The Fight Over Medical Marijuana’ ...qui
By REBECCA RICHMAN COHEN
Published: November 7, 2012
Though the federal government considers marijuana a Schedule I Controlled Substance and bans its use for medical purposes, a growing number of states feel differently. Today, 18 states and Washington, D.C., have legalized medical marijuana for people suffering from debilitating medical conditions like cancer, epilepsy, severe nausea, multiple sclerosis and chronic pain. And on Tuesday, Colorado and Washington State voted to legalize marijuana for adult use, regardless of medical condition. But these states cannot stop the federal government from enforcing its own laws.
And federal drug laws are unjustifiably extreme. Consider the case of
Chris Williams, the subject of this Op-Doc video, who opened a marijuana
grow house in Montana after the state legalized medical cannabis. Mr.
Williams was eventually arrested by federal agents despite Montana’s
medical marijuana law, and he may spend the rest of his life behind
bars. While Jerry Sandusky got a 30-year minimum sentence for raping
young boys, Mr. Williams is looking at a mandatory minimum of more than
80 years for marijuana charges and for possessing firearms during a
drug-trafficking offense.
This outcome is sad, of course — Mr. Williams will not be free to raise
his teenage son — but it is also morally repugnant. Even if you think
that the benefits of legalized medical marijuana do not outweigh the
costs — a crucial debate, but one we can table for the moment — a
coherent system of justice must explain why one defendant is punished
more harshly than the next. It must explain why a farmer who grows
marijuana in compliance with state law should be punished much more
harshly than some pedophiles and killers. If we cannot explain this
disparity, we should fight to change it.
Leading up to Mr. Williams’s trial, federal prosecutors offered him
various plea bargains, but he turned them all down. He believed,
quixotically enough, that he deserved his day in court. He held this
conviction even though prosecutors precluded him from presenting his
compliance with state law as a defense to the federal charges. Without
this essential context, the jury heard a deeply distorted version of Mr.
Williams’s story.
After Mr. Williams’s conviction, the United States attorney general’s
office came back with a new deal. If he waived his right to appeal, they
would drop most of the charges so that he would face a minimum of 10
years in prison and pay a $288,000 judgment.
His response? “This is nothing more than slavery and completely
disregards my rights as a citizen of the United States of America. I
have declined the offer.”
When asked for comment, a Department of Justice press officer said the
department, like the attorney general’s office, could not discuss the
facts of a pending case.
This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:
Nessun commento:
Posta un commento