PROF IS PROOF THAT DRUG LAWS NEED CHANGE

Almost 10 years ago to the day, this column ran a letter from a young
Madisonian named Dan Murphy, who happened to be serving five years in
federal prison because he grew 101 marijuana plants in his home.

His case served as a glaring example of the stupidity of America's
drug laws. Because he had been discovered with more than 100 plants,
the judge had no other choice but to send him away for five years.
Members of Congress had written that law to show how tough they were
about drug enforcement.

Never mind that Murphy, who had suffered back injuries in an auto
accident, had never sold any marijuana, but was growing the plants for
his own medicinal use. Throw him in prison as an example.

His letter described in graphic detail the conditions in
prison.

"Prison is a place where you hate with clenched teeth, where I want to
beat, kick and scratch. A place where you wonder, how can this be,
where I wonder," he wrote.

Now some $250,000 in taxpayers' money later - that's how much it cost
the government to incarcerate him for those five years - Dan Murphy is
back contributing to society like he could have and should have been
during those lost five years to satisfy the ignorance of
self-described "law and order" politicians.

He came back to Madison and went to a summer session at the UW to
brush up on his bachelor's degree in sociology. Then he commuted to
the UW-Milwaukee to earn his master's degree. From there he attended
Iowa State for three years and Montana State for another year to earn
his doctorate.

Today, he's an assistant professor at Appalachian State University in
Boone, N.C.

The Winston-Salem Journal recently did a huge piece about him and a
criminology course he's teaching at Appalachian State. He's completely
open about his prison record and advocates for programs other than
prison for first-time, nonviolent offenders and help for parolees to
adjust back to society.

In the article, Murphy describes in even more detail than in his
letter to me 10 years ago just how prison can transform a nonviolent
offender into an entirely different, sick person.

On his third day in prison, for example, he glanced into another
prisoner's cell. Shortly thereafter, that prisoner pressed a shiv, or
homemade knife, against his side for looking into "his house."

He told the Journal that he never made that mistake
again.

"You either learn or you die," he said.

"I had lived the insanity ... and I decided that something needed to
be done to address this issue," he added.

From his post at Appalachian State, he told the paper that he wants to
go into North Carolina prisons and jails and interview prisoners in
efforts to improve their conditions inside, as well as to learn what
can be done to ease their readjustment when released.

Unfortunately, not many emerge from prison like Dan Murphy
has.

Most are turned into full-fledged criminals, a pretty stiff price for
both the individual and the country to pay for 101 marijuana plants.