Gov. Mitch Called A "Hypocrite"! Pot-Smoker!

http://www.suntimes.com/news/otherviews/4076407-452/pols-hypocrites-on-pot-penalties.html

Pols hypocrites on pot penalties

JACOB SULLUM jsullum@reason.com Mar 2, 2011 02:07AM

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Last week Mitch Daniels, Indiana’s governor, told the Daily Princetonian that “justice was served” when he was arrested for marijuana possession during his junior year at Princeton. But like many pot smokers who became politicians, Daniels, a potential contender for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination, seems to have two standards of justice: one for him and one for anyone else who does what he did.

Although Daniels was caught with enough marijuana to trigger a prison sentence, he got off with a $350 fine. Yet he has advocated “jail time” for “casual users” — a stark illustration of the schizophrenic attitudes that help perpetuate drug policies widely recognized as unjust.

According to the Princetonian, “Officers found enough marijuana in [Daniels’] room to fill two Size 12 shoe boxes.” Under current New Jersey law, possessing more than 50 grams (about 1.8 ounces) of marijuana is a felony punishable by up to 18 months in prison. Given the amount of pot Daniels had, he easily could have been charged with intent to distribute, which currently triggers a penalty of three to five years.

At the time of Daniels’ arrest in May 1970, New Jersey’s marijuana penalties were even more severe. Six months after his arrest, the New Jersey Supreme Court decided a case involving an 18-year-old who received a sentence of two to three years in prison after police found a pot pipe and part of a joint in his house.

Concluding that “the sentence was entirely too harsh,” the court ruled that “a suspended sentence with an appropriate term of probation is sufficient penalty for a person who is convicted for the first time of possessing marijuana for his own use.” But given the legal situation prior to this ruling, Daniels was very lucky to escape with no more than a fine. This lenient treatment was possible because he did not plead guilty to marijuana possession — only to the lesser offense of “maintaining a common nuisance.”

In 1989, when he was president of the Hudson Institute, Daniels recounted his brush with the law in a Washington Post op-ed piece. Amazingly, he did so in support of harsher treatment for “casual users,” whom he said were getting off too lightly.

A few years after Daniels called for a crackdown on drug users, the number of marijuana arrests in the U.S. began a steady climb, peaking at 873,000 in 2007, up from 327,000 in 1990. In 2009 there were 858,000 marijuana arrests, of which 87 percent were for possession.

The increase in pot busts has been especially dramatic in New York City under Mayor Michael Bloomberg. This is what Bloomberg said in 2001, shortly before he announced his candidacy for mayor, when a reporter asked him whether he had smoked marijuana: “You bet I did, and I enjoyed it.”

Bloomberg’s honesty was refreshing compared to the evasiveness of Bill Clinton, who said he’d tried pot without inhaling, and George W. Bush, who refused to address the subject. But whatever points Bloomberg earned for candor he lost for the blatant hypocrisy of his continuing anti-pot campaign. Likewise Barack Obama, another self-identified former pot smoker who stopped supporting marijuana decriminalization when he ran for president.

To his credit, Daniels today advocates criminal justice reform, including a reconsideration of sentences for nonviolent drug offenders. But if he really believes a fine is the appropriate penalty for someone caught with two shoeboxes of marijuana, he should at least support decriminalizing possession and treating it as a citable offense.

Currently in Indiana, the amount of pot Daniels had triggers a sentence of six months to three years.

Nothing of value there, huh, posters?

Nothing that warrants an opinion?

He should have been charged with a felony. Two size 12 shoe boxes full is enough to hold a couple of pounds of weed. I also found this about him:

Quote :

Eyewitness News learned the police raid happened May 14, 1970 in Cuyler Hall room 111, a two-bedroom suite where Daniels was staying with two friends.

Newspaper accounts reported that in addition to marijuana, an undercover officer bought other drugs, including LSD, during numerous visits to the room over about a three-month period. Another officer later testified he found enough marijuana there to fill two size-12 shoe boxes.

http://www.wthr.com/story/2186633/democrats-want-more-info-on-daniels-arrest?redirected=true

Hypocrite!

Why don't these politicians just legalize pot only and regulate it, and garner all the missing revenue?

I don't smoke it, but those I know of are very, very few ex-friends, and they never got a record on them for anything! (Ex-neighbors, ex-somebody of somebody).

UrRight wrote:

Hypocrite!

Why don't these politicians just legalize pot only and regulate it, and garner all the missing revenue?

Many reasons including the liquor industry lobbying against it.

Quote :

I don't smoke it, but those I know of are very, very few ex-friends, and they never got a record on them for anything! (Ex-neighbors, ex-somebody of somebody).

It's a pretty harmless drug compared to others,including liquor.

How stupid Indiana is, when they don't factor in the tourism, on a Sunday, when people are STUCK at campgrounds, want to buy booze, and can't "just cross over the border".

I remember Oracle stating it was an "old, blue law". Time for Indiana to realize that anyone in the liquor store business saying it would "cost so much to keep it open on Sundays," to look outside the box.

IL took advantage of this old, blue law, and doubled their prices on liquor.

Plus, the fact, lost revenue to the state of IN to IL on such a legal issue where, now we find "THE MAN, MITCH" was really a "PITCH".

I loathe for the day the tourism business will attract more people that pay dearly for their campground spots, and have the opportunity to patronize a business in a county where the job rate is low, even if it means opening on Sundays, and not having to drink at a sports bar or a golf place if they want a drink on a Sunday, and instead, keep the liquor industry open on Sundays.

I respectfully submit my opinion to those that I know get pissed off when they have to leave a place where they find, even on a "HOLIDAY THAT FALLS ON A SUNDAY," that "Mea-Culpa, we're from out of state, you mean, ya can't find a damn liquor store with carry-outs on a Sunday?"

Which affects new-comers visiting INDIANA, not aware of this stupid, backwards law! It's not, 1902!

Yet, we find politicians today who used and abused in the state of Indiana, all the way to Washington, D.C. and to fix the woes - they only have to "look backwards" to find out that, "forward" is the only way.

They are so damn stupid in Indianapolis, every state. All the governors are liars and hypocrites. No wonder people think their votes don't count.

Did ya read about Emanuel and his cronies who have a lot of money hidden? There ya go. No difference if you are an R, D, I or a GODSEND to "voters".

Little by little, all our rights are being trampled on. There soon will be no "middle class". Just the rich and the poor.

I've read enough to believe it.