The Law Has Gone to Pot!

I learned some heartbreaking statistics yesterday regarding South Carolina and I'm upset about the craziness on so many levels.

Evidently marijuana, which is illegal in S.C., is used equally among people of all shades of brown.  However, arrests for possession of marijuana with intent to distribute, is about 8 times higher for people with darker brown skin and who are financially poor. That is, most people who use marijuana in this state are ecru, middle class males.  Most people who are imprisoned for marijuana charges are poor, dark brown people.

This is insane on several levels.

1. Law enforcement officials say that they are only "going after" law breakers, regardless of color.  Obviously, this is not the case.  There is just no way around it.
2. "Possession with intent to distribute," or fixing to sell, is defined as being caught with an ounce or more of weed.  It's a felony.  That's ridiculous. Anyone who was on a university campus in the '70s knows that having a lid (an ounce, more or less)  of pot doesn't mean you have an intent to sell.  Come on!  A bale, a few pounds. . . . that's probably an intent to distribute. An ounce? No way.  A felony!
3. We taxpayers pay a bundle to sniff out, arrest, try, and imprison people who are caught with an ounce of pot.  I'm not even talking about the cost of really screwing up the lives of the people who are arrested and their families. 
4. Marijuana is in the hands of criminals because our government has decided that it should be included with meth, cocaine, heroin, etc.  Alcohol is legal, tobacco is legal and the government makes big bucks by taxing and regulating those.  Alcohol and tobacco are addictive and kill people daily.  Yeah, all the time.  Marijuana?  Not so much.  No one has ever fatally overdosed on marijuana, there is a truck load of evidence that it is beneficial in many, many respects and it's certainly a safer pain management choice than opiates, which are legal, addictive as hell, and totally out of control.  Don't even get me started on that one.

Whether or not you want to use marijuana for medical or recreational reasons,  you surely realize that our law enforcement, judicial, and prison systems can be put to much better use than spending time on people who have an ounce of pot.  And surely everyone can understand that considering marijuana use as a "Black" problem is just mind-bogglingly ignorant. 

Because I believe that in a democracy, it is our duty to break unjust laws, I encourage everyone - especially ecru Boomers and older - to grow a marijuana plant or two in their gardens.  Grow it in your front yard.  You don't have to smoke it, just grow it.  And put a little sign beside the plant that Quotes Thomas Jefferson, saying "If a law is unjust, a man is not only right to disobey it, he is obligated to do so." 

I'm feeling obligated to do so.  Someone send me some seeds.  

I'm grateful.