I did some checking on what happened with this guy. I got two very different stories.
Story one: He was walked up on by cops while smoking a joint withing 1000 feet of a child day care facility and when searched, had 4.6 ounces of weed in his pockets in multiple baggies.
Story two: He was walked up on by cops while smoking a joint withing 1000 feet of a child day care facility. Later, when his car was searched, the cops found 4.6 ounces of weed, baggies and a scale in the vehicle.
Had he been outside of that "drug free zone" of 1000 feet from any school, then his sentence would have been much, much less. Somehow, by being within 1000 feet of a school, this creates some danger of some kind to the children within that school.
The whole "drug free zone" thing was started as a result of the escalation of crack cocaine and it's associated problems. It had nothing to do with MJ. The Legal Fanatics have bastardized the intent of the law into how it's been applied in this manner. They don't see
people, they see legal technicalities that they can manipulate into a chance of seeing their name in print.
The voters allowed this farce of a law to be applied in this way and only the people can revoke that abortion of justice. When we all go vote in our local elections, we need to start reading and understanding what it is we're voting about. That 1000 foot drug free zone law was voted into place by ballot. We have no one to blame but ourselves.
The majority of eligible voters don't bother to do so. If they do, they vote only in Federal elections. If they happen to vote in local and state elections, they either don't read the propositions proposed on the ballots or they don't understand the scope of what those laws will do if enforced as written.
This is clear in the case this thread is about. No one in their right mind would make a law that puts a man in prison for 35 years, (or the 99 years the idiot prosecutor was asking for), for nothing more than smoking a joint within a thousand feet of a school building. The very idea is absurd.
Had that law specifically been written on the ballot as "Do you want to make a law that will put a citizen in prison for up to 99 years if they posses some marijuana for private use?" I feel confident that if it had been written in that manner on the ballot, it would not have passed and became law.
This is another example of the voters getting manipulated by the establishment. This farce of a sentencing done not because it's fair or just, but only because it can be, is outrageous. I sincerely hope that the public outcry in Texas will make the powers that be, back down from this insane stance and sentence.
The only sane way to see this is that the school building was certainly not harmed by this guy lighting up, and the children within the building were never in any possible harm either. So exactly what is this idiotic law protecting?
The intent of the law was to protect school children from gun battles between rival crack gangs and crackheads trying to rob people that happen to be near schools. It never had a thing to do with MJ and should not be allowed to manipulated into doing so now.
Sorry about the long post. I type when I'm upset.....
