A funny thing happened on the way to a trial in Missoula County District Court last week.Jurors – well, potential jurors – staged a revolt.They took the law into their own hands, as it were, and made it clear they weren’t about to convict anybody for having a couple of buds of marijuana.............
The tiny amount of marijuana police found while searching Touray Cornell’s home on April 23 became a huge issue for some members of the jury panel.No, they said, one after the other. No way would they convict somebody for having a 16th of an ounce.In fact, one juror wondered why the county was wasting time and money prosecuting the case at all......“I thought, ‘Geez, I don’t know if we can seat a jury,’ ” said Deschamps, who called a recess.And he didn’t......That was on Thursday.On Friday, Cornell entered an Alford plea, in which he didn’t admit guilt. He briefly held his infant daughter in his manacled hands, and walked smiling out of the courtroom......“A mutiny,” said Paul.“Bizarre,” the defense attorney called it. In his nearly 30 years as a prosecutor and judge, Deschamps said he’s never seen anything like it.
County Attorney Andrew Paul described the jury’s insistence as a “mutiny,” while defense attorney Martin Elison described it as bizarre. Deschamps, however, took a more expansive view, and called the impasse “a reflection of society as a whole on the issue.” "There’s every indication average Americans are mellowing to the idea of legalizing marijuana. A Gallup survey from October, for example, found that 46% of Americans support legalizing the drug, a two-point increase from last year. And though the AP-CNBC poll from April showed less favorable numbers for legalization — only 33% in favor, while 55% opposed — this shows an overwhelming support for medical marijuana: 60% of Americans think cannabis should be used as part of prescription plan."
http://www.deathandtaxesmag.com/41791/montana-pot-mutiny-signals-prohibitions-obsolescence/
Founding Father and President Thomas Jefferson said, “I consider trial by jury as the only anchor yet imagined by man, by which a government can be held to the principles of its constitution.”
John Adams said of the juror, “it is not only his right, but his duty – to find the verdict according to his own best understanding, judgment, and conscience, though in direct opposition to the direction of the court” (Yale Law Journal, 1964:173).
Wheres the Tea Party when you need them?
So, the obvious question,ever-looming over our collective heads, why isn't pot legal? I mean lots of other things are legal, and lots of people seem to want to make pot legal and I myself can't seem to come up with much if any reasons not to make pot legal. Its a real head scratcher. Marijuana is essentially illegal across all of the United States(except for Good Ole' Breckenridge,CO. those rebels) but has been so decriminalized to a point that getting caught with an ounce or less of pot in many states is the same as getting a speeding ticket for doing ten miles over. You could almost call it the oxymoron of laws.
Now 15 states have passed legislation for the legal use of medical marijuana under the care of a Licensed
Physician for a host of medical conditions, to the joy and elation of patients and disdain to many if not all right wing politicians. And we cant have that can we? A recent article in The Missoulian headlines this:
"Legislation to change medical marijuana law hot topic for 2011 Legislature"
HELENA - Key members of the 2011 Legislature are determined to impose new regulations on a medical marijuana industry that some believe has reeled out of control in the past year.
Others are calling for outright repeal of the medical marijuana law enacted by a 2004 ballot measure, which 62 percent of Montanans approved, and one lawmaker wants to put the issue before voters again.
First of all, repealing this legislation would be as human-less as repealing health care, that's right, I said health care."It would be disastrous for patients who genuinely use and need the medicine, It would be disastrous for the taxpayers for the state to redefine 25,000 Montanans as criminals. It would be a law enforcement nightmare when budgets are tightened." In other words, it would cost more and more money to defend some antiquated principle like, lets say, prohibition.
To be fair, at least in Montana and and parts of Los Angeles and Oakland, exploitation of many loopholes and loose oversight was in practice, but gee whiz fellas, its not like that's ever happened with any legislature prior to this type. Give me a break. The legalization of marijuana makes sense when the stigma is removed and the facts are bared.And before you naysayers are already conjuring up you abuse arguments and the like, remember our wise, good friend Aristotle's words "Nothing to excess, nothing to defect." The Missoula pot mutiny story is a perfect example of the peoples will.
"The people stood up and spoke out."The story "hit a nerve" around the country, said Ethan Nadelmann, executive director of the national Drug Policy Alliance that advocates drug law reform.
"It shows the emperor-has-no-clothes dimension to what happened. It's an expression of what many people feel - that marijuana possession should no longer be illegal,"
No matter what your take on the position law is law and facts are facts. A recent law was passed in Missoula County to make the persecution and prosecution of minor marijuana offenses the lowest priority.And yet this particular court case is in the limelight.And there's always the ever infamous "War on Drugs" of which pot is an enemy, albeit a small one. So lets take a look at some facts collected from: http://www.drugsense.org/cms/wodclock
The U.S. federal government spent over $15 billion dollars in 2010 on the War on Drugs, at a rate of about $500 per second. Source: Office of National Drug Control Policy
State and local governments spent at least another 25 billion dollars.
Source: Jeffrey A. Miron & Kathrine Waldock: "The Budgetary Impact of Drug Prohibition," 2010.
Today is January 11th, 2011. it is 3:06 PM MST at this moment both federal and state governments have spent 1 billion, 3million dollars in 11 days in "the War on Drugs." And its working so well.
Conversely, It doesn't take much of a deep thinker to realize the tax revenues, and I mean huge ones, incomes and jobs that would go a long way to our deficit and ailing economy with the legalization of pot.. And yet The prohibition drags on, for the good of The People I'm sure.
But all is not lost.After flexing political muscles in 15 states to push forth legislation on medical weed, Mr. Smith is headed to Washington. A newly formed trade group by the title the National Cannabis Industry Association is a formation of sellers, growers and, manufacturers organizing to promote pot on the Hill.
Now that's a lobby I want to be a part of.
On a more serious note The U.S. Government, as always, is the all powerful Master of F.U.B.A.R., I don't think I need to break down that acronym for most of us. While 15 states are telling licensed physicians who are sworn to a Hippocratic oath that its OK to dispense pot to their patients who need it while in the same moment the good Dr.'s have the wonderful federal government threatening to take away their licenses to practice if they do. Classic Americana.
The marijuana issue has been beaten and ultimately tenderized. Its high time (pardon the expression) we as a country get past old hang-ups and the stigma of pot that's been looming over our heads since before the filming of "Refer Madness". I'd even be in favor of the formation of M.A.S.D. (Mothers Against Stoned Drivers) while I don't think they'd be to busy. Its time for America, as they say, to shit or get off the pot......
Regards,
C.
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