"Life" for LSD.....

[Irish YJ]

Sentenced to life in prison, man pins hopes on new clemency rules - CNN.com

I'm not at all endorsing drug use or sales, but holy crap batman. Murderers get out in 10 years these days. I like hard core sentencing for some things (murder, rape, etc.) but this is just shameful. Not to mention a burden to taxpayers.

 

[woolybug25]

Sentenced to life in prison, man pins hopes on new clemency rules - CNN.com

I'm not at all endorsing drug use or sales, but holy crap batman. Murderers get out in 10 years these days. I like hard core sentencing for some things (murder, rape, etc.) but this is just shameful. Not to mention a burden to taxpayers.

Unreal. The dude was 23 years old and lost his entire future off of selling some LSD?

How is that possible in today's age?

Good point on the waste of taxpayer money as well. Totally agree.

 

[Irishnuke]

Damn that's excessive. I'm all for locking up drug dealers for an appropriate amount of time, but this guy doesn't deserve life in prison. He deserves time for sure, but he's already served that and then some.

 

[Buster Bluth]

Damn that's excessive. I'm all for locking up drug dealers for an appropriate amount of time, but this guy doesn't deserve life in prison. He deserves time for sure, but he's already served that and then some.

LOCK HIM THE FUCK UP!

Or, use the information on how harmful drugs are to make a reasonable decision:

 

[Irish Cowboy]

It's hard to feel sorry for drug dealers. And this guy was doing so much with his life being 23 and following the grateful dead around while on acid and selling it. But yeah, it certainly is excessive. I have a libertarian view when it comes to drugs. Legalize them and treat them like alcohol and 80% of crime is eliminated.

 

[Irishnuke]

LOCK HIM THE FUCK UP!

Or, use the information on how harmful drugs are to make a reasonable decision:

Sure. Let him keep dealing. It always works out for those guys.

 

[magogian]

I had to look up qat. Never heard of it before.

 

[Irish YJ]

I'd say 2-10 years is fair for a first time dealer depending on the amount. Anything more is excessive IMO. I personally don't want my hard earned tax dollars going to feed and shelter this guy. Hell I've seen rapist, murders, armed robbers, etc. get less. F'ing ridiculous. I wonder how many there are like him?

 

[Buster Bluth]

I'd say 2-10 years is fair for a first time dealer depending on the amount.

...based on? You think someone giving LSD to their friend should get them 2-10 years in prison?! Do you even know how harmless LSD is? Did you look at the graph??

 

[Irish YJ]

...based on? You think someone giving LSD to their friend should get them 2-10 years in prison?! Do you even know how harmless LSD is? Did you look at the graph??

Not giving to a friend, dealing. Big difference. If you 100+ hits, you're not giving anything to a friend. I'd consider that (giving to a friend) possession or something less than distribution. May not be the legal definition but IMO it should be.

Also, "based on"... Based on how I feel. Harmless or not, true dealing, regardless "what" should get time. If it's illegal, it's illegal. If laws are changed, their changed. I've always been for the legalization of pot, but I also knew it was against the law, and what happens if I, or others broke the law. If you take a calculated risk and lose, whose fault is that.

Now the above was illegal. He deserved some time. He didn't deserve life...
All my opinion.

 

[Buster Bluth]

Not giving to a friend, dealing. Big difference.

Giving to a friend is dealing. Shit, simply having more than X amount (for cannabis it's usually an once) is dealing.

If you 100+ hits, you're not giving anything to a friend. I'd consider that (giving to a friend) possession or something less than distribution. May not be the legal definition but IMO it should be.

Also, "based on"... Based on how I feel. Harmless or not, true dealing, regardless "what" should get time. If it's illegal, it's illegal. If laws are changed, their changed. I've always been for the legalization of pot, but I also knew it was against the law, and what happens if I, or others broke the law. If you take a calculated risk and lose, whose fault is that.

In two paragraphs you have both "if it's illegal, it's illegal" and "may not be the legal definition but IMO it should be."

If you take a calculated risk and lose, whose fault is that.

Not directed at you, but I think there is a certain amount of blame for men who don't have the balls to stand up and shout "don't throw someone in jail for this!" I proudly voted against every felony cannabis charge that I came across when I served on a grand jury.

Now the above was illegal. He deserved some time. He didn't deserve life...
All my opinion.

And in your opinion someone should get ten years for dealing. That's just plain fucked up. Fucked up in that you think you have the authority over what two other adults decide to do to themselves with relative harmless substances, and fucked up that you don't consider the effects of locking them up for a decade. Ten years?!? that basically is life. There is rarely a comeback story from that amount of time behind bars.

What should pharmaceutical companies get for giving us artificial drugs that kill tens of thousands annually and serve as the largest gateway to heroin use? Oh nevermind, that's legal. They get paychecks, LSD and such get prison. Makes total sense.

 

[Jebediah Springfield]

I think there is a certain amount of blame for men who don't have the balls to stand up and shout "don't throw someone in jail this!" I proudly voted against every felony cannabis charge that I came across when I served on a grand jury.

= Jury nullification.

 

[chicago51]

Drug sentencing is way way out of hand. Minimum mandatory sentencing laws are complete horse crap. This particular case is just total shit!

1 - We should legalize marijuana

2 - Drug sentencing for drugs still deemed by society too dangerous to be legalized should not be years it should be days/months. If not completely decriminalized or just a fine for just usage.

3 - Start treating drug addiction as a healthcare issue not a criminal issue.

Drug sentencing has destroyed lives. It has destroyed families. I think our inner cities would be in much much better shape if not for decades of the war on drugs breaking up and destroying families and ruining lives.
That and addressing teenage pregnancies which is another issue.

 

[Buster Bluth]

I have yet to see a good reason for things like ecstasy, LSD, and mushrooms to be illegal for adults. I think it should be illegal, even felonious, to give to a minor, but I don't think adults should have to suffer legal consequences for possessing those things.

I can see the merits of an argument that say we should regulate LSD and mushrooms, maybe have state-licensed LSD/shroom shops with basically certified chaperones. Much like you'd go visit a casino, or check into a hotel...you book a trip to the LSD center and they give you a regulated dose and you fucking see the universe like you've never seen it before.

But to ban nonaddictive substances that you can't OD on...come on. That's just dumb. Throwing people in prison for "2-10 years" for selling it...now I'm just pissed.

 

[Jebediah Springfield]

I have yet to see a good reason for things like ecstasy, LSD, and mushrooms to be illegal for adults. I think it should be illegal, even felonious, to give to a minor, but I don't think adults should have to suffer legal consequences for possessing those things.

I can see the merits of an argument that say we should regulate LSD and mushrooms, maybe have state-licensed LSD/shroom shops with basically certified chaperones. Much like you'd go visit a casino, or check into a hotel...you book a trip to the LSD center and they give you a regulated dose and you fucking see the universe like you've never seen it before.

But to ban nonaddictive substances that you can't OD on...come on. That's just dumb. Throwing people in prison for "2-10 years" for selling it...now I'm just pissed.

 

[Emcee77]

Something that I think some people may have missed in the CNN article linked in the OP is that this was Timothy Tyler's third offense, not his first. He had been given probation in his first two, and then he pleaded guilty to a third offense to protect his dad, not realizing that the mandatory federal sentencing guidelines required the court to give him a life sentence for that third offense.

Not that that necessarily makes it any better. "Three strikes" recidivism enhancements like that may not be unconstitutional (Narrow Supreme Court Decision Upholds "Three Strike" Law) but they have been heavily criticized. There is no way it makes sense to give a guy a life sentence for even three convictions for selling LSD to concertgoers.

 

[Buster Bluth]

nah man:

 

[NDinL.A.]

Meh. He shouldn't get life, but I'm not going to give two shits about a drug dealer on this third offense. Personally, there are injustices in this world for good people (especially children) that are far more deserving for our sympathy/empathy/call-to-action than a convicted drug dealer. Call me callous, call me insensitive, call me maybe, but that's how I feel personally.

Drug sentencing has destroyed lives. It has destroyed families. I think our inner cities would be in much much better shape if not for decades of the war on drugs breaking up and destroying families and ruining lives.

Hard core drug use has destroyed many more lives and many more families than drug sentencing. I worked in the inner city for almost 20 years, and while the war on drugs was a political joke, the drug users and the actions of the drug users and drug dealers destroyed more families than the war on drugs did.

 

[Irish#1]

Sentences for dealers versus users. There should be a difference. I think life was too harsh for this guy, but maybe if he had served a couple of years for the second offense he might have woken up instead of continuing to deal.

 

[GATTACA!]

I'd say 2-10 years is fair for a first time dealer depending on the amount. Anything more is excessive IMO. I personally don't want my hard earned tax dollars going to feed and shelter this guy. Hell I've seen rapist, murders, armed robbers, etc. get less. F'ing ridiculous. I wonder how many there are like him?

You don't think your tax dollars where already paying for his food and housing when he wasn't in prison?

 

[Zwidmanio]

You don't think your tax dollars where already paying for his food and housing when he wasn't in prison?

On what basis did you deduce that?

 

[magogian]

Do you all think this guy's story is more sympathetic/garnering more attention because he is white?

Honest question.

 

[woolybug25]

Do you all think this guy's story is more sympathetic/garnering more attention because he is white?

Honest question.

I bet…

 

[Zwidmanio]

Hard core drug use has destroyed many more lives and many more families than drug sentencing. I worked in the inner city for almost 20 years, and while the war on drugs was a political joke, the drug users and the actions of the drug users and drug dealers destroyed more families than the war on drugs did.

Not that I disagree with the fact that some drug use can destroy lives, but when you say this have you really taken into account the full extent that the War on Drugs has affected lives? Even with respect to individual drug use, I would argue that forcing drug users underground and into the black market, a focus on incarceration instead of treatment, and entirely ignorant and misinformed drug education programs play a huge role in the affect that drug use has on society. I don't think we know how many fewer lives would be negatively affected by drugs if we had a sensible drug policy in this country so I would reserve judgment until then, although I suspect it would be a great help.

As for the drug dealers...would they even exist if not for the War on Drugs?

 

[AvesEvo]

Do you all think this guy's story is more sympathetic/garnering more attention because he is white?

Honest question.

Yes.

How many of these cases have we heard about?

The ACLU estimates that, of the 3,278 serving life without parole for nonviolent offenses, 65 percent are Black, 18 percent are white, and 16 percent are Latino, evidence of extreme racial disparities. Of the 3,278, most were sentenced under mandatory sentencing policies, including mandatory minimums and habitual offender laws that required them to be incarcerated until they die.

Of the 3,278 prisoners , 79 percent were convicted of nonviolent, drug-related crimes such as possession or distribution, and 20 percent of nonviolent property crimes like theft.

https://www.aclu.org/criminal-law-r...without-parole-nonviolent-offenses-finds-aclu

 

[GoIrish41]

You don't think your tax dollars where already paying for his food and housing when he wasn't in prison?

What does this mean?

 

[magogian]

What does this mean?

That it is likely this guy was on the government dole prior to prison. So, the "cost" of prison is: the cost of prison minus the government benefits he received prior to prison.

 

[Buster Bluth]

That it is likely this guy was on the government dole prior to prison. So, the "cost" of prison is: the cost of prison minus the government benefits he received prior to prison.

It's rather outrageous to make that assumption.

 

[GoIrish41]

That it is likely this guy was on the government dole prior to prison. So, the "cost" of prison is: the cost of prison minus the government benefits he received prior to prison.

Oh, so it was every bit the stupid assumption that it appeared to be. Thanks for the clarification.

 

[Irish YJ]

Giving to a friend is dealing. Shit, simply having more than X amount (for cannabis it's usually an once) is dealing.



In two paragraphs you have both "if it's illegal, it's illegal" and "may not be the legal definition but IMO it should be."



Not directed at you, but I think there is a certain amount of blame for men who don't have the balls to stand up and shout "don't throw someone in jail for this!" I proudly voted against every felony cannabis charge that I came across when I served on a grand jury.



And in your opinion someone should get ten years for dealing. That's just plain fucked up. Fucked up in that you think you have the authority over what two other adults decide to do to themselves with relative harmless substances, and fucked up that you don't consider the effects of locking them up for a decade. Ten years?!? that basically is life. There is rarely a comeback story from that amount of time behind bars.

What should pharmaceutical companies get for giving us artificial drugs that kill tens of thousands annually and serve as the largest gateway to heroin use? Oh nevermind, that's legal. They get paychecks, LSD and such get prison. Makes total sense.

You have your liberal opinion, I have mine. Also, you misread my post (first comment you made) and made assumptions that I want to give every first time dealer 10 years. Take a chill pill (or whatever substance you feel necessary).