REEFER MADNESS POT CAUSES INSANITY by James A. Haught
Copyright (c) 1997, Charleston Newspapers

THE CURRENT Atlantic Monthly says marijuana causes
insanity not among its smokers, but among politicians who lose their
heads and impose worse punishments for potpuffing than for
murder.
"More Reefer Madness," a report by Eric Schlosser, says
harsh, mandatory marijuana sentences have jammed U.S.
prisons with nonviolent offenders, and the overcrowding forces early release of
dangerous criminals.

"In Montana, a life sentence can be imposed for growing
a single marijuana plant or selling a single joint," the article
says. "Under federal law, the death penalty can be imposed for
growing or selling a large amount of marijuana, even if it is a first
offense.
"At the Alabama penitentiary perhaps half a dozen
inmates are serving life without parole for marijuana offenses. One was
given a life sentence for loading his pickup truck with ditchweed, a
form of wild marijuana that is not psychoactive. Another was given a
life sentence for possessing a single joint."
This is nuts. Most medical studies find potpuffing
relatively harmless, about like drinking a beer. Many experts say
pot should be legal, as beer is. Yet politicians, eager to appear
"tough on drugs," keep imposing everworse prison terms.
America's billiondollar " war on drugs" has become a
sleazy industry in which unsuspecting parents lose their homes and cars,
and conniving exconvicts get rich by fingering their friends.

Schlosser relates how federal prosecutor Leslie Ohta of
Connecticut, "the queen of forfeitures," seized the homes of many
people, including an elderly couple who didn't know that their grandson
had pot in his room. But when Ohta's teenage son was caught selling LSD
from her car (and he reportedly sold pot from her home), "neither her
car nor her house was seized by the government."

Federal agents often focus on wealthy suspects, so they
can seize valuable properties. In California, 31 officers stormed
a luxurious Malibu ranch, inadvertently killing its owner then
failed to find any trace of potgrowing. Later it was learned that
agents had obtained an appraisal of the ranch before the raid.
Informers are paid more than $ 100 million a year for
tips such as the one that triggered the ranch raid. "In major drug cases,
an informer can earn a million dollars or more," the article says.
"...Informers have been caught framing innocent people."
The Atlantic report tells how an exconvict with 30
convictions was paid by Alabama police to sell marijuana which the
police provided.
He sold a pound to a legless Vietnam veteran who ran a
roofing firm to support his family. The vet drew a lifewithoutparole
sentence, and his young wife shot herself.
Gross favoritism occurs in drug prosecutions. The
article relates:
"The son of Indiana Congressman Dan Burton, an outspoken
proponent of life sentences for some marijuanarelated crimes, was
arrested for transporting nearly eight pounds of pot from Louisiana
to Indiana in the trunk of his car. Six months later, Danny L. Burton
II was arrested again, this time at his Indianapolis apartment, where police
found 30 marijuana plants and a shotgun with six shells.
"Federal prosecutors declined to press charges against
Burton's son; Indiana prosecutors gained dismissal of the charges
against him; and a Louisiana judge sentenced (sic) him to community
service, probation and house arrest. Burton is now leading the
investigation of ethical lapses in the Clinton administration."
Unfair! A legless vet gets life for one pound and a
rightwing congressman's son gets nothing for eight pounds.
Grandparents lose their home but not a federal prosecutor in similar
circumstances.
Hypocrisy! Last fall, House Speaker Newt Gingrich,
RGa., introduced a bill requiring either the death penalty or a life
sentence for anyone who brings more than two ounces of pot into America.
Do you suppose Gingrich thinks the son of his conservative colleague
should be put to death for hauling eight pounds and growing 30 plants? Of
course not.
Children of privileged families rarely get any real
punishment for potdealing.
Marijuana use keeps rising, and the only people
benefiting from the police blitz are criminals who pocket $ 100 million a
year in informer fees.
A quartercentury ago, a commission appointed by
President Nixon studied for a year, then concluded that
marijuana causes little harm and should be legalized.
It's a shame that the insanity caused by pot prevents
this recommendation from being considered.