From: [d--ks--e] at [bronze.lcs.mit.edu] (Arian Wolverton) Organization: Guest of MIT AI Lab In the Boston Sunday Herald from the 18th, Margery Eagan, after yesterday's Hemp Rally on the Boston Commons (greets to Clancy Childs - thanks for helping out and sorry we didn't run into each other again), wrote an article on the legalization of marijuana. This is what she had to say: TIME TO END SMOKE AND MIRRORS ON POT By Margery Eagan So they were down on Boston Common yesterday, the legalize-pot crew in their "Happy Leaf" leis and "Hemp Wanted" baseball caps. As the pot smell swirled, they bought their High Times magazine (it's the 20th anniversary) and, of course, given the tenor of the times, their fiesta-colored pot condoms ($1), which read, "Fight AIDS, Not Marijuana." A guy who called himself "Eric" wore a D.A.R.E. T-shirt with this stenciled addition: "I turned in my parents and all I got was this lousy T-shirt." Said "Eric" of his beloved weed, "It mellows me out." And he looked mellow indeed, just spacey enough for a quick shot on the evening news. Ha-ha. Tsk, tsk, we could chuckle in our living rooms. What a bunch of burnouts. But burnouts who are right, absolutely 100 percent right. We should have legalized pot years ago. We haven't because we're a nation hysterical about drugs in general and marijuana in particular. We're also a nation overrun with robbers, rapists, murderers, wife beaters, child molesters. We say we're petrified of them. Yet we're releasing ~them~ first from overcrowded jails so dope smokers can take their cells. A few statistics: In 1994, when we don't have enough prisons for all those mother rapers and child molesters, we have more people in jail for marijuana offenses than ever before. The latest numbers show 340,000 arrested nationwide for pot violations in 1992, three quarters of them for simple possession. One of every six inmates in the federal system - or 15,000 people - are there primarily for a marijuana offense. Yet 40 states are under court order to reduce overcrowding. So murderers and rapists are released first because drug offenders' mandatory sentences forbid parole. The penalties for a first pot offense range from probation to life in prison and fines of up to $4 million, depending on the amount of pot. Under civil forfeiture laws, you can lose your home, car, cash, jewelery - about anything you own. Possession of more than an ounce for personal use (what ex-Celtic Robert Parish got delivered in the mail) can lead to two years or more in jail, plus civil forfeiture penalties, plus ineligibility for student or small business loans or professional licenses. Good thing for mega-star Parish that authorities liked him. Poor-nobody Jim Montgomery, a paraplegic who said he smoked pot to relieve muscle spasms, was arrested in Oklahoma when sheriffs found two ounces of pot in a pouch in his wheelchair. In 1992, a jury sentenced him to life in prison, plus 16 years. The appalled judge reduced the term to 10 years. After 10 months, Montgomery became so ill he was released to a hospital. Most of the above numbers come from the government itself or from Erich Schlosser's extraordinary article last summer in the Atlantic Monthly (which likely employs no more ex-dope smokers than the average American company). What would you guess: Forty to 60 percent of baby boomers employees? Like our own Congressman Joe Kennedy or State Treasurer Joe Malone or former Lt. Gov. Evelyn Murphy or President Bill - those wild and crazy politicos who admitted trying pot in their wanton youth but somehow didn't become junkies, as "Reefer Madness" propaganda predicited? But I digress. "How," asks Schlosser, "does a society come to punish a person more harshly for selling marijuana than for killing someone with a gun?" Or beating a baby? Or raping a girlfriend? Or robbing old ladies, not once or twice but, say, 20 times? Last Tuesday neighbors cheered as police swooped down on Boston's Mission Hill and arrested nearly 100 people involved in "the biggest open-air heroin market in the city." "We're going to win this war" on drugs, declared Mayor Menino. We are? Many would say we've lost it. Already. But how can anyone argue we're going about it right? We haven't got enough cops to provide heroin- and crack-infested neighborhoods with the kind of long-term police presence to allow Mission Hill kids to play outside without stepping over syringes and dirty needles. But we do have enough cops to swoop down, say, on wheelchair bound Debbie Talshir, 42, of Bourne, who was trying to buy pot in a Sandwich parking lot in 1990 (she sought relief from the pain of multiple sclerosis). But our brilliant war on drugs won't let even terminal cancer patients get pot legally. I bet struggling Midwestern farmers would love a crop they could finally make money on. Like taxed, regulated marijuana. But they'll never get it because we're a nation of nitwits listening to lies from fools. -end of article- Well, there you have it. Yet another person who has opened their eyes and realized how insane the War On Drugs really is. But the question is this: How devoted is Miss Eagan? After she goes home from work does she write letters like she writes articles? I doubt it. I am not criticizing Miss Eagan and I suggest we all write to her and commend her on speaking out on this but, at the same time, I suggest we all point her in the right direction to further help the legalization movement just like I have done with all of you. Together we'll get this done. Arian --- * Origin: COBRUS - Usenet-to-Fidonet Distribution System (1:2613/335.0)