The System is Going to Pot

If truth be told, I do have mixed feelings about the legalization of marijuana.

[Having placed the subject on the table, my own personal relationship with the weed is now fair game, so some disclosure is now in order.  My personal relationship with marijuana, entered into and departed from as a college student among other college students, was measurable in days, and not in weeks, months, or years.  The relationship was brief, and not particularly a comfortable one.  My misgivings about it entailed finances, the rule of law, the desire to not be under the control of others, allergies, and serious questions regarding the types of people who were (and are) wed to the weed.  I made the decision to be a non-user of Cannabis sativa.  Decades later, the decision still stands, and has never been regretted, though it did attenuate me socially more than a few friends and acquaintances; the only friend who truly respected my decision to abstain from the herb is long gone, the victim of a tragic crime in which it appears that the perpetuator's use of marijuana played a peripheral role.]

On one hand, the weed does in fact carry many of the evils ascribed to it.  On the other hand, I do subscribe, to a large extent, to the Libertarian view that adults who smoke pot in their own homes and who keep it there should be able to do so unmolested.

Nor can the agricultural and marketing economics of the marijuana industry be ignored.  There are many jobs to be supported by the legalization of marijuana.

It seems that the push to legalize marijuana carries all kinds of side issue in the legal arena, from taxation to firearms to employment to medical applications, and many other matters as well.  The Congressional Research Service has laid out many of those issues for the benefit of the Congresscritters who are addressing them.

I am concerned.  In addition to the gateway drug argument (whose validity may or may not pertain in some or all respects), there is now a situation where certain marijuana-related activities are legal (and encouraged) under state law, but verboten and felonious under federal law.  This give the law enforcement authorities, at federal and state level alike, too much discretion for selectively enforcing and applying the law.

In an ideal world, there would be no marijuana.  But now that it is very much a part of the world, it ideally should be decriminalized.  But the world is not ideal, and until there is a mechanism for truly holding users of the substance accountable and answerable for their actions, if a choice must be made, I must, with my mixed feelings, stand with the proponents of prohibition.  Against the backdrop of prohibition, there is much leeway for adjustment of penalties and establishment of rehabilitation programs.  The details shall be left to the legislators.

Prison for the Clueless

This New York taxpayer will be supporting one more clueless nitwit for at least 19 more years. And that suits me just fine!

Edwin Frazier just got a 19-to-life sentence for his role in a home invasion that turned fatal.

Frazier, Ernest Johnson, Jovan Phillips and mastermind Eric Calace (spoiled rich kid whose father and grandfather are noted real estate developers) went to burglarize the home of Dane Aulak, Calace's cannabis connection. Aulak was home at the time, and accordingly, a struggle ensued with him. Aulak was fatally shot by Johnson and/or Phillips, but, in the struggle, managed to flip a gun away from Johnson or Phillips. Aulak's brother Jesse caught the gun and, in self defense, fatally shot Johnson and Phillips.

Here is the Suffolk County DA's press release, with all its updates at the bottom.

Calace, who was waiting in the car when it all happened, cut a plea deal for 17 years in exchange for his cooperation with the Suffolk County. [Eric the Spoiled Rich Kid Calace actually has something resembling a chance. His sentence ends in 2024, but he might get out in 2021 if he behaves well. If Dear Old Dad's real estate empire survives, then Eric might actually have a job to go to when he gets out. But I suspect that Calace, Sr. did his share to facilitate Junior's descent into hell long before he sprung for Junior's defense attorney.].

Frazier pleaded guilty to Murder II and was formally sentenced to a 19-years-to-life term.

So now, Frazier is whining to the Judge "How come I have to take their fall? … Why couldn't I plead to a burglary charge?"

To which I say, "Boo Freakin' Hoo," to borrow a quote my 2nd favorite Filipina, Michelle Malkin (my No. 1 favorite Filipina, now retired and doting on her grandchildren, is a Jewish girl from Manila who lost a brother during the Japanese occupation).

The exchange at the sentencing hearing between Judge Hudson and Frazier's mother is very telling:

"You didn't fire the weapon, but you held it," Hudson told Frazier. "Ready at your leader's command to kill."

"But he didn't!" the suspect's mother, Pamela Mays-Frazier, 40, shouted at the judge.


The way I read this, Frazier received, during his formative years, precious little guidance on how to be responsible for his own actions. And very few clues in matters of other common everyday wisdom. He certainly didn't get much from Mom.

Even Frazier's lawyer conceded, afterwards, that if Frazier didn't take the plea deal for Murder II, he likely would have gotten slapped with the maximum.

Frazier is lucky. His two accomplices got what amounts to the back door death penalty -- they were "victims" of justifiable homicide. It's the best we can do for capital punishment in New York, now that the sob sisters on the Court of Appeals have taken that prerogative away from the prosecution.

Frazier now has 19 years to get a clue or two before his first parole hearing. But I wouldn't bet that it will happen.

Meanwhile, we taxpayers will be footing the bill for Frazier's room and board. But that's a cheap and economical alternative to having Frazier out walking on the streets.