Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Child endangerment laws are enough. Are they, for small doses?
Drugs are either harmful or they're not. If/when they demonstrably are, those laws should be enough.
Aspirin is harmful. Water is harmful.
New Orleans man locked up nearly 8 years awaiting trial, then case gets tossed
71–80 of 119 posts
Re: New Orleans man locked up nearly 8 years awaiting trial, then case gets tossed
#72There's an inmate in LA County jail who has been there 9 years awaiting trial on attempted murder. He is completely and totally institutionalized. A very nice guy but intimidating. Cops can arrest you for any reason, and if you can't make bail, then they place you in jails with convicted violent felons, some on murder trials. In LA jails, you have to be racist. Depending on your pod and program, you have special requ…
Sincere question -- how do we spot things like this? Let's pretend for a moment that I'm a relatively competent programmer with small amounts of disposable income to spend on hobbies, such as running algorithms over government datasets. (Okay, that's a weird one -- but I think it's good to apply my craft towards politics.) I know a lot about making computers scan through large sets of data looking for patterns, and s…
That sounds like a good way to end up in the slammer yourself.
Re: New Orleans man locked up nearly 8 years awaiting trial, then case gets tossed
#73There's an inmate in LA County jail who has been there 9 years awaiting trial on attempted murder. He is completely and totally institutionalized. A very nice guy but intimidating. Cops can arrest you for any reason, and if you can't make bail, then they place you in jails with convicted violent felons, some on murder trials. In LA jails, you have to be racist. Depending on your pod and program, you have special requ…
There's an inmate in LA County jail who has been there 9 years awaiting trial on attempted murder. He is completely and totally institutionalized. A very nice guy but intimidating.
If he didn't go in a killer, he sure as hell should be ready to take a life by now. If someone robbed me of 9 years of my life, I'd make it my mission to rob them of any joy in their life.
Re: New Orleans man locked up nearly 8 years awaiting trial, then case gets tossed
#74This is outright extorsion for bail money.
Re: New Orleans man locked up nearly 8 years awaiting trial, then case gets tossed
#75Earlier quoted context omitted.
Crime of consumption or mere possession, I fully agree. Even distribution of something like pot, sure. But at the same time, I'm not sure that a rational individual has to agree with the proposition that somebody who's peddling fentanyl should not be put in jail. (I don't think, from what I know, that distribution of crack would be in that latter group.)
Legalize heroin and then nobody will peddle fentanyl. Crises solved, see Portugal for an example in the real world. Making drugs illegal only really benefits drug dealers by putting the competition in jail and raising prices. Education and laws seem to fare so much better. See alcohol now and compare that to prohibition days rife with organized crime. It's political suicide to legalize street drugs in most countries…
In 2012, about 3.3 million net deaths, or 5.9% of all global deaths, were attributable to alcohol consumption.
http://www.who.int/substance_abuse/facts/alcohol/en/
Legalizing drugs without more thought may actually make the problem worse. If drugs were 100% fully legal no restrictions why wouldn't corporations start advertising and pushing them as much as they do alcohol today?
I'm actually for legalizing drugs but heard these arguments on an Intelligence Squared debate.
BTW: Heroin isn't legal in Portugal, it's just decriminalized. You can still go to prison for selling heroin in Portugal and using, while not a criminal offense will still get you sent in to the authorities for "dissuasion"
Re: New Orleans man locked up nearly 8 years awaiting trial, then case gets tossed
#76There are many cases of defendants' right to a speedy trial being trampled. I'm not completely convinced this is a particularly great example of that. He was arrested while on parole, which is why he didn't get out on bail. Many of the delays came from his side. If it had gone to trial, the prosecution would have only had to prove he was guilty by a preponderance of the evidence. So the long time in detention could h…
I don't see any case where 8 years feels like due process though.
The pipeline is based on plea bargains. Wanting a trial shouldn't take 8 years, ever.
Re: New Orleans man locked up nearly 8 years awaiting trial, then case gets tossed
#77Earlier quoted context omitted.
Hmm, I’m not so sure we should allow people to sell fentanyl pops or cocaine to kids without going to prison. Not arguing against your point broadly, but that’s exactly the type of response that would sink an effort to remove imprisonment for non violent drug crimes. As I see it, we need both a propaganda campaign pointing out how nuts the drug laws are in addition to some recognizable way of incrementally easing the…
One of the big problems in America is simply not effectively treating drug use and addiction. Putting people in jail doesn't stop drug use. You're talking about big distributors, not individual users. Portugal has probably had the best response to drug use, evaluation each case individually and helping people quit drugs when it interferes with their lives.
Well, I thought we were discussing “any non-violent drug crime”. Obviously i’m for rehabilitaion for users; what would the downside be? Could you educate me?
Re: New Orleans man locked up nearly 8 years awaiting trial, then case gets tossed
#78Earlier quoted context omitted.
Hmm, I’m not so sure we should allow people to sell fentanyl pops or cocaine to kids without going to prison. Not arguing against your point broadly, but that’s exactly the type of response that would sink an effort to remove imprisonment for non violent drug crimes. As I see it, we need both a propaganda campaign pointing out how nuts the drug laws are in addition to some recognizable way of incrementally easing the…
> I’m not so sure we should allow people to sell fentanyl pops or cocaine to kids without going to prison. You don't need specific drug laws for that. Child endangerment laws are enough.
This is possibly true; i have no clue what these laws entailed. So imagine trying to convince the rest of the country.
Re: New Orleans man locked up nearly 8 years awaiting trial, then case gets tossed
#79Earlier quoted context omitted.
Previous drug charge ? Does that mean that he wasn't convicted the first time, either? The only thing "habitual" there, then, would be the police's desire to arrest him.
He was a parolee on the previous charge, which means he was convicted, sentenced to incarceration, and released from that incarceration on parole.
Or, most likely, a plea bargain. Which is an entire other can of worms.