Michigan Prosecutor's 'Diatribe' About Marijuana Ruins Case

[Shandar]

Munising, Mich. (AP) - A prosecutor's inflammatory remarks about medical marijuana have cost her a conviction in the Upper Peninsula.

The Michigan appeals court says Paul Heminger apparently was growing more marijuana than allowed under law, but the verdict last year was spoiled by the closing argument of the Alger County prosecutor.

The court says Karen Bahrman embarked on a "personal diatribe" to discredit the medical marijuana law. She told jurors that a local pro-marijuana group wants a "country where everybody can walk around stoned."

In a 3-0 decision Friday, the appeals court cited many other comments and said the prosecutor's argument was "thoroughly improper."

Bahrman didn't return a message seeking comment. Heminger was sentenced to six months in jail.

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[xtrchessreal]

More and more people are siding with the liberty to use and grow marijuana to the point that negative comments about using marijuana sounds ugly.

 

[J9BLACK]

She sees patients as Paulie Shores instead of the CEO in the corner office or the doctor, or the stay at home mom.

If I were cannabis I would be asking manknd, "Why exactly am I evil?"

 

[cleanslate]

If I were cannabis I would be asking mankind, "Why exactly am I evil?"

That is a very good question. I have been trying to nail down the supposed "harms" of cannabis and I cannot find anything other than innuendos of harm based on flawed studies or simply prejudicial value judgments (i.e. getting high or euphoria is bad). Even some who advocate for the use of cannabis will state that it can be harmful. How, exactly, is never spelled out. So if I am missing something I would like to know of any genuine harms from cannabis and the reasons and sources that present a compelling case for the existence such harms.

My intuition tells me that cannabis is prohibited not because it is bad for us but rather because it is astonishingly good for us, and the rest of the Earth's biosphere too. However, it is a threat to the death dealing and profiteering powers of this world--and that is why it is prohibited and persecuted.

 

[J9BLACK]

I think and hope that our great U$A is slowly emerging from the dark ages of ignorance. Also, the information age has been a great democratizer--which is dangerous to the established profiteering (to your point) powers. Here''s the conundrum for those powers, how to face the existential threat that is the truth about the world, America racism and dugs?

For instance, how can the USA gracefully back out one of the most egregious wars on humanity that is the War on Drugs? How does America apologize for decades upon decades of racist misapplication of justice that has ruined the lives, incarcerated and killed so many people of color? Sure, pardons and expungement for low level drug offenses without guns would be a good start. How about all of the fatherless families wrought by a policy that traded overt slavery for covert prison slavery?

 

[colorfuldayze]

I think and hope that our great U$A is slowly emerging from the dark ages of ignorance. Also, the information age has been a great democratizer--which is dangerous to the established profiteering (to your point) powers. Here''s the conundrum for those powers, how to face the existential threat that is the truth about the world, America racism and dugs?

For instance, how can the USA gracefully back out one of the most egregious wars on humanity that is the War on Drugs? How does America apologize for decades upon decades of racist misapplication of justice that has ruined the lives, incarcerated and killed so many people of color? Sure, pardons and expungement for low level drug offenses without guns would be a good start. How about all of the fatherless families wrought by a policy that traded overt slavery for covert prison slavery?

Ditto what you said J9BLACK! Well said, and ROTFLMAO @ Karen Bahrman's anecdotal and ignorant slander - thank you Bahrman for being low hanging fruit and exposing your and many others prejudice to things you don't and don't want to understand! Please move along and let folks who really care for people manage and implement sensible laws! Peace all

 

[Radogast]

That is a very good question. I have been trying to nail down the supposed "harms" of cannabis and I cannot find anything other than innuendos of harm based on flawed studies or simply prejudicial value judgments (i.e. getting high or euphoria is bad). Even some who advocate for the use of cannabis will state that it can be harmful. How, exactly, is never spelled out. So if I am missing something I would like to know of any genuine harms from cannabis and the reasons and sources that present a compelling case for the existence such harms.

My intuition tells me that cannabis is prohibited not because it is bad for us but rather because it is astonishingly good for us, and the rest of the Earth's biosphere too. However, it is a threat to the death dealing and profiteering powers of this world--and that is why it is prohibited and persecuted.

I think you are leaving out that other major political cartel: the Christian churches.
It is perceived as anti-church to have fun, be in bliss, or actually love other people.

Joy is bad.

The churches believe God has a copyright on joy and you don't get any bliss without his permission.
You really should even ask God to be happy until you get to heaven, unless you are born again in the church, then a little Christian happiness is allowed if your tithes to the church are caught up.

I'm not saying this is in the religion or the gospel of Christ, just one of the idea sold by the money loving political organizations known as organized Christianity over the centuries. The idea is stuck in our culture.

 

[painkills2]

Harms from marijuana: A few

Benefits: A gazillion

Case closed.

 

[cleanslate]

I think you are leaving out that other major political cartel: the Christian churches.
It is perceived as anti-church to have fun, be in bliss, or actually love other people.

Joy is bad.

The churches believe God has a copyright on joy and you don't get any bliss without his permission.
You really should even ask God to be happy until you get to heaven, unless you are born again in the church, then a little Christian happiness is allowed if your tithes to the church are caught up.

I'm not saying this is in the religion or the gospel of Christ, just one of the idea sold by the money loving political organizations known as organized Christianity over the centuries. The idea is stuck in our culture.

Christianity represents the truth about the Gospel of Jesus as much as reefer madness does cannabis. In truth, the cannabis plant, which some call the tree of life, parallels Jesus in remarkable ways. Cannabis is both liberating and healing. Yeshua (liberator) Xristos (from the Greek Xristus, a word for healer) is the liberator/healer who challenged cultural and religious oppression and healed and made whole the sick and infirmed. He was slandered and maligned by the religious authorities (Pharisees) as being a law breaker and a devil when he cast out demons (epileptic seizures) just as cannabis has been called the devil's weed and harmful and addictive. When in fact cannabis has helped many overcome addiction to harmful drugs.

Jesus sent out his disciples with oil -- not simply olive oil, but the holy anointing oil which had Kaneh Bosm (cannabis) as its primary active ingredient -- to heal and cast out demons. The law of Moses forbade ordinary people from using it, being reserved for priests and anointed kings. Jesus was a true anarchist (disregarding law for the sake of justice and compassion) and healer.

Jesus was not about "going to heaven" but about the Kingdom of God, (a new reality healing and transforming the Earth); "heaven" coming to those who are suffering in the hells on Earth. Does not cannabis liberate those who are oppressed and relieve the suffering of those in the hells on Earth?

Cannabis is not a drug, it is a herb; the holy, healing, herb. All who grow this gift from the creator for the benefit of those who need it are the true disciples of the liberator/healer.

 

[J189RFC]

Ummm did you all miss the part where the medical patient still did 6 months jail time? Prosecutor throws a case, the defendant still goes to jail. All this is saying that personal vendettas are not ok in court = unprofessional conduct. This is not pro or con cannabis.

 

[Radogast]

Ummm did you all miss the part where the medical patient still did 6 months jail time? Prosecutor throws a case, the defendant still goes to jail. All this is saying that personal vendettas are not ok in court = unprofessional conduct. This is not pro or con cannabis.

Yea.
So.
We got a little off topic.
Talk to my lawyer about it.

 

[xtrchessreal]

Ummm did you all miss the part where the medical patient still did 6 months jail time? Prosecutor throws a case, the defendant still goes to jail. All this is saying that personal vendettas are not ok in court = unprofessional conduct. This is not pro or con cannabis.

I took it to mean that her rant ended with a much lesser sentence. To me its still positive that she screwed her case. She'll have to wash her mouth out with cannabis and probably got a black mark on her career. IOW she'll have to be more sensitive with her bullshit.

 

[xtrchessreal]

It has been shown that cannabis was in use in Central Asia as much as 14,000 years ago. That is before Horus, Moses, Jesus,...etc. I find it troubling to see people associating the healing powers of cannabis to an imaginary man in the sky as though he existed let alone was responsible for making it so great for everyone. That is like saying the nutritional components of apples, oranges, carrots...the rest of the vegetation on this planet are here to keep us alive at the will of deities as well. I say there are billions of years of evolution and thousands of years of science that shows that we share 75% of the DNA of cannabis in our human bodies as well as the DNA of the other vegetation.

Yeah its a great herb and we have many great experiences with it. Maybe we learned how to make use of it through necessity found by trial and error as we evolved as a species. We have been known to figure a couple things out along the way...right?

 

[cleanslate]

It has been shown that cannabis was in use in Central Asia as much as 14,000 years ago. That is before Horus, Moses, Jesus,...etc. I find it troubling to see people associating the healing powers of cannabis to an imaginary man in the sky as though he existed let alone was responsible for making it so great for everyone. That is like saying the nutritional components of apples, oranges, carrots...the rest of the vegetation on this planet are here to keep us alive at the will of deities as well. I say there are billions of years of evolution and thousands of years of science that shows that we share 75% of the DNA of cannabis in our human bodies as well as the DNA of the other vegetation.

Yeah its a great herb and we have many great experiences with it. Maybe we learned how to make use of it through necessity found by trial and error as we evolved as a species. We have been known to figure a couple things out along the way...right?

I am not a Christian but I do not conflate Jesus of Nazareth with Christianity. Dismissing Jesus out of hand as an imaginary man in the sky is both dismissive and ignorant (i.e. Zeitgeist film and other such sources). The straw god, "God most high" (the all powerful sky deity) argument is a red herring that leads nowhere. A god most high does not exist, a fabrication of religion. However, there is evidence of a "god most low" a creative source in the very smallest of things such as bacteria and mycelium that are foundational and essential for life on this planet. Without them there would be no us, cannabis or any other multicelluar life forms on the Earth.

There is more to the universe than we know (96% is dark matter and energy) and when you go to the very small beyond molecules, atoms and subatomic particles toward the Planck length (smallest unit of space-time) an event horizon that we cannot penetrate with empirical science presents itself. There may be other ways of penetrating that even horizon with consciousness altering substances: cannabis, psilocybin mushrooms and DMT. Those substance are forbidden by the political and religious authorities because we may be given a brief glimpse of that creative source and presence that some call God -- God most low. And that has the potential to be very subversive and will destabilize the established order. The powers will resist this with all their resources and might.

Individuals like Jesus were able to see this in spite of religion not because of it. And he was crucified -- a form of capital punishment reserved for insurrectionists and rebellious slaves -- by the Roman governmental authorities at the behest of the religious authorities. The same authorities in the present day who fear and hate the cannabis plant for much the same reasons as they feared and hated Jesus.