The first thing you should notice is I have links to both the CATO Institute AND NORML for this baby.  This is a sick idea across the board and anybody from Right to Left with a modicum of respect for human libert ought to be HORRIFIED!

Senator James Sensebrenner (R-WI) is proposing a bill to impose mandatory 10 year minimum sentences on any individual 21 years of age or older who even conspires or attempts to furnish an illegal drug to any individual under the age of 18.  And that's not all!

Federal Bill Mandating 10 Years To Life For Pot Sales Reintroduced In Congress

April 21, 2005 - Washington, DC, USA

Washington, DC: House Judiciary Chair F. James Sensenbrenner (R-WI) has reintroduced legislation in Congress that seeks to impose mandatory minimum sentences on defendants who furnish a controlled substance, including marijuana, to any individual under 18 years of age or who has previously been enrolled in a drug treatment program. The bill, H.R. 1528, was approved last week by the House Judiciary, Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security, and is now pending before the full Committee.

Under H.R. 1528, any person age 21 or over who attempts or conspires to offer marijuana to someone younger than 18 years old shall face a mandatory sentence of 10 years in prison. The mandatory penalty for a subsequent violation of the statute is life in prison.

Defendants found to have distributed marijuana near a drug treatment facility, or who have offered it to someone who is currently or has previously been enrolled in drug treatment, would receive a mandatory prison sentence of five years to life under the proposal.

Sensenbrenner's bill also seeks to impose mandatory minimum sentences on defendants who have manufactured or distributed marijuana near various public and private establishments, including libraries, daycare centers, and video arcades, as well as impose life imprisonment upon individuals convicted of their third drug felony.

NORML Executive Director Allen St. Pierre called Sensenbrenner's proposal "draconian," stating that it would shift sentencing discretion away from courts to prosecutors and would sharply increase the number of non-violent offenders in prison.


Senator Senselessbrenner, how many more murderers, rapists, and batterers must we set free to make cell space for all the 22-year-old stoners who may pass a doobie to a sixteen-year-old stoner?  How many college dudes have to spend their 20s in the federal pen because teenagers happened to join the bong circle?
So much for the Republican party being the party of small government, and the party of "get the feds off your back!"
Senselessbrenner ought to be confined to the state hospital at Madison!

http://www.catoinstitute.com/pub_display.php?pub_id=3772
http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread20566.shtml

The first thing you should notice is I have links to both the CATO Institute AND NORML for this baby.  This is a sick idea across the board and anybody from Right to Left with a modicum of respect for human libert ought to be HORRIFIED!


First off, I think you mix up the CATO institute and the Heritage Foundation.  The CATO insitute is a libertarian think-tank, that is why they are against this.  The Heritage Foundation is a conservative think-tank.  Second, this bill might not even pass (though it did pass it's committee by a vote of 6-1,) it's a little early to be freaking out and whining that more pot-heads may be going to jail (boo-hoo.)

Senator Senselessbrenner

More like Representative Sensenbrenner.

Pot should at least be decriminalized, but the liquor lobbie would have kittens.

First off, I think you mix up the CATO institute and the Heritage Foundation.  The CATO insitute is a libertarian think-tank, that is why they are against this.  The Heritage Foundation is a conservative think-tank.  Second, this bill might not even pass (though it did pass it's committee by a vote of 6-1,) it's a little early to be freaking out and whining that more pot-heads may be going to jail (boo-hoo.)

More like Representative Sensenbrenner.


My mistake, I mean, Rep. Senselessbrenner.
This is the recent article posted on the Cato Institute's own website:
http://www.catoinstitute.com/pub_display.php?pub_id=3772

I don't think this bill will become law.  It does not pass Constitutional muster, AND it sets a bad precedent.  If the bill passed into law, Congress could start requiring citizens to snitch on people who possessed unregistered firearms or who did not report all income to the IRS.  It's the same reason Ashcroft's TIPS program went over like a lead balloon.  If the dope stool pigeon bill did become law, the courts would immediately declare it unconstitutional.  The Republicans would then have yet another reason to bellyache about "judicial activism"!
::)

Of course pot should be decriminalized.  We are filling the prisons with non-violent pot smokers, and small-time marijuana dealers.  All this does is derail their lives and careers, hurt their families, and subject them to the cruelty of the inhumane American penal system.  The answer GWB would give for this problem is, "Don't jail pot smokers, summarily execute them!"
:o

I was never a pot head, but


Decriminalize Pot