Ten years mandatory minimum for gram of cocaine

[aclu14]

New York state - some (non druggie non dealer) chick carried it for her friend. Ten minutes into her sixteenth birthday and now she's locked up for what should have been the best years of her life. Meanwhile the sex offender down the hall gets six months with parole.

The drug laws are so way out of line. And the "war on drugs" is going nowhere while sex abuse is an ever growing problem.

[kontulib]

That is a unreasonable punishment. War against drugs should mean (that´s only my opinion) at the big dealers (smuggling and dealing huge of dangerous drugs) get severe punishments...

[CBranski]

New York state thanks to Governor Rockefeller in the early 70's has some of the toughest drug laws in the nation. Strangely enough, they haven't stopped the drug trade in places like the South Bronx and Alphabet City...

In large part I have to agree with aclu: we have the same thing going on here in Wisconsin with prisons being filled with drug offenders and dangerous thugs being released to the streets. While I think that aclu's friend should face some sort of sanction, 10 years in the joint is way out of line-probation, work release, house arrest, etc is acceptable in first offenses.

We have to realise that the War on Drugs is an expensive exersise in taking rights away from citizens. As for the hard core druggies, it seems that Charles Darwin has described methods of how they are taken out of circulation. Should we just let that happen? Perhaps...

[aclu14]

Half of all law enforcement spending is on enforcement of drug laws.

[weldordave]

Now wait aclu! She was "carrying" it for a "friend". Right there she is guilty of possesion and trafficking. This would make her a MULE--MULE--MULE--MULE--MULE. It cannot be said enough because many mules get caught this way. She deserves no sympathy, no compassion, she willingly and knowingly broke the law. She was was willing enough, or stupid enough to be used in such a manner. One dumb broad in my opinion. Lock her up with the rest of the mules who CHOSE that occupation.

[aclu14]

You're way too harsh, Dave.

[paulgro]

It's called taking responsibility for your actions...

[kontulib]

Originally posted by paulgro
It's called taking responsibility for your actions...

Taking responsibility yes...but 10 years is unreasonable for that act what the girl has done...:(

[paulgro]

Either you have a war on drugs or you don't.. If you don't hand out a sentence that makes people stop and think then you won't stop any drug trafficing. Do you think 30 days with home arrest would stop it???

[kontulib]

Originally posted by paulgro
Either you have a war on drugs or you don't.. If you don't hand out a sentence that makes people stop and think then you won't stop any drug trafficing. Do you think 30 days with home arrest would stop it???

Hello Paul!!! He was not a full-time dealer. There
was only ONE GRAM cocaine...;)

[aclu14]

We're not saying that they shouldn't do unpunished, Paul + Dave, just that the punishment is so over-the-top that it's absolutely ridiculous! Damn Gov. Rockefeller!!

[weldordave]

Mule, Mule, Mule. Stupidity grants no sympathy. "Ignorance of the law is no excuse". Maybe a future MULE will carry cheap drugs to YOUR children. Yes, your right, way to tough on the "TRAFFICKERS" of drugs.

[paulgro]

What do you think the punishment should be?

[@gen]

Originally posted by paulgro
What do you think the punishment should be?

200-400$ fine should be enough.

[kontulib]

Originally posted by paulgro
What do you think the punishment should be?

Hmmm...community service and some kind of treatment program...

[Sjax]

I have to agree with k-lib. Sending this kid to prison for ten years wont do any good. Imagine what ten years in prison do to you. If you arent criminal when you go in, you probably will be when you get out.

[kontulib]

Welcome @gen!!! It´s nice to see other finns here! :clap :clap :wave

Jep, ei sitten muuta kuin sivistetään vähän amerikkalaisia että gramman kokaiinin diilaamisesta EI ole asianmukaista antaa 10 vuoden vankeustuomioita 16-vuotiaille...:(
Itsellä vaan meinaa välillä kielipää pettää...:cry

[kontulib]

Originally posted by Sjax
I have to agree with k-lib. Sending this kid to prison for ten years wont do any good. Imagine what ten years in prison do to you. If you arent criminal when you go in, you probably will be when you get out.

Of course she is a full criminal when she is getting out from american prison after 10 years...There must be some other ways to handle 16-year old petty violators...:(

[aclu14]

Sjax, K-lib, finally someone enters my world. A reasonable sentence would be, like you said, a fine relative to the amount of drugs carried, say $100 per gram. Overnight in a juvenile detention center would scare them enough to stop it.

Dave and Paul, please tell us how ten years locked up would benefit anyone but the bureaucrats?

[paulgro]

It would make you think twice about holding or selling dope...

[kontulib]

Originally posted by paulgro
It would make you think twice about holding or selling dope...

You know at hard punishments don´t work. Or have hard punishments worked in U.S.? I don´t think so what I have readed and heard about criminality in U.S.

[kontulib]

First, I think at drug users need medical and social help, not punishments. I think at the girl was selling the drug because she needed money for her drug using.
Only crimes where I agree hard prison punishments is gross violent crimes, are you minor or not. If you are under 15 years old, my opinion is at you should not in any situation be punished by prison. Under 15 years old criminals must to be handled by social authories OR by psychiatric treatment.

[aclu14]

Community service, a small fine, and overnight in jail is reasonable enough to make these smalltimers stop it. Read this:

Drop the Rock Hits Harlem
From the New York City IMC[independent media center]:
Miguel Acosta, a 37 year old Harlem resident, knows New York state's harsh drug laws firsthand. "The Rockefeller laws are no joke. I'm living proof of that," he said in an interview during Saturday's Drop the Rock rally in Marcus Garvey Park. In 1988 Acosta was arrested for possession of four ounces of cocaine and sentenced to 15 years to life. It was Acosta's first offense of any kind. "The judge had no choice but to sentence me [to fifteen years]," he said.

LIFE??? For 4 ounces????? What is the deal here? Enormously unreasonable sentences such as these clog the jails and let the REAL criminals, such as serial bank robbers, rapists, drug lords, and gang members walk free.

Also, I read that the drug laws have racism built in. The penalty for crack cocaine, a "black man's drug," is much stiffer than the penalty for powder cocaine, a "white man's drug." Who does the system REALLY serve here? :mad

[Serendipity]

4 ounces is a LOT of coke, Aclu. In the UK it would have a street value of about £6,500 (US$9,000). OK, it was a first offence - but that means it was the first offence he was caught for. You don't start out in the drug trafficking world at that level, and the judge would know this.

[weldordave]

Still a mule. And a stupid mule at that.

[kontulib]

Originally posted by Serendipity
4 ounces is a LOT of coke, Aclu. In the UK it would have a street value of about £6,500 (US$9,000). OK, it was a first offence - but that means it was the first offence he was caught for. You don't start out in the drug trafficking world at that level, and the judge would know this.


It´s not so much at he deserves 15 years to life.
In this case I´m asking the same question what the hash smuggler asked on movie "midnight express": LIFE! FOR WHAT?!?

[aclu14]

You and your mules, Dave... :rolleyes: :(

Well, then, please explain to us the baffling logic behind locking up a onetime druggie for the better part of a lifespan and giving a carbomber, rapist, or robber six months with parole.

[kontulib]

*sigh* In U.S. 16-years old youths gets 10 years for gram of cocaine BUT in Finland 17-years old youths get 7 years for intentional killing (must serve only 1/2). :(

[RayH]

First offense doesn't necessarily mean the first time to have COMMITTED a crime. It's means first time CAUGHT!!

4 oz. of cocaine is a dealer. A dealer by definition makes money by distributing to others. To how many others must a dealer distribute to constitue a threat to society?

Because laws are too lax for another set of crimes, doesn't mean that all criminals should go free.

People want the freedom to make decisions. But no one wants to be accountable for bad decisions.

What makes anyone think drug addicts want to stop using drugs? Probably the greatest weapon to get people to stop using drugs is prison.

The sentencing of one sixteen year old to a harsh prison term shows the others that the law is serious.

Cocaine, especially in the "crack" form, is the most addictive drug available. It is devisitating because there is no level of "satisfaction", as with heroin. The use INCREASES, not decreases, the craving.

[nacho cheese]

Off topic
As for the hard core druggies, it seems that Charles Darwin has described methods of how they are taken out of circulation.
http://www.darwinawards.com/

Off topic

[RayH]

Some countries don't give long sentences to drug dealers. They just execute them immediately!

[kontulib]

Originally posted by RayH
First offense doesn't necessarily mean the first time to have COMMITTED a crime. It's means first time CAUGHT!!



If he/she is first time caught, it is juridically first time he/she have commited a crime.