Marijuana legalization and Misc. Cannabis related stuff

[MaineShark]

I understand that some people when pushed may resort to violence, but that is the business model of cops and informants, not me.   My biggest weapon is truth and advocating for peaceful self ownership.  Out of jail or in jail  I intend to continue to advocate for that.  In the end the substance becomes irrelevant.  Peaceful freedom is where it's at and that's where I'm at.  I will not be "corrected" by them to change my views either and that idea is what scares them.

Indeed.  But, by pushing the folks on the edge into active violence, they can run around saying, "see, look at this violent drug dealer, and sure, this guy over here is peaceful, now, but look at all the drug violence... who knows what he might do?!"  All they have to do is froth at the mouth a bit, too, and most juries will eat it up, without ever considering that the violence was basically "staged" by the system, in order to justify its own existence.

You might want to compare what they're proposing to sentence you to, with what they would sentence someone for providing other drugs in a "prohibited manner"," such as selling alcohol to a minor or intoxicated person, or tobacco, or such.  Explain to the jury how inconsistent the State's "punishment" system is.  Much as cases where Blacks get worse sentences than Whites for the same crime, or whatnot, it can help to damage their credibility if you can show that they are inconsistently attacking certain groups and not others, or coming down harder on one group than another.

Joe

[Tom Sawyer]

Heavy penalties can make people afraid which leads to violence, but the major source of violence in the drug business is you have a multi billion dollar industry with no way to resolve disputes. Someone owes you money, some one tries to rip you off etc....

[Free libertarian]

Anytime there is money involved the possibilities of violence do seem to get magnified.

Certainly on the supply side the bigger the deal the more likely violence could erupt. 

I'd still have to say the violence from the enforcement side is far worse than the black market side though.. There are far too many people in this State whose primary income is derived from waging "the war on drugs".  (predominantly cannabis).   

I was at a cattle call indictment fest in Dec. 2009, according to a Public Defender guy I was chatting with approx. 60% of the 122 people indicted that day were there for victimless crimes. (mostly MJ)   Most of the prison growth and associated jobs is due to the war on weed and to a lesser extent other prohibited substances.

I was at another court in NH this winter and simple marijuana possession seemed to be about half of the dozen or so cases heard in that particular District Court.  I could practically hear the judge say "cha-ching" after everybody plead guilty and agreed to a $500 ish fine.  Well everybody plead guilty except the person I was with, we got his pot charge dropped.   

[Lloyd Danforth]

Heavy penalties can make people afraid which leads to violence, but the major source of violence in the drug business is you have a multi billion dollar industry with no way to resolve disputes. Someone owes you money, some one tries to rip you off etc....

True. If it were legal it would cost about the same as tobacco and nobody would be fighting over it.
In fact, nobody would be doing any fighting of any kind. Everybody would be 'Mellow' , because, as we have been warned: 'When a drug is legalized,  everyone will suddenly start using it'

[Russell Kanning]

and if the government got out of the tobacco business, life would be better
my short experiences in jail have confirmed 50-75% of those being "detained in secure facilities" were brought there because of the war on weed, both federal and state levels.

[John]

Pot Judge?