A Clear Voice: Manipulative Marijuana Opponents

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March 18, 2005

Manipulative Marijuana Opponents

There have been some interesting things going on in the last 6 months in my town, Columbia, Missouri.

In November city voters overwhelmingly approved a medical marijuana ordinance (69% voted yes), and an ordinance that limits the punishment for possessing less than 35 grams to a $250 fine in municipal court (61% voted yes.) The second ordinance means that no one will have a criminal record for this offense unless it was committed along with another crime. It also means that college students, which comprise a lot of Columbia, will not lose educational funding for possession of small amounts of marijuana.

In January, there was an incident in which a man, Rick Evans, shot a police officer, Molly Bowden during a traffic stop. The next day when the police were closing in, he shot another officer, Curtis Brown, and then fatally shot himself. Brown was moderately wounded with one shot in the arm. Bowden was seriously wounded with three shots in the neck and shoulder and died a month later. When the police later searched Evan’s car and house they found marijuana and scales. The amount of marijuana was above 35 grams. Evans had previously been convicted on misdemeanor charges of marijuana possession and was on unsupervised probation. It’s been speculated that his motive for shooting was to prevent the officer from finding drugs and sending him back to jail. No one knows if he was impaired at the time of the shooting.

In February Officer Sterling Infield, president of the Columbia Police Officers Association wrote a letter to Assistant City Manager Paula Hertwig Hopkins asking the city to help them “squash this tainted ordinance.” (Referring to the second ordinance, not the medical marijuana ordinance.) In that letter he stated, "I am asking for your help, and Mr. Beck’s. Mr. Beck went to Officer Curtis Brown during his ordeal and" asked "him if there is anything he could do to help. There is. Please allow the law department to allow the city prosecutor or the chief to file a complaint with the Attorney General’s Office to squash this tainted ordinance." The letter has been oft criticized for that excerpt. Infield also said that he feared that people on parole for violent crimes would not have their parole revoked and instead be treated as first-time criminals. However Missouri Department of Corrections rules state that possession of any amount of drugs is a violation of parole, subjecting the parolee to jail time, regardless of whether a charge or conviction is obtained.

This month Missouri State Senator Chuck Gross introduced a bill that would ban high school tournaments in cities with certain marijuana policies, like those in Columbia.
Earlier this week police launched a petition to reverse the ordinance. If they gather the signatures required, the petition would be presented to the City Council, which would then be able to overturn the ordinance.

Personally I’m in favor of marijuana decriminalization. I once saw a poster from early last century that listed recreational drugs from least to most harmful. Marijuana was at the very top, before both alcohol and tobacco. The government has been lying to us about its effects for years. There was an incident ten years or so ago where they put out a public service commercial purporting to show a brain scan from a normal kid, and a kid on dope. It came out that the second brain scan was actually from a brain-damaged patient. If we made marijuana legal and subject to the same restrictions that alcohol and/or tobacco are restricted to, (impaired driving, age limits, etc.) we’d clear out many people from our prisons. Marijuana would become as much of a “gateway” drug as is any other legal drug. The reason it’s a “gateway” drug now is because it’s illegal and thus a gateway into the world of crime, not because it’s terribly harmful or a gateway into addiction. We’d essentially put a huge number of dealers out of business with the resultant drop in price, and the government would be making money off marijuana taxes rather than spending billions of dollars fighting it.

However, even if I weren’t in favor of decriminalization, the antics of people in this region to get this ordinance overturned would still blow my mind. First we have a group attempting to overturn the will of the voters by sneaking things through the City Council. Then we have a member of that group using a terrible tragedy to support the group’s actions. (Note that if you read the excerpt of the letter, it’s never actually claimed that Officer Brown asked for anyone to help overturn the ordinance, but it’s cleverly worded to give that impression. That’s just great, let’s put words in the mouth of a wounded officer to achieve our goals.) That member also hangs the threat of rapists and murderers walking the streets to scare Columbia voters and City Council members into submission. Finally we have a state senator holding student athletics hostage in order to achieve his goals. All schools have strict drug policies and many require drug testing to play sports, but apparently the mere presence of an ordinance reducing the punishment given to misdemeanor marijuana possession is sending the message “hey kids, smoke all you want.”

Politicians can be such manipulative idiots sometimes.

Posted by illuminaria at March 18, 2005 03:54 PM

Comments

I'm really very surprised that Illuminaria's article has not caused more of a stir of readership and comments. We're talking about 5 people having the power to override an entire city's population with regards to a matter that had already been approved by that population.

Talk about shooting a Representative Democracy in the kneecap. Where's the outrage? Where's the ACLU and others who are so completely concerned with not allowing rights of individuals and groups to be unduly limited.

Also, the argument based on the Officer Curtis Brown shooting is a non-starter. Evans (May he rest in hell) had over the 35 gram limit and had distribution paraphernalia (scale), and was therefore already due to receive harsher penalties. If fear of these penalties were in any way influential in his decision to evade arrest and two shoot these two heroes, (Bowden & Brown), it makes no difference. With or without the new lower penalties for possession of under 35 grams, the penalties for possession of over 35 grams HAVEN’T CHANGED.

Some (perhaps Infield?) have made the argument that the Columbia voters were uneducated as to the implications of these bills and were therefore blindsided and manipulated into approving them. They say this because Columbia voters had turned down similar ballot issues in a past election.

This is an outrageous lie. These issues had been reworked by their sponsors to make them more palatable. They advertised (read Educated) these issues in print, radio, and TV to the public for a good period of time before the election.

Columbia voters went in this time educated and ready to make an informed decision.

I don't particularly care for Marijuana myself, so I've no vested interest, but I find Infield's audacity, deceitfulness, and downright zeal to 'Squash' the will of the people to be disgusting and shameful. He should stop giving the police organizations a bad name, for, while they are very much in opposition to this issue (so I've heard), they are also honorable and refuse to do this kind of end-run around people's rights.

//Thistledowne

Posted by: Thistledowne at March 23, 2005 05:11 PM

The effort to pass a law to prohibit Columbia schools from hosting or participating in sports events has been 'squashed.'

Sen. Gross said he won’t pursue passage of the bill.

http://archive.columbiatribune.com/2005/mar/20050318news003.asp

Posted by: Thistledowne at March 23, 2005 05:32 PM

Ironically, one of nationally honored author and journalist Forrest Rose's last columns for our local paper http://archive.columbiatribune.com/2005/mar/20050315comm001.asp was a criticism of those spearheading the efforts to overturn the voter's decision in the Nov. 2004 election. He died suddenly early on Sunday, March 20, 2005

http://archive.columbiatribune.com/2005/mar/20050322obit002.asp

Posted by: Thistledowne at March 23, 2005 05:41 PM

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