Jacob Redmond
Well-Known Member
Three men arrested in recent weeks could get life in prison after being caught with small amounts of edible marijuana products, a fact that has sparked an outcry from some Amarillo residents.
Potter County sheriff's deputies arrested Eli McCarthy Manna, 30, and Andrew Bruce George, 27, after stopping them for an unspecified traffic violation March 16.
The men were found to be in possession of seven purple brownies weighing a total of 650 grams which, being more than 400 grams, triggered the most severe punishment range for drug possession under Texas law - 10 years to life in prison and a fine of up to $50,000.
Ten days later, Texas Department of Public Safety troopers arrested Fernando Bejarano, 19, of Tulsa, Okla., after stopping him on an unspecified traffic violation.
Troopers found more than 800 grams of prepackaged baked goods and candies containing THC, the psychoactive compound in marijuana.
The products included assorted Edipure gummies and vanilla chai-flavored Kiva mini chocolates, which are available over the counter where such products are legal. He was booked into Potter County jail on the same charge as Manna and George.
"The fact of the matter is people are getting arrested in the counties in the Panhandle on a regular basis for doing very little 'bad,' even according to our own laws - and nothing wrong according to the laws of Colorado and many other states," Amarillo lawyer Jeff Blackburn said. "This is nonsense; these are not serious felonies."
Blackburn is known for being the founder and chief council of the Innocence Project of Texas and for his work leading to the exoneration of 35 people who were wrongly convicted in a 1999 drug bust in Tulia and eventually pardoned by then-Gov. Rick Perry.
The high-stakes charges stem from the treatment of marijuana-infused foods as controlled substances - similar to cocaine and methamphetamine - and a section of Texas law that incorporates the volume of "adulterants and dilutents" into the total volume of controlled substances.
For example, if a person possessed less than 2 ounces of marijuana, that person would face a Class B misdemeanor under Texas law, which carries a maximum penalty of 180 days in jail and a fine of up to $2,000.
But if that person cooks the same amount of marijuana with 4 sticks of butter, that person then possesses about 454 grams of a controlled substance - enough to warrant a life sentence under Texas law.
A shop three hours from Amarillo in Trinidad, Colo., sells one popular chocolate bar containing THC for about $20, the shopkeeper said. The bars weigh 45 grams. Less than 10 of those chocolate bars could land a Texan in prison for a mandatory minimum of 10 years.
"When you mix c*caine with anything or m*th with anything or P*P, or any of the Schedule 1 drugs, we weigh it and its adulterants as a single product ... the strength level does not matter," Trooper Daniel Hawthorne said during an interview Friday.
"In other words, if you take one drop of hash oil and put it in a gallon of water, you're going to be charged with a gallon of a controlled substance," Blackburn said. "That is just medieval and stupid. ... This is where the law in Texas becomes hyper-technical and very repressive."
On Friday, Hawthorne recalled stopping a van while on patrol years ago. Men in the van possessed a small vial with an unknown amount of P*P, he said. As they were being pulled over, the men panicked and dumped the vial into a cooler.
When DPS investigators drained the P*P and melted ice mixture from the cooler and measured the volume, the men faced a charge of possession of 4 gallons of P*P.
Law enforcement is unable to separate food particles from drug particles, Hawthorne said. The number of variables and the complexity of the task would make the law so cumbersome it would be virtually unenforceable, he said.
"The reason it's that way is ... it would be impossible to set up a scale where you estimated the THC per weight of - whatever," he said.
Amarillo activist Shane Cox, founder of Amarillo Cannabis Culture, a group dedicated to the legalization of and education about marijuana, said he is outraged by the law.
"To receive a life sentence for a plant that has never been linked to an overdose, is safer than alcohol, is used medically in 23 states and is legal for recreational use in four states and in Washington, D.C. - it's ridiculous," he said. "Sugar in the brownies has caused more deaths in this country than the cannabis."
Despite any personal feelings, Hawthorne said, police are bound by oath to uphold the laws where they practice.
"The fact that it's become socially acceptable in some areas ... has no effect on us," Hawthorne said, "I don't have the authority to make judgment calls. That's for a judge to do, not me. That's for a jury to do."
Blackburn disagreed.
"Cops are not robots. Prosecutors are not robots," he said. "Law enforcement has a lot of discretion in how they treat people, and DAs have a lot in how they handle these cases when they get to court."
Texas law allows law enforcement agencies to ticket people for misdemeanor possession of up to 4 ounces of marijuana, instead of making arrests.
Amarillo Police Department does not issue citations for marijuana possession. Potter County deputies are allowed the choice to issue citations instead of making an arrest, Lt. Patrick Zamora said. In 2014, Potter County deputies issued three citations for Class B misdemeanor marijuana possession, or in about 13 percent of cases.
"I do not believe that most taxpayers, even in the Panhandle, are in favor of this hyper-repressive approach to marijuana laws," Blackburn said. "I think the verdict in the Tim Stevens case ... is a pretty good example."
An Amarillo jury acquitted Tim Stevens, a then-53-year-old HIV patient, in 2008 after he was charged with possession of marijuana he used to control chronic nausea and vomiting. It was the first medical-use acquittal in Texas, Blackburn said, and took the jury only 12 minutes of deliberation.
"If you can over-charge people, you can over-convict them. And if you over-convict them, you over-punish them," Blackburn said. "Every single one of us has an interest in not letting the government run amok."
News Moderator: Jacob Redmond 420 MAGAZINE ®
Full Article: It started with purple brownies: Drug policy creates local outcry in Panhandle | Lubbock Online | Lubbock Avalanche-Journal
Author: JC Cortez
Contact: ajnews@lubbockonline.com
Photo Credit: Stephen Carter
Website: Lubbock Online | Lubbock Avalanche-Journal
Potter County sheriff's deputies arrested Eli McCarthy Manna, 30, and Andrew Bruce George, 27, after stopping them for an unspecified traffic violation March 16.
The men were found to be in possession of seven purple brownies weighing a total of 650 grams which, being more than 400 grams, triggered the most severe punishment range for drug possession under Texas law - 10 years to life in prison and a fine of up to $50,000.
Ten days later, Texas Department of Public Safety troopers arrested Fernando Bejarano, 19, of Tulsa, Okla., after stopping him on an unspecified traffic violation.
Troopers found more than 800 grams of prepackaged baked goods and candies containing THC, the psychoactive compound in marijuana.
The products included assorted Edipure gummies and vanilla chai-flavored Kiva mini chocolates, which are available over the counter where such products are legal. He was booked into Potter County jail on the same charge as Manna and George.
"The fact of the matter is people are getting arrested in the counties in the Panhandle on a regular basis for doing very little 'bad,' even according to our own laws - and nothing wrong according to the laws of Colorado and many other states," Amarillo lawyer Jeff Blackburn said. "This is nonsense; these are not serious felonies."
Blackburn is known for being the founder and chief council of the Innocence Project of Texas and for his work leading to the exoneration of 35 people who were wrongly convicted in a 1999 drug bust in Tulia and eventually pardoned by then-Gov. Rick Perry.
The high-stakes charges stem from the treatment of marijuana-infused foods as controlled substances - similar to cocaine and methamphetamine - and a section of Texas law that incorporates the volume of "adulterants and dilutents" into the total volume of controlled substances.
For example, if a person possessed less than 2 ounces of marijuana, that person would face a Class B misdemeanor under Texas law, which carries a maximum penalty of 180 days in jail and a fine of up to $2,000.
But if that person cooks the same amount of marijuana with 4 sticks of butter, that person then possesses about 454 grams of a controlled substance - enough to warrant a life sentence under Texas law.
A shop three hours from Amarillo in Trinidad, Colo., sells one popular chocolate bar containing THC for about $20, the shopkeeper said. The bars weigh 45 grams. Less than 10 of those chocolate bars could land a Texan in prison for a mandatory minimum of 10 years.
"When you mix c*caine with anything or m*th with anything or P*P, or any of the Schedule 1 drugs, we weigh it and its adulterants as a single product ... the strength level does not matter," Trooper Daniel Hawthorne said during an interview Friday.
"In other words, if you take one drop of hash oil and put it in a gallon of water, you're going to be charged with a gallon of a controlled substance," Blackburn said. "That is just medieval and stupid. ... This is where the law in Texas becomes hyper-technical and very repressive."
On Friday, Hawthorne recalled stopping a van while on patrol years ago. Men in the van possessed a small vial with an unknown amount of P*P, he said. As they were being pulled over, the men panicked and dumped the vial into a cooler.
When DPS investigators drained the P*P and melted ice mixture from the cooler and measured the volume, the men faced a charge of possession of 4 gallons of P*P.
Law enforcement is unable to separate food particles from drug particles, Hawthorne said. The number of variables and the complexity of the task would make the law so cumbersome it would be virtually unenforceable, he said.
"The reason it's that way is ... it would be impossible to set up a scale where you estimated the THC per weight of - whatever," he said.
Amarillo activist Shane Cox, founder of Amarillo Cannabis Culture, a group dedicated to the legalization of and education about marijuana, said he is outraged by the law.
"To receive a life sentence for a plant that has never been linked to an overdose, is safer than alcohol, is used medically in 23 states and is legal for recreational use in four states and in Washington, D.C. - it's ridiculous," he said. "Sugar in the brownies has caused more deaths in this country than the cannabis."
Despite any personal feelings, Hawthorne said, police are bound by oath to uphold the laws where they practice.
"The fact that it's become socially acceptable in some areas ... has no effect on us," Hawthorne said, "I don't have the authority to make judgment calls. That's for a judge to do, not me. That's for a jury to do."
Blackburn disagreed.
"Cops are not robots. Prosecutors are not robots," he said. "Law enforcement has a lot of discretion in how they treat people, and DAs have a lot in how they handle these cases when they get to court."
Texas law allows law enforcement agencies to ticket people for misdemeanor possession of up to 4 ounces of marijuana, instead of making arrests.
Amarillo Police Department does not issue citations for marijuana possession. Potter County deputies are allowed the choice to issue citations instead of making an arrest, Lt. Patrick Zamora said. In 2014, Potter County deputies issued three citations for Class B misdemeanor marijuana possession, or in about 13 percent of cases.
"I do not believe that most taxpayers, even in the Panhandle, are in favor of this hyper-repressive approach to marijuana laws," Blackburn said. "I think the verdict in the Tim Stevens case ... is a pretty good example."
An Amarillo jury acquitted Tim Stevens, a then-53-year-old HIV patient, in 2008 after he was charged with possession of marijuana he used to control chronic nausea and vomiting. It was the first medical-use acquittal in Texas, Blackburn said, and took the jury only 12 minutes of deliberation.
"If you can over-charge people, you can over-convict them. And if you over-convict them, you over-punish them," Blackburn said. "Every single one of us has an interest in not letting the government run amok."
News Moderator: Jacob Redmond 420 MAGAZINE ®
Full Article: It started with purple brownies: Drug policy creates local outcry in Panhandle | Lubbock Online | Lubbock Avalanche-Journal
Author: JC Cortez
Contact: ajnews@lubbockonline.com
Photo Credit: Stephen Carter
Website: Lubbock Online | Lubbock Avalanche-Journal
