Bong Water Is Now A Crime

[Weedpipe]

The Minnesota Supreme Court, in a 4-3 decision, has now ruled that Bong Water (water which had been used in a water pipe) was a “mixture” of “25 grams or more” supporting a criminal conviction for Controlled Substance crime in the first degree. The crime is the most serious felony drug crime in Minnesota, with a maximum penalty of 30 years in prison for a first offense. The case is Minnesota v Peck, A08-579, Minnesota Supreme Court, October 22, 2009.

The majority opinion takes a literal view, arguing in essence that any amount of a substance dissolved in water makes that water a “mixture” containing that substance. Perhaps. But, since Minnesota’s criminal prohibition laws are organized to make greater quantities of drug possession a more serious crime than smaller quantities, such a simple-minded view defeats the purpose of the quantity-based severity levels.

If a person possessed one-tenth of a gram of metha*mphetamine, they could be charged with a Controlled Substance Fifth Degree crime, with a five-year maximum. But - dissolve the one-tenth of a gram in 26 grams of water, on purpose or by accident, and now under this new decision from the Minnesota Supreme Court, that can be prosecuted as Controlled Substance First Degree – with a 30 year prison term. Just add water for five times the sentence!

In the case of marijuana, a non-criminal amount under 42.5 grams smoked through a bong could give the police and government lawyers the legal right to charge a felony drug crime with possible prison time – not for the marijuana, but for the bong water! Is the law a bad joke?

This defeats the legislative purpose of treating larger quantities more harshly. Worse – it makes no sense. It is absurd.

What is a bong? It is a water pipe. A water pipe, such as a bong, can be used to smoke tobacco, marijuana, m*thamphetamine (as in the Peck case), or anything that can be smoked. Smokers view the water which has been used to filter and cool the smoke as something disgusting, not unlike a used cigarette filter, to be discarded – sooner or later. The used water is not commonly used for any other purpose. Apparently a naive or misguided police officer testified otherwise in the Peck case, and – amazingly -the four in the majority of the court appears to have given that testimony credit.

In general courts have made efforts to prevent police and government lawyers from having the ability to manipulate the facts or evidence in such a way as to either create criminal liability for targeted people, or, to increase the penalty the target might suffer. Here is an instance to the contrary.

If the government wants to charge a more serious drug crime – what to do? Just add water! (Water is heavy – heavier than drugs. Drug crimes are based on weight. Water is not currently defined by law as an illegal drug.)

We are all aware by now of the frequent news reports about the drugs in the rivers and most of our municipal water supplies (not concentrated enough to hurt us, we are reassured). Type “in water supply” into your favorite internet search engine and you can read thousands of reports of scientific studies documenting this. As a result, if you have water sourced from a river, like we do in Minneapolis, then you could now be charged with a Minnesota Controlled Substance First Degree Crime (toilets tanks hold way more than 25 grams of water with illegal drugs dissolved).

What can be done about this particular absurd injustice?
1. Ask the legislature to repeal the criminal prohibition laws.
2. Remember this case at election time. Vote! You can vote for or against Minnesota Supreme Court candidates, including incumbents. The four Justices who voted for the bad, majority decision were: Justice G. Barry Anderson, Chief Justice Eric J. Magnuson, Justice Lorie Skjerven Gildea, and Justice Christopher J. Dietzen (four out of seven on the court).
3. Jury Nullification, or the rule of jury lenity. Jurors have legal rights to acquit, despite the facts, despite the judges instructions on the law. Just do it!
3. Remove all water sourced from rivers from your home and office, including toilets, in the meantime.

At least the dissenting opinion, by Justice Paul H. Anderson, joined by Justice Alan C. Page, and Justice Helen M. Meyer, exhibits common sense. It’s a good read (link at the beginning of this article). It is shocking that four in the majority could have possibly disagreed with the dissenters.

It’s time to change the laws. This absurdity makes it all too clear.


News Hawk- Weedpipe 420 Magazine
Source: Minneapolis Criminal Law News
Author: Thomas Gallagher
Contact: Minneapolis Criminal Law News
Copyright: WordPress.com
Website:Minnesota Court Waters Down Legal Definition of Illegal Drugs: Toilet Water Now Criminal to Possess Minneapolis Criminal Law News

[Oddnonsmoker]

Originally Posted by Weedpipe

...
Just add water for five times the sentence!

As facetious and ridiculous this sounds, it's true. Cops will nab you for your edibles like this. That brownie might be 80% flour, but as far as the police are concerned, it's straight THC. Logically, one would test for %psychoactives by mass and multiply it by the mass of contraband seized to obtain a figure to sentence by, but that would be too smart and not underhanded enough for the police to implement. By their logic, if a person dumped a kilo of coc*aine into a city reservoir, then the city could be charged for possessing literally megatons of coc*aine. If somebody caught a fish out of that reservoir, they could be charged for possessing a mixture of illegal drugs.

It makes about as much logical sense to me as homeopathic dilution.

[baller7764]

Glad I don't live there is all I can say.

[cocoJoe]

You have to love the midwest. Sitting in a LA apartment with my cousin from Chicago, I asked him "why did you move out here". He answered "Everyone back there has a corncob in their back pocket". Nuff said!!

I forgot to say the year of this encounter, it was 1971!!!!!! somethings don't change.

[Joe Coffee]

I guess the moral of the story is to change your bong water after every use...
or that rolling papers are safer... I don't know, it's the stupidest thing I have ever heard of... Just legalize marijuana and save tax payers billions annually on this moronic witch hunt, tax the hell out of it and make it a revenue for the local, state and federal governments and use the money for something good like better schools or health care or whatever.

[PitViper]

just amazing

[Dain Bramage]

were thay drinking the bong water when thay made that dission?

[michaelkaer]

I have seen some real crazy notions in my time, but this in is come out of some twilight zone.

[surfin365]

Narrow Minded Baby Boomers!!!

[Cherma]

The Minnesota Supreme Court, in a 4-3 decision, has now ruled that Bong Water (water which had been used in a water pipe) was a “mixture” of “25 grams or more” supporting a criminal conviction for Controlled Substance crime in the first degree. The crime is the most serious felony drug crime in Minnesota, with a maximum penalty of 30 years in prison for a first offense. The case is Minnesota v Peck, A08-579, Minnesota Supreme Court, October 22, 2009

.

If this is what, who, and why we instruct and pay our illustrious Minnesota Supreme Court justices for. THAN, They are all FIRED!!! Geez Louise said Socrates.. WTF? This type of wasted time on policy making is trash, it is not called for, without sounding harsh or brash about this either. Enough is Enough!
Anyone and all involved in this should be publicly admonsihed, in fact a perfect sentence for them would be to Drink that Bong water in a public setting for all to see..

We all believe there are much better Items to regulate in the Minnesota Courts at this time other than Bong Water.
Unless they saw the Michael Phelps episode as a " Time to get the Bong Water too" syndrome.

[Brubeck69]

utter lunacy. This isnt even funny, it just makes me fucking angry. I thought there were some pretty back-assward attitudes to pot flying around this country but this takes the cake. I've only lived in the US 2 years but I'm seriously considering leaving these days. The prohibitionist bullshit is just too stifling. Everyone still calls it 'marijuana' here for fucks sake, even the folk trying to have it leagalised. Marijuana is a slang term, always was. Its derrogatory and carries very negative connotations. People need to start using its proper scientific name, Cannabis, if any progress is to be made.

[tcglaw]

Thanks Weedpipe, for sharing my blog:
Minnesota Court Waters Down Legal Definition of Illegal Drugs: Toilet Water Now Criminal to Possess Minneapolis Criminal Law News

This story has been getting widely followed, and rightly so. Some blog comments on it have said in effect:

"Hooray! This is the desparate last gasp of the Prohibitionsits!" I tend to agree.

This is story of "The Emporer's New Clothes." The average person does not beleive that a trace amount should be treated to same as 50 kilos - yet it cna be in Minnesota now. This means the average person in Minnesota cannot deny that the law is morally wrong - evil unto itself; and a tool of injustice.

We are tearing down the drug Prohibition laws, and the government lawyers and a few of their allies on the bench just helped us.

The battle is on, and we will win.

Thomas C Gallagher, Lawyer
Gallagher Criminal Defense Services
310 Fourth Avenue South, Suite 8000
Minneapolis MN 55415
Office: 612-455-6162
Cell: 612-333-1500
tcglaw@gmail.com
www.Liberty-Lawyer.com
www.mpls-criminal-lawyer.com
http://minneapoliscriminallawyer.liberty-lawyer.com/

[StonyGeoff]

Lame :(

[Joe Coffee]

So what's next in Minnesota? Does this mean if they catch someone with a pipe they will be charged for having over an ounce on them???? Stupid is Stupid does....

[Altanon]

I suggest they make the Persecutor ... ah, Prosecutor ... drink some bong water. While never having actually drank any, I have had the occasional unfortunate droplet find its way into my mouth, and that was more than enough!