EARL NASH, WTFG "high time" Correspondent
>>>>> “It’s news
to YOU...” <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
"A single joint smoked by Amir Varick Amma cost him an additional 5 years in prison, and taxpayers roughly $250,000."
We can hope that California, the state "where the
future is born," will lead the way and vote to legalize marijuana this
fall.
What are the medical benefits of ALCOHOL?
What are the medical benefits of TOBACCO?
Here are the FIVE reasons that it's high time to legalize
marijuana:
1. It has medical benefits for cancer patients and others in severe pain.
2. It is essentially a victimless crime and, once legalized, no crimes will be even tangentially related to the cultivation, production, sale and use of marijuana.
3. The costs of incarcerating a person for smoking marijuana are huge and going from State budgets into the pockets of corporations who make large profits.
4. Taxing marijuana, as we now do for tobacco and alcohol, will close the budget gaps in the states. (Watch how many states declare they are fiscally "underwater" in July!)
5. It redirects the money that goes to organized crime and puts it into Federal and State budgets for positive use.
Let's take the laws that are already on the books for ALCOHOL, substitute the word "MARIJUANA" for "ALCOHOL and, with a few more minor tweaks, get the legal issues settled.
Many, many friends have told me that people smoking
marijuana become "mellow," laugh more, and get hungry, maybe, bake brownies...
Most
people are fine with a few beers or a few glasses of wine, but, once they get
into high alcohol content beverages--whiskey, vodka, gin, etc--it's "Katy
bar the door!"
If you are worried about your children, the same laws that apply
to alcohol (age limits, driving while under the influence, etc.) will apply to
marijuana.
Oh, BTW, have you checked your medicine cabinet, or where ever you keep your prescription drugs lately?
Once upon a time ALCOHOL was the Big Social Evil; society tried to prohibit it and that spawned organized crime, increases in law
enforcement expenses, and put the profits into the coffers of Al Capone and his
cohorts.
Then, ALCOHOL was legalized and all the money collected from taxes, the money spent on law enforcement, and the money spent on incarceration reversed flow from taxpayers LOSING huge sums to taxpayers GAINING funds to put to positive social purposes.
Do the math:
VOTE NO:
Spend a trillion dollars =
- 1 trillion dollars
VOTE
YES: Collect
a trillion dollars = + 2 trillion dollars
Legalize marijuana--"ain't it high time?"
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In 1992 Anthony Williams, now known as Amir Varick Amma, was sentenced to 25
years to life for a non-violent drug offense under the Rockefeller Drug Laws.
Amir was convicted of two felonies, the worst of which was the sale of 2 ounces
of cocaine in Albany County. Amir was badly assaulted by the police when he
refused to give up his accomplices. His refusal to cooperate guided Judge Keegan
to sentence him to 12 and a half years to life on each charge, meaning he had to
serve 25 years. Most judges would have incorporated the two charges together,
resulting in a 12-and-a-half-year sentence. But Keegan was a "hang 'em high"
judge, part of a tightly knit crew of upstate judges that dished out
extraordinary sentences for drug offenders.
Amir challenged his
conviction, but lost every legal challenge he pursued. On the outside, Amir's
greatest supporter was his mother Queen Nazimova Varick. Over the years she
fought tooth and nail to get her son out of prison. She joined the Mothers of
the NY Disappeared, a leading activist group that fought the draconian
Rockefeller Drug Laws for many years. She was suffering from several ailments,
including cancer, but she never gave up hope that her son would return home to
her, although his continued incarceration made her healing process all the more
difficult.
In 2004, the legislature passed some incremental Rockefeller
reforms that would help individuals like Amir who were sentenced to
extraordinary amounts of time. Amir filed an application only to be denied. The
judge could not even address his motion because he had been busted for smoking a
joint while in prison. For this they gave Amir 60 days in solitary confinement
and took away his merit time, rendering him ineligible for judicial relief under
the new reforms of 2004.
Activists quickly rallied together to seek
justice for Amir, but to no avail. Amir then filed for executive clemency, but
his application was denied by Gov. Paterson. Amir did not give up hope. In 2009,
under the new Rockefeller reforms that were championed by Gov. Paterson, Amir
was finally granted his freedom.
On March 23, 2010, after 19 years in
prison, Amir was released. He came by my office and I hugged him. I shared a
laugh with him when he showed me a check he had received, issued by the prison
from their parole release funds in the amount of 83 cents. What the hell was he
suppose to do with that check, I asked. When I telephoned Albany County District
attorney David Soares and asked him his opinion of Amir's case, he described it
as a travesty of justice.
In this time of economic crisis in New York
State, when politicians are looking for solutions to reduce the budget deficit,
they need look no further than the state's correctional system. That single
joint Amir smoked cost him an additional 5 years in prison, and taxpayers
roughly $250,000. Was it worth keeping him in prison and punishing him for an
additional 5 years after serving 14 years for a first time non-violent crime?
How many other Amirs are wasting away in our gulags?
To reduce the budget
deficit, law makers need to take a good look at our criminal justice system and
how punitive methods of incarceration waste not only billions of dollars, but
also human lives.
