Pot puffing prosecutors

Middlesex DA Gerry Leone
(Boston Globe)

An initiative in Massachusetts to decriminalize the possession of an ounce of marijuana has stirred up some hypocritical public posturing on the issue.

District Attorney Daniel F. Conley confesses to taking a bong hit in his college days. DA Gerry Leone admits he “tried it once” as a collegian. DA Michael O’keefe won’t out himself beyond a typical lawyer-like circumlocution that he “did a lot of things that were unwise, unhealthy and illegal” as a youth.

So where do these pot puffing prosecutors stand on decriminalization?

Here’s a hint: all quotes in this report come from a Boston Globe article titled “DAs fight bid to ease penalty for marijuana.”

So how does this work? If marijuana is so bad why didn’t these former potheads end up as heroin hacks and crack slackers today, punching out grandma for her bingo money so they can shoot up and zone out? Marijuana, back in their college days, was known by hardcore drug warriors as a “gateway drug.” One whiff of Mary Jane and you were trapped in the ever escalating spiral of addiction, running from drug to ever harder drug in the all consuming pursuit of staying high.

But these former drug abusers (there is no “user” in the Drug War Dictionary, only “abuser”) actually graduated college. Went to law school. Passed their bar exams. Worked their way up to district attorneys.

So why is pot okay for them but not for you?

They contend that “the initiative would send the wrong message and lead to a host of social problems.”

And exactly what message are these pillars of the community sending? That it’s okay to break laws if you don’t get caught?

As for that “host of social problems,” take a hit from the reality bong. There’s lots and lots of tax money to be had by vigorously pursuing the thoroughly phony War Against Some Drugs. It’s a lucrative scam that offers opportunities for corruption to every public official involved. Keeping Some Drugs illegal artificially drives up the profits for the drug lords. It’s like a government price support bill. Dealers are the last people who want marijuana, or any other illegal drug, legalized.

And then there’s those thousands of people, mostly young black and Hispanic men, stuffed into prison cells for committing the crime of harming no one.

The libertarian definition of “crime,” by the way, is concise and rational: initiation of force or the threat of force or fraud by one person or persons against another person or persons (which, incidentally, makes government the biggest criminal of all). That’s crime. Everything else is just the act of ignoring some authoritarian do-gooder’s rules.

But who cares? It’s turned the prison industry into a multibillion dollar tax funded Job Corps. Never mind that women struggle without their husbands and children grow up without their fathers. The women are just fodder for the multibillion dollar tax funded social welfare industry and the kids are future fodder for the prison system.

Two items from the Texas NORML (National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws) website make interesting reading:

“For the first time in U.S. history, more than one of every 100 adults is in jail or prison, according to a new report documenting America’s rank as the world’s No. 1 incarcerator.” (Link)

“35 years after Nixon started the war on drugs, we have over one million non-violent drug offenders living behind bars.” (Link)

The War Against Some Drugs has caused more horrendous social problems than the actual drugs ever could. But most Americans already get this. That should include the three aforementioned Bay State Attorneys General.

So maybe our pot puffing prosecutors are just looking out for their own careers. Without the steady stream of pot smokers to plea bargain into the system day after day these lawdogs might actually have to take on a real criminal case. One that actually involves coercion or intimidation or fraud.

Put that in your frat boy bong and suck on it.