 On Point Vincent Carroll, editor of the editorial pages, writes his On Point column most weekdays. He is also an author and freelance writer. Reach Vincent Carroll at carrollv@RockyMountainNews.com. |
Carroll: Reefer madness
Pointless harassment. What else is it when police arrest and prosecutors charge someone for growing pot even though the fellow possesses a Colorado medical marijuana registry card?
Why bother squandering supposedly scarce public resources on such an effort — even if the marijuana user has exceeded the official six-plant limit?
When police stormed into the home of 38-year-old Kevin Dickes a month ago in response to a tip, they apparently weren’t aware of the Auroran’s registry card. Or at least that fact wasn’t mentioned on the warrant, his attorney tells me. But prosecutors obviously knew about the card when they charged him with cultivating marijuana — an unfortunate waste of their time and your money.
Yes, police say they found 71 plants, although attorney Robert Corry insists most were inch-high starters hardly worthy of the name. You need to grow more than six in order to get the right number of plants to root and bloom, he insists.
But even if he’s wrong, voters didn’t lay down a hard-and-fast limit of six plants when they approved the use of medicinal marijuana in 2000. They also created the following exemption: “For quantities of marijuana in excess of these amounts, a patient or his or her primary care-giver may raise as an affirmative defense to charges of violation of state law that such greater amounts were medically necessary to address the patient’s debilitating medical condition.”
If this case goes to trial, in other words, Dickes will argue — or, better yet for this Desert Storm veteran, perhaps his doctor will argue — that he needs to cultivate more than six plants to manage the pain of injuries he suffered from an exploding grenade. What kind of hard-hearted jury will want to call him a liar?
By the way, the authors of Colorado’s medical marijuana amendment were so incompetent — or maybe so downright devious — that they basically gave a card-carrying patient like Dickes only two ways to obtain enough of the stuff: Exceed the six-plant growing limit and hope to persuade a court that he had no choice, or head to the black market to buy from a pusher.
Now that Dickes’ basement farm has largely been seized as evidence, where do you suppose he’s likely to get his pain reliever of choice these days?
Some victory for law enforcement.
The cereal cops
“Examples of products that do not meet Kellogg’s new standard for advertising to kids include .. . . Rice Krispies (too high in sodium).”
— press release, Center for Science in the Public Interest
Kids have been eating Rice Krispies for three-quarters of a century, and for all but a few of those years they’ve been targeted by the supposedly sinister advertising spells of the gnomes Snap, Crackle and Pop. It is a wonder any of us survived to tell the tale.
Thanks to the tireless efforts (and threatened lawsuit) of the Center for Science in the Public Interest, however, future generations will be spared such scarring experiences. Kellogg’s will stop advertising Rice Krispies, as well as a number of other products, in any medium in which children under 12 make up “50 percent or more of the audience.”
You can tell that a civilization is in decline when such a deal is hailed as a great victory for children’s health.
Vincent Carroll is editor of the editorial pages. Reach him atCarrollv@RockyMountainNews.com.
LOL!
Getting it from a "pusher"?
Marijuana dealers are hard to find for adults with respectable careers and a lack of slacker friends.
They're certainly not breaking down my door.
Thanks for the chuckle.
Posted by Carroll's a putz! on June 19, 2007 02:29 PMI make over 200K a year and smoke regularly with my doctor and lawyer. The idea that marijuana is a "slacker" drug is such an archaic viewpoint.
Posted by on June 19, 2007 11:20 PMNaw, but when you get busted, I will cheer.
Posted by Dravur on June 20, 2007 01:42 PM