Rebecca Green, writing for the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette, has a report on the 27 year sentence given to Matthew McChesney for wholesale pot distribution. More than 6,700 pounds of marijuana was seized from his home.
Normally, this isn’t the kind of thing I’d much notice, but last weekend, my buddy and I had a little debate about whether jail time was appropriate for the Alabama fan who poisoned oak trees with symbolic importance to Auburn fans. My friend was of the opinion that, at the end of the day, the guy just killed a couple of trees and so maybe locking the guy up wasn’t the most appropriate punishment. I didn’t have strong opinions on whether jail was the right punishment, but felt very strongly that what the tree poisoner did was more blameworthy than crimes for which we do impose jail time.
Marijuana offenses were my prime example. You sell a plant that is illegal by operation of law but which isn’t overly harmful, and you can get significant jail time. The Auburn tree poisoner, by contrast, was acting deliberately to harm other humans. If those were mere trees, the guy wouldn’t have poisoned them. It was the fact that they were special to others that caused him to target those trees in particular. That’s why I feel the latter offense is more serious than the former.
The Indiana General Assembly is considering a bill that would direct a summer study committee to consider whether marijuana should be legalized, penalized less severely, and/or be made available for medical purposes.
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