Live data from Hacker News

Grateful Dead Fan Timothy Tyler Has Been Granted Clemency

liveforlivemusic.com

41–50 of 225 posts

Re: Grateful Dead Fan Timothy Tyler Has Been Granted Clemency

#41

Those infamous 'carrier weight' LSD laws where the weight of what the single drop of LSD is on counts as part of the drug in calculating the sentencing. And it's not even the dumbest 'war on drugs' law in our arsenal of dumb 'war on drugs' laws.

Call me cynical, but I don't think it is dumb. I think it is intentional.

It's dumb because even if they wanted to have that severe of a punishment for LSD specifically, they could do math and just make the sentence greater for smaller amounts of actual drug. Be as cynical as you like, but we'd see equivalent exaggerations for every other drug if your line of thinking made sense.

Re: Grateful Dead Fan Timothy Tyler Has Been Granted Clemency

#42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Call me cynical, but I don't think it is dumb. I think it is intentional.

It's dumb because even if they wanted to have that severe of a punishment for LSD specifically, they could do math and just make the sentence greater for smaller amounts of actual drug. Be as cynical as you like, but we'd see equivalent exaggerations for every other drug if your line of thinking made sense.

It depends on the audience for those drugs and their relationship to the people making laws. Take, for example, crack versus cocaine. Crack and cocaine are nearly identical drugs. Crack has the same sentence for one gram as cocaine does for eighteen. (The disparity used to be five times greater before 2010.) But crack users are more likely to be black, low-income, and less educated. I can't imagine why they'd be a preferred target for "tough on crime" legislation. Aside from, y'know, systemic, institutionalized racism (and good old-fashioned poor-stomping, but it is well-known that the War on Drugs was intended to target black people).

Similarly, LSD was widely associated with undesirables in the sixties and seventies--counter-culture movements. Do you have a better way to provide yourself with cover for attacking them?

If you're surprised or skeptical of either claim, I recommend you read Dan Baum's recent report regarding his discussions with John Erlichman and H.R. Haldeman's diaries[1] (themselves available in the Nixon Presidential Library). Both men were deep in the Nixon White House during the formation of the War on Drugs; it's illuminating stuff.

[0] - http://harpers.org/archive/2016/04/legalize-it-all/?single=1

[1] - http://www.nytimes.com/1994/05/18/us/haldeman-diary-shows-ni...

Re: Grateful Dead Fan Timothy Tyler Has Been Granted Clemency

#43
post #27
post #5

This is only related in that it's another person incarcerated over LSD, but I've always found this individual and his story pretty fascinating: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Leonard_Pickard http://www.freeleonardpickard.org/Skinner-Timeline.html The second link discusses Gordon Todd Skinner, who was the informant that facilitated the arrest of Pickard. I don't know how much of that information is accurate, bu…

VICE did a documentary on Krystle Cole, a friend of Mr. Skinner's prior to his arrest. It includes a tour of the missile silo that Skinner had been using as a lab. (NSFW - Drugs, Sex, etc.) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r7qliVpGEk0

Even more incredible is the perspective of Brandon Green, the man who Skinner is in jail for kidnapping and torturing. Brandon posted his version of events online at the end of last and beginning of this year: https://www.shroomery.org/forums/dosearch.php?uid=367971

I am totally in awe of his attempts to come to terms with what happened to him. I also credit him with the likely the greatest understatement I've ever read on the internet: "To all you guys who constantly say how badly they want to have sex with 'Neurosoup,' take it from me - I've been there and I can testify that its definitely not worth it!"

Re: Grateful Dead Fan Timothy Tyler Has Been Granted Clemency

#44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Call me cynical, but I don't think it is dumb. I think it is intentional.

It's dumb because even if they wanted to have that severe of a punishment for LSD specifically, they could do math and just make the sentence greater for smaller amounts of actual drug. Be as cynical as you like, but we'd see equivalent exaggerations for every other drug if your line of thinking made sense.

There's no math to determine the quantity of active ingredient in illicit substances. That requires analysis. Including the carrier keeps it simple. It's also self-aggrandizing, as it's much more impressive for the DEA to announce they've seized 10g of "LSD" than 10mg. Again, this is coming from an agency that is known to weight the root ball when calculating the yield of seized marijuana grows.

Re: Grateful Dead Fan Timothy Tyler Has Been Granted Clemency

#45
post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be clear I was not a Bernie supporter either(since you mention lobbying the electoral system), I just used the MJ example because it was easy and at hand. I do not support Trump either. By voting for someone I support, I am not voting anyone else into office, that is up to their supporters.

That makes sense emotionally, but in reality in FPTP you just enabled the even worse other party. If you want your voice fairly represented, you'll need other voting mechanisms and non-partisan districting mechanisms. Your wish is legitimate, but unfortunately the current system limits your useful actions.

There's no mathematical reason why the two winning parties in FPTP have to be the same two parties forever. It is the media coverage that makes it so, and concerted voting for a single third party could make that party part of a new duopoly.

Re: Grateful Dead Fan Timothy Tyler Has Been Granted Clemency

#46
post #5

This is only related in that it's another person incarcerated over LSD, but I've always found this individual and his story pretty fascinating: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Leonard_Pickard http://www.freeleonardpickard.org/Skinner-Timeline.html The second link discusses Gordon Todd Skinner, who was the informant that facilitated the arrest of Pickard. I don't know how much of that information is accurate, bu…

From jail, Pickard recently managed to publish a complex allegorical tale which (likely) includes his side of the story:

http://www.theroseofparacelsus.com

https://www.createspace.com/5377339

I have not yet read it. Here are a couple reviews:

http://psypressuk.com/2016/08/01/the-rose-of-paracelsus-by-w...

http://www.erismag.com/ss-blog/2016/2/22/illuminated-verbiag...

Re: Grateful Dead Fan Timothy Tyler Has Been Granted Clemency

#47

Always amazes me that LSD is illegal while alcohol is legal, the latter causing all host of metal and physical ailments, the former causing mostly hilarious navel-gazing

Alcohol is probably only legal because it's easy to make and has existed in the culture for ages, nothing to do with any ailments. History defines the laws far more than logic does.

Re: Grateful Dead Fan Timothy Tyler Has Been Granted Clemency

#48
It's crazy to spend that much time in jail for a nonviolent offense, and such a small amount of substance in the US.

The war on drugs is a big waste of many things. But to put it in perspective, I am currently living in SE Asia where you are informed by airline announcements and signs that drug trafficking is punishable by death in several of the countries here!

I'm from Brooklyn, but I live in Indonesia now. I'm currently in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. 138 Nigerians are awaiting death penalties in China, Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore at this time.

Re: Grateful Dead Fan Timothy Tyler Has Been Granted Clemency

#49

Always amazes me that LSD is illegal while alcohol is legal, the latter causing all host of metal and physical ailments, the former causing mostly hilarious navel-gazing

Alcohol is probably only legal because it's easy to make and has existed in the culture for ages, nothing to do with any ailments. History defines the laws far more than logic does.

Specific background: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twenty-first_Amendment_to_the_...

And the Ken Burns documentary is fantastic: http://www.pbs.org/kenburns/prohibition/

Re: Grateful Dead Fan Timothy Tyler Has Been Granted Clemency

#50
post #27
post #5

This is only related in that it's another person incarcerated over LSD, but I've always found this individual and his story pretty fascinating: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Leonard_Pickard http://www.freeleonardpickard.org/Skinner-Timeline.html The second link discusses Gordon Todd Skinner, who was the informant that facilitated the arrest of Pickard. I don't know how much of that information is accurate, bu…

VICE did a documentary on Krystle Cole, a friend of Mr. Skinner's prior to his arrest. It includes a tour of the missile silo that Skinner had been using as a lab. (NSFW - Drugs, Sex, etc.) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r7qliVpGEk0

It's kind of creepy to watch that in light of the link on Mr Skinner's history, which included allegations that Ms. Cole was an enthusiastic participant in the brutal torture of Brandon Green. The details are fairly disturbing. The narrator's awestruck tone sounds pretty nauseating in that light.
Post reply on HN