Sherrif wants to charge Michael Phelps

[xoxoxoBruce]

That's why/how ya killed the newspaper biz.

[footfootfoot]

Originally Posted by Aliantha

...Even I've come up with some pretty creative stuff while stoned.

ME TOO! It's just that in my case it didn't seem all that creative the next day. But for a while I was a genius.

[Aliantha]

Ssshhhh...I wasn't going to add that last bit. lol

[Happy Monkey]

Another reason for legalization.

[Shawnee123]

Originally Posted by Happy Monkey

Another reason for legalization.

I wish someone would shoot that backwoods fucking sheriff. I bet he jerks off every time he sees his stupid face or reads his stupid name somewhere.

That won't stand up in court; he just wants the attention.

[TheMercenary]

Originally Posted by Shawnee123

I wish someone would shoot that backwoods fucking sheriff. I bet he jerks off every time he sees his stupid face or reads his stupid name somewhere.

That won't stand up in court; he just wants the attention.

[sugarpop]

Ridiculous. Pot needs to be legalized. The drug laws need to be repealed. Jails are completely overcroweded, because of small time drug users.

[dmg1969]

I'd love to know how he intends to prove that Phelps was actually smoking Mary-Jane.

[classicman]

AFAIK - Phelps has not been charged. They went to the house where the party allegedly took place and charged some people from there.

[sugarpop]

Originally Posted by classicman

AFAIK - Phelps has not been charged. They went to the house where the party allegedly took place and charged some people from there.

Well, did they actually catch them doing anything wrong? Because you can't really charge someone for something that happened before, unless you have actual proof. Otherwise it is circumstantial.

[Aliantha]

They can charge them for owning drug parafernalia and any stash they find. Generally that's the charge anyway, rather than actually catching anyone in the act.

[classicman]

Ali is correct and I believe 5 were charged with possession - the others I'm not sure.

[sugarpop]

Originally Posted by Aliantha

They can charge them for owning drug parafernalia and any stash they find. Generally that's the charge anyway, rather than actually catching anyone in the act.

Yes, but they have to find it in his possession. You can't charge someone for a crime based solely on a picture. it's circumstantial.

[classicman]

Originally Posted by sugarpop

You can't charge someone for a crime based solely on a picture. it's circumstantial.

Phelps has NOT been charged as of RFN.

Link

COLUMBIA -- Even if a South Carolina sheriff is successful in building a marijuana case against swimming superstar Michael Phelps, it might be hard to make the charges stick, defense attorneys say.

The case took a turn Thursday when lawyers for two people said their clients were among eight arrested last week and questioned at length about the November party near the University of South Carolina where Phelps was photographed smoking from a marijuana pipe. At the time, the men were renters at the house.

[richlevy]

I think if you want to have a law changed, the best way to do it is to be fanatically overzealous in it's enforcement.

If they'd busted GWB and his well connected friends and they'd faced up to 18 months in jail back in the 80's, Texas would have the loosest drug laws in the country by now.

If you consider that it cost $20-30,000 a year for each prisoner, as a taxpayer you have to ask "Is it worth it to me to spend that much to keep this guy off of the street". For rapists and murders, the answer is yes. For some guy with a big bag of pot? "No".

Since even minor drug arrests count towards "three strikes", you're building a large prison population composed of people who were not well connected enough or wealthy enough to aggressively resist conviction.

So, get busted for possession 3 times and it's 25-to-life in California. This is why California has the most expensive and overcrowded prison system in the country. From a liberal and libertarian point of view, this does not make any sense. The courts have already ruled on overcrowding, and many non-violent offenders will be released. If I told the average citizen that a state was adding hundreds of bureaucrats a day at 20-30K, they'd be outraged. But everyone equates more people in jail as being safer.

For marijuana, this is not the case.