War on pot rejected by voters

[Mark Stapleton]

ZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzz........

I personally know a very sad 'drug' victim. Sentenced to about 50 years in prison on a charge he is innocent of. Too long a story for here, but in short. He was an auto mechanic and one of his regular customers had had him rebuild his engine. The car was waiting in his parking area and he noticed it was gone. He assumed [correctly] the man had a second key and had come at night to get his car. He knew where he lived and drove there, after the man refused to answer his calls. He had the misfortune to arrive during a big drug bust at the man's house and was also arrested. Because he had had two minor legal infractions from his youth, and because one was for smoking pot; and because of the new draconian laws and 'three-strikes-your-out; and because he hadn't enough money for an attorney and the public 'defenders' are often more interested in / or too inexperienced to not go along with the prosecutor's plans - he was/is 'in' for 50 years for something he was totally innnocent of. The prisons - even deathrow are full of similar stories.......

That's a doozy.

The worst cases I've read about are from America of course. All too often the Feds (DEA) bust the door down, hold several people at gunpoint, throw them in jail, confiscate any drugs or money lying around, then sell the house of the unfortunate occupants to pay for the raid. The sentences can range from six months to twenty years, often for just smoking weed.

This is the model society America tries to export.