0, none, not a single fatal overdose in all medical history and almost no traffic problems.
So, which is safer????
Legalize, regulate and TAX!
Fortunately, it looks like the United States is headed in that direction today. Marijuana is actually legal in several states, and headed for decriminalization in several more. It’s something that can’t be stopped.
However, I would take a dim view of the lobby that seeks to justify it based on its postulated lack of potential overdose fatality, or lack of long-term effects (which are quite a bit more likely than the overdose scenario).
To me, the issue of drug prohibition centers not on what can be justified through appeals to public-health governance, but rather on the inalienable right to one’s own body and mind. It sounds to me almost as if many of the people attempting to argue for marijuana legalization are inadvertently arguing for tobacco and alcohol prohibition at the same time.
The fact of the matter is that something being addictive or unhealthy should not equate to the state apparatus deciding for people that their lifestyles must not include it under pain of imprisonment. This is not the rightful function of the state, and to imply that it is invites dangerously paternalistic policies…
So true.
I couldn’t agree more.
Executed legally of course, for being a traitor to the US constitution.
“Something doesn’t become valid because the voters voted for it.”
Sounds like a lawless lawyer to me. No good. He should be fired or executed.
In hindsight, a bit too harsh. There’s no edit button.
He definitely should not be allowed to be a prosecutor if he can’t follow the law.
Ha. Yeah.
In fact, if you don’t mind deleting ’em that’d be solid.
It’s time to change the rhetoric. This isn’t law enforcement this is state sponsored terrorism. Destroying lives, destroying familes – with lies. This is what has become of the people we pay to protect us? These guys are Americas ISIS plain and simple.
Good points.
Do not believe that we pay police to protect us, it might get you killed some day. In fact there are laws in every state, as well as Canada, stating that the police and governing bodies can not be held responsible for not protecting you in any situation including, but not limited to, gross negligence or even indifference by any party in the chain of emergency response.