Posted on 05/13/2011 9:45:35 PM PDT by UnwashedPeasant
A new law in Oklahoma that allows penalties of up to life in prison for converting marijuana into hashish has created an unintended byproduct: accusations of an unduly harsh, unnecessary law that will further clog the state's already-overcrowded prison system.
"It makes little sense. I've never heard anything like it," said Ethan Nadelmann, executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance, a New York-based advocacy organization. "It's just pure hysteria. Where did this idea even come from?"
The law -- which was overwhelmingly approved by the Oklahoma Senate last month and later signed by Republican Gov. Mary Fallin on April 29 -- was requested by the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs. But since the state has seen just about a dozen cases of hashish manufacturing in the past decade, the agency's spokesman, Mark Woodward, acknowledges that the new law is a "preventative" move.
"It's very rare," Woodward said of hashish production in the state. "It may be two or three years before we see another [case]. This is not going to be a prison-clogger here."
Under the new law, which specifically creates a new felony for converting marijuana to hashish, conviction of a first offense would result in a prison sentence anywhere from two years to life in prison. Sentences would be doubled for second offenses and those convicted would be ineligible for suspended sentences or probation.
Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2011/05/13/oklahomas-new-hashish-law-unduly-harsh-critics-say/#ixzz1MIY36Kjw
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
According to legend, we got the word “assassin” from an Arabic term for hit men who would smoke hashish in order to prime themselves for the dirty deed. That never seemed to make much sense to me, because why would you want to be on an enhanced marijuana trip when you needed every skill to get in there, kill your intended target, and get back out?
But if hashish is not known for sending men into murderous frenzy, why should it be viewed as fundamentally worse than marijuana itself, especially if it’s the consumer who did his own hashish making from his own pot. Who did the research to sell this knee jerk measure?
The Drug Warriors fanatics are as whacked out as the global warming cloud. Driven 100% by pure irrational zeal.
Naturally nobody is going to think, Whoah! Life for making hashish? I’d better not do that!
Well, Oklahoma has sent a guy to prison for 93 years for growing pot and has sent a lady to prison for 10 years for selling $30 worth of pot, so this law really doesn’t surprise me.
It’s totally stupid, but the legislative body of almost every state/country and stupidity aren’t exactly mutually exclusive.
We are governed by hysterics - most of them elected by female voters with hysterical fears about their children. Democracy has destroyed the Republic, just as the Founders feared.
Geez, that's a pretty good spread.
On the other hand if you rape a child in Oklahoma you have a shot of only spending a year in prison.
If men acted more the way they should, families wouldn’t be so broken and women wouldn’t be this ignorant.
Same as the nonsensical laws for cocaine and crack cocaine. Cocaine is cut in many ways with many toxic things en route from the jungle to the street — but for some idiotic reason, baking soda is a bridge too far. For that you get life.
While complaining about the druggies as they slurp their third martini and start thinking about the next one.
Remember ethanol is not a drug it’s a legal substance.
“Remember ethanol is not a drug it’s a legal substance.”
This is a war on SOME drugs.
Leave if you have a problem with their laws. Who the hell would want to live in Oklahoma anyways? I can’t think of a single reason.
“But I guess there is a drug pecking order and alcohol is still #1.”
Most Drug Court Judges I know would be lost without it. The irony escapes them.
“This is a war on SOME drugs.”
We fought the last one with the same results and then we repealed the amendment. Not everyone becomes a drunk.
It’s close to Texas.
Do not confront evil, do not complain, just crawl away: That is no way to go thru life.
So, it’s the law’s fault that the prisons are overcrowded.
Not the lawbreakers’ fault.
Laws can be confronted without breaking them.
If they passed a law that you couldn’t eat/possess/sell potato chips in OK, I might lobby against it, run for office, work for politicians that opposed it, have an educational front. . .
I wouldn’t eat potato chips, though. That would be stupid.
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