As part of the research I was doing for the history of Lake County I had to see a trial to understand our Lake County machinery of law and order. I picked a case where the defendant was accused of illegally selling pot. The defendant pleaded not guilty. He said he was innocent. His defense was that he sold the pot to a sick person for medical use. To prove that he had to show four things:
1. A doctor recommended the pot as a medicine.
2. The doctor believed pot would make the patient better.
3. The pot was for personal use.
4. The amount was only what the patient needed.
Too bad for the defendant, the 10 pounds of pot he sold to the undercover detective didn’t exactly fit the bill. A sick person might benefit with a joint or two daily for sciatica, rheumatism and such. What the unhappy defendant sold the detective didn’t cut it under point number four. The defendant sold the detective 10 pounds at $1,200 a pound. The undercover policeman was sold enough personal use pot to last most sick folks a 120 years. To cinch the knot around the unhappy defendant’s neck, he had no license to grow and sell his pot. He was convicted.
The penalties were something else. Besides serving six months in the Lake County Hill Road Correctional Facility and paying a carload of expenses: Lab analysis fee; $205, conviction assessment fee; $60, a court operations administrative fee; $80, a criminal justice administrative fee; $90, he had to pay a restitution fine of $900. A grand total $1,335. And that was only for starters.
He had to also:
1. Stay in California while on probation.
2. Stay employed
3. Go to drug counseling
4. Submit to a search at any time.
5. Complete 200 hours of picking up trash, etc.
6. Carry or have no more than 2.5 grams of pot on his person, residence or vehicle.
7. Abstain from alcohol and stay out of bars
8. Never possess any small plastic bags, scales or weighing devices, recipes (any and all of which could be related to or used for pot).
9. Attend three Alcoholics Anonymous meetings per week.
10. Carry no “Herbal Clean” or “Klear” or similar product whose primary purpose is to mask out or flush the presence of drugs from the defendant’s system.
Author’s (surprised) comment: I have not smoked a joint since I was a lad more than 60 years ago. Nor have I any interest in ever doing so. Nevertheless, if I did, being so thoughtful as to have named Herbal Clear and Klear to mask the presence of drugs, would help a lot to fool the legal system.
As far as I know we are not winning the drug war. It doesn’t seem like we ever will. It just cost us taxpayers billions and it only gets worse. Also, as far as I know, not a single soul has ever died from pot. My dear wife was addicted to a drug worse than heroin; cigarettes. She died, like millions of others, from smoking cigarettes. How much longer will cigarettes be not only legal but supported by Congress with crop allowances?
Gene Paleno is an author and illustrator living in Witter Springs.
