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jcfialaI'm a happy member of the Quality Paperback Bookclub. Not only am I fond of being able to reject the monthly offers from my computer, I'm also fond of how many of the offers have sounded really interesting. Being short on cash, when I saw that Eric Schlosser (who also wrote Fast Food Nation) had done a book named Reefer Madness, I decided to hit my library for it.
It's an interesting book. A nonfiction work, it has three sections, one on Marijuana use in the US, one on illegal migrant labor, and the third on pornography. So far, I'm working my way through the Marijuana section, which starts with this telling paragraph:
In the state of Indiana, a person convicted of armed robbery will serve about six years in prison; someone convicted of rape will serve about eight; and a convicted murderer can expect to spend twenty-five years behind bars. These figures are actually higher than the national average: eleven years and four months in prison is the typical punishment for an American found guilty of murder. The prison terms given by Indiana judges tend to be long, but with good behavior, an inmate will serve no more than half the nominal sentence. Those facts are worth keeping in mind when considering the case of Mark Young. At the age of thirty-eight, Young was arrested at his Indianapolis home for brokering the sale of seven hundred pounds of marijuana grown on a farm in nearby Morgan County. Young was tried and convicted under federal law. He had never before been charged with drug trafficking. He had no history of violent crime. Young's role in the illegal transaction had been that of a middleman - he never distributed the drugs; he simply introduced two people hoping to sell a large amount of marijuana to three people wishing to buy it. The offense occurred a year and a half before his arrest. No confiscated marijuana, money, or physical evidence of any kind linked Young to the crime. He was convicted solely on the testimony of co-conspirators who were now cooperating with the government. On February 8, 1992, Mark Young was sentenced by Judge Sarah Evans Barker to life imprisonment without possibility of parole.
Now, to be honest, he goes into the case a little more later on. He could have agreed to testify on a plea bargain, and probably have gotten only eighteen years - for some reason, he flat refused to do so. But still - just because he was being legally stupid is no reason to send him to jail for life, imho.
The book is more based on the legal and economic realities of marijuana than the actual medical effects of it. They are mentioned - but fairly dispassionately - as Mr. Schlosser is more interested in what effect the drug has had on our legal system and on the economics of the US and the world.
I suggest having a look.
It's an interesting book. A nonfiction work, it has three sections, one on Marijuana use in the US, one on illegal migrant labor, and the third on pornography. So far, I'm working my way through the Marijuana section, which starts with this telling paragraph:
In the state of Indiana, a person convicted of armed robbery will serve about six years in prison; someone convicted of rape will serve about eight; and a convicted murderer can expect to spend twenty-five years behind bars. These figures are actually higher than the national average: eleven years and four months in prison is the typical punishment for an American found guilty of murder. The prison terms given by Indiana judges tend to be long, but with good behavior, an inmate will serve no more than half the nominal sentence. Those facts are worth keeping in mind when considering the case of Mark Young. At the age of thirty-eight, Young was arrested at his Indianapolis home for brokering the sale of seven hundred pounds of marijuana grown on a farm in nearby Morgan County. Young was tried and convicted under federal law. He had never before been charged with drug trafficking. He had no history of violent crime. Young's role in the illegal transaction had been that of a middleman - he never distributed the drugs; he simply introduced two people hoping to sell a large amount of marijuana to three people wishing to buy it. The offense occurred a year and a half before his arrest. No confiscated marijuana, money, or physical evidence of any kind linked Young to the crime. He was convicted solely on the testimony of co-conspirators who were now cooperating with the government. On February 8, 1992, Mark Young was sentenced by Judge Sarah Evans Barker to life imprisonment without possibility of parole.
Now, to be honest, he goes into the case a little more later on. He could have agreed to testify on a plea bargain, and probably have gotten only eighteen years - for some reason, he flat refused to do so. But still - just because he was being legally stupid is no reason to send him to jail for life, imho.
The book is more based on the legal and economic realities of marijuana than the actual medical effects of it. They are mentioned - but fairly dispassionately - as Mr. Schlosser is more interested in what effect the drug has had on our legal system and on the economics of the US and the world.
I suggest having a look.
