The Dem's desperation for The Pothead Vote will backfire because, being potheads and general slackers, they are less likely to actually show up to vote. That's why they want Election Day to be Election Month...so the Left's feral and drug-addled constituency can eventually figure out how to get the handfuls of ballots they were given by Democrat activists into a ballot box somewhere.
In the meantime, we can only wait until after a few months roll by to see how the murder rate has spiked due to this most recent Democrat Prison Purge.
Ann, with all due respect this column refutes your occasional claim that your years in law school were wasted. You are providing critical information here that I doubt a lot of people know...probably just astute lawyers like yourself and Law Enforcement Officers. Hopefully enough people will share this so that there's a greater understanding of what's actually happening.
Thank you so much for the excellent column and your essential insights.
“NO ONE GOES TO FEDERAL PRISON FOR MARIJUANA POSSESSION!”
There are people reading this post who will disagree with you and me. They believe there are people rotting in prison over marijuana just like the January 6 detainees. They are the ones who should be pardoned - for Trump’s stupidity.
When Pappy Mason had Eddie Byrnes executed while guarding a prosecution witness, a wake up call was sounded. The "War" on drugs shifted but the tide of urban street blood and violence literally stunk. Although todays murder rates are tragic, avoidable and atrocious they are nothing compared with 2,605 murders in NYC in 1990. It took a lot of people, two mayors and 5 or 6? police commissioners to turn it around.
Part of the effort was marijuana and I recall the effort against the Rastafarians in Queens. Eventually they gave us the moniker "The Helmet Punks" which we embraced as a compliment and an acknowledgement we were winning. Ultimately, they moved operation to Nassau Co. which didn't work either as that law enforcement agency is outstanding as well.
The convictions for felony weight marijuana were plea deals and the blood death and violence that came with marijuana was often not prosecuted. The most obvious reason why was the sheer volume of crime was overwhelming. Much of that decision making was expedient.
For all that has been made of broken windows policing, and I take nothing away from anyone, it really never was more than "Those are criminals, you're cops, get them and we'll jail them". Brilliant!
It has all been squandered and it gets worse daily. Of 6,500 people released, no one was in for a bag of weed.
I remember reading one of Ann's columns a few years ago about this very topic and my god did it completely open my eyes. NO ONE is in prison for smoking pot and every "non-violent drug offender" is a violent criminal or the head of some cocaine trafficking operation like Trump's favorite criminal Alice Marie Johnson. Of course Republicans will be too spineless to criticize this, after all like 80-90 percent of congressional Republicans voted for Trump's moronic First Step Act.
Oh and it won't stop at the apocryphal "non-violent drug offenders" because liberals are also continually pushing to release the most obviously guilty rapists and murderers on death row like Rodney Reed, Julius Jones, and Kevin Cooper. And Republicans are so desperate to prove they aren't racist and suck up to Kim Kardashian in the process that they'll go along with these efforts. Last year Oklahoma's Governor Stitt commuted Julius Jones' sentence. Even decent Republicans like Ted Cruz and Greg Abbot bought into the Rodney Reed innocence fraud. One of the most damaging consequences of the Trump presidency has been the GOP's embrace of "criminal justice reform."
Maybe this will backfire on him, depending on how quickly they are released. If people see an uptick in crime before the midterms, Republicans might do well.
And there I was thinking that I owned myself, that individual sovereignty was the basis of all modern morality, gosh, I'm such a fool...One does not have to be a libertarian to wonder why it is the govt puts itself between people and what they want to put in their bodies to get inebriated in the first place? I don't mean driving drunk or being a negligent or abusive parent, I mean why would a conservative ever consider this a matter that is not a free mans privilege to address as he sees fit. It's so tired, but it's still true we went though the same thing with alcohol prohibition. You can make a very strong case that organized crime was given a steroid boost under it then and is today.
Sure, you are correct regarding the practical reality of who gets busted by the Feds for possession. The actual reality of the deal making at the U.S. Atty level is truly mind boggling, this is merely one peek into it. But you'll get no argument from me on it, nor when Trump did it. I am more sympathetic to the DC folks but the same thing happens there too. In any event, I believe that using drugs or alcohol is a choice a free man can make to the degree he doesn't directly harm others. Just as with many other aspects of my liberty.
Let me offer that I actually do support civil legal intervention with addicts, Portugal did it quite successfully, particularly reducing teen drug use, and even cities like Newport RI are forcing civil confinement and either jail or a rehabilitation program with a halfway house etc. No choice - you are getting locked up for being vagrant or you are going into a program. I'm not about ignoring these people but they are a tiny pct of drug users.
Has Biden touched any issue that hasn't turned to shit in his skilled hands? We have a blowhard sociopathic narcissist in the White House, and that doesn't even touch on his growing dementia praecox, which has got to be obvious to all but the willfully blind. He, his brother, and son ran a nice influence peddling business out of the Obama White House, playing on the 3rd World theme of nepotism and favors. He is as crooked as they come and I can't imagine he will will complete 4 years with this country intact. Easily the worst thing that's ever happened to this country, exceeding the fabulists who like to liken January 6th to 9/11.
How were the evangelical Christian conservatives of the 80s and 90s so prophetic? When I was a kid, marijuana was called a gateway drug. Then people started laughing at the family values/just say no/anti drug vote. Libertarianism seeped into the republican party and leftist took over the narrative and all of a sudden laws outlawing Marijuana we're dropped.
Ann please write an article on how this happened. Except for those family values voters, i don't think anyone predicted how Marijuana turned into harder drugs, that and oxycodone turned so many Americans into hardcore users who will commit a number of crimes for a fix.
giving Californians gas credits 700 dollars I hear (buy your vote) to the DOJ maybe charging Hunter Biden for lesser crimes (see we aren’t weaponized). Oh and Hershel and his ex girlfriend? And there is Ann Coulter calling a spade a spade (Trump). That’s not a winning position we have to stick together like the Demos right? Principles be damned. Oh and abortion another moral truly unspeakable black
hole. Well needless to say Trump will be indicted soon. Good luck all!
So absolutely, many of these criminals probably had other charges, but that would have been a lot more work to prove by the police and prosecutors, with increased court costs in an already backed up legal system - so the criminal pleads "marijuana possession" and the lazy (or politically correct) prosecutor says "fine, that will at least get your crazy ass off the streets of a while so you can get straight" and accepts the deal.
So yes, this does not mean America's streets are safer, yet again Biden puts Americans at more and more risk - on every front Biden has zero regard for law abiding citizen's peace, safety, prosperity. What can we do? Vote them all out of office and reform the broken woke legal system.
The Dem's desperation for The Pothead Vote will backfire because, being potheads and general slackers, they are less likely to actually show up to vote. That's why they want Election Day to be Election Month...so the Left's feral and drug-addled constituency can eventually figure out how to get the handfuls of ballots they were given by Democrat activists into a ballot box somewhere.
In the meantime, we can only wait until after a few months roll by to see how the murder rate has spiked due to this most recent Democrat Prison Purge.
Ann, with all due respect this column refutes your occasional claim that your years in law school were wasted. You are providing critical information here that I doubt a lot of people know...probably just astute lawyers like yourself and Law Enforcement Officers. Hopefully enough people will share this so that there's a greater understanding of what's actually happening.
Thank you so much for the excellent column and your essential insights.
Any damn chance of getting an ANGRY Button in here?
“NO ONE GOES TO FEDERAL PRISON FOR MARIJUANA POSSESSION!”
There are people reading this post who will disagree with you and me. They believe there are people rotting in prison over marijuana just like the January 6 detainees. They are the ones who should be pardoned - for Trump’s stupidity.
You're actually teaching me something Ann. I never went to the logical conclusion that so many plead out to lesser crimes.
Thank you for following up on this insidious matter as well as frightening trafficking issue Ann.
When Pappy Mason had Eddie Byrnes executed while guarding a prosecution witness, a wake up call was sounded. The "War" on drugs shifted but the tide of urban street blood and violence literally stunk. Although todays murder rates are tragic, avoidable and atrocious they are nothing compared with 2,605 murders in NYC in 1990. It took a lot of people, two mayors and 5 or 6? police commissioners to turn it around.
Part of the effort was marijuana and I recall the effort against the Rastafarians in Queens. Eventually they gave us the moniker "The Helmet Punks" which we embraced as a compliment and an acknowledgement we were winning. Ultimately, they moved operation to Nassau Co. which didn't work either as that law enforcement agency is outstanding as well.
The convictions for felony weight marijuana were plea deals and the blood death and violence that came with marijuana was often not prosecuted. The most obvious reason why was the sheer volume of crime was overwhelming. Much of that decision making was expedient.
For all that has been made of broken windows policing, and I take nothing away from anyone, it really never was more than "Those are criminals, you're cops, get them and we'll jail them". Brilliant!
It has all been squandered and it gets worse daily. Of 6,500 people released, no one was in for a bag of weed.
Jim Ludwig NYPD,ESU (retired) '81-'01
I need a FML button.
I remember reading one of Ann's columns a few years ago about this very topic and my god did it completely open my eyes. NO ONE is in prison for smoking pot and every "non-violent drug offender" is a violent criminal or the head of some cocaine trafficking operation like Trump's favorite criminal Alice Marie Johnson. Of course Republicans will be too spineless to criticize this, after all like 80-90 percent of congressional Republicans voted for Trump's moronic First Step Act.
Oh and it won't stop at the apocryphal "non-violent drug offenders" because liberals are also continually pushing to release the most obviously guilty rapists and murderers on death row like Rodney Reed, Julius Jones, and Kevin Cooper. And Republicans are so desperate to prove they aren't racist and suck up to Kim Kardashian in the process that they'll go along with these efforts. Last year Oklahoma's Governor Stitt commuted Julius Jones' sentence. Even decent Republicans like Ted Cruz and Greg Abbot bought into the Rodney Reed innocence fraud. One of the most damaging consequences of the Trump presidency has been the GOP's embrace of "criminal justice reform."
Maybe this will backfire on him, depending on how quickly they are released. If people see an uptick in crime before the midterms, Republicans might do well.
And there I was thinking that I owned myself, that individual sovereignty was the basis of all modern morality, gosh, I'm such a fool...One does not have to be a libertarian to wonder why it is the govt puts itself between people and what they want to put in their bodies to get inebriated in the first place? I don't mean driving drunk or being a negligent or abusive parent, I mean why would a conservative ever consider this a matter that is not a free mans privilege to address as he sees fit. It's so tired, but it's still true we went though the same thing with alcohol prohibition. You can make a very strong case that organized crime was given a steroid boost under it then and is today.
Sure, you are correct regarding the practical reality of who gets busted by the Feds for possession. The actual reality of the deal making at the U.S. Atty level is truly mind boggling, this is merely one peek into it. But you'll get no argument from me on it, nor when Trump did it. I am more sympathetic to the DC folks but the same thing happens there too. In any event, I believe that using drugs or alcohol is a choice a free man can make to the degree he doesn't directly harm others. Just as with many other aspects of my liberty.
Let me offer that I actually do support civil legal intervention with addicts, Portugal did it quite successfully, particularly reducing teen drug use, and even cities like Newport RI are forcing civil confinement and either jail or a rehabilitation program with a halfway house etc. No choice - you are getting locked up for being vagrant or you are going into a program. I'm not about ignoring these people but they are a tiny pct of drug users.
Has Biden touched any issue that hasn't turned to shit in his skilled hands? We have a blowhard sociopathic narcissist in the White House, and that doesn't even touch on his growing dementia praecox, which has got to be obvious to all but the willfully blind. He, his brother, and son ran a nice influence peddling business out of the Obama White House, playing on the 3rd World theme of nepotism and favors. He is as crooked as they come and I can't imagine he will will complete 4 years with this country intact. Easily the worst thing that's ever happened to this country, exceeding the fabulists who like to liken January 6th to 9/11.
do you KNOW how many times I'm talking with friends about the issues of the day and find myself commenting "Ann's been saying this for years!" ??
Well said Ann! Evidence of a third World Country once again.
This is slightly off topic.
How were the evangelical Christian conservatives of the 80s and 90s so prophetic? When I was a kid, marijuana was called a gateway drug. Then people started laughing at the family values/just say no/anti drug vote. Libertarianism seeped into the republican party and leftist took over the narrative and all of a sudden laws outlawing Marijuana we're dropped.
Ann please write an article on how this happened. Except for those family values voters, i don't think anyone predicted how Marijuana turned into harder drugs, that and oxycodone turned so many Americans into hardcore users who will commit a number of crimes for a fix.
Democrats play to win. Newsom
giving Californians gas credits 700 dollars I hear (buy your vote) to the DOJ maybe charging Hunter Biden for lesser crimes (see we aren’t weaponized). Oh and Hershel and his ex girlfriend? And there is Ann Coulter calling a spade a spade (Trump). That’s not a winning position we have to stick together like the Demos right? Principles be damned. Oh and abortion another moral truly unspeakable black
hole. Well needless to say Trump will be indicted soon. Good luck all!
Ann is absolutely right on this one. Just check out https://www.justia.com/criminal/plea-bargains/reasons-to-accept-a-plea-bargain/ and notice their very first paragraph "usually, a plea bargain involves getting a lesser charge on a defendant’s criminal record and receiving a more lenient penalty."
So absolutely, many of these criminals probably had other charges, but that would have been a lot more work to prove by the police and prosecutors, with increased court costs in an already backed up legal system - so the criminal pleads "marijuana possession" and the lazy (or politically correct) prosecutor says "fine, that will at least get your crazy ass off the streets of a while so you can get straight" and accepts the deal.
So yes, this does not mean America's streets are safer, yet again Biden puts Americans at more and more risk - on every front Biden has zero regard for law abiding citizen's peace, safety, prosperity. What can we do? Vote them all out of office and reform the broken woke legal system.