On Justice

The following is a tiny microcosm of what is wrong with the world of humans. We begin with a photo. This is an approximation of what one ounce of marijuana looks like.


picture source

In most areas of the US, the mere possession, especially of this much, of marijuana can land you in prison. The following is taken from what seems to be an advertisement page for a law firm in Pennsylvania. This statute presumably pertains to PA law:

780-113(a)(31): (a) The following acts and the causing thereof within the Commonwealth are hereby prohibited: (31) Notwithstanding other subsections of this section, (i) the possession of a small amount of marihuana only for personal use; (ii) the possession of a small amount of marihuana with the intent to distribute it but not to sell it; or (iii) the distribution of a small amount of marihuana but not for sale. For purposes of this subsection, thirty (30) grams of marihuana or eight (8) grams of hashish shall be considered a small amount of marihuana.

Even a simple possession of a small amount of marijuana charge can result in a prison sentence, a 6 month driver's license suspension and criminal record that make it very difficult to find employment. Source.

Let us contrast this alleged crime to another.

"In one astonishing incident in October 2009 the then vice-president, Ahmad Zia Massoud, was stopped and questioned in Dubai when he flew into the emirate with $52m in cash, according to one diplomatic report. Massoud, the younger brother of the legendary anti-Soviet resistance leader Ahmad Shah Massoud, was detained by officials from the US and the United Arab Emirates trying to stop money laundering, it says. However, the vice-president was allowed to go on his way without explaining where the money came from. Source.

This is - kinda - what $52 million in cash would be like.

It is quit likely that if you are found in possession of even a "small amount" of marijuana, you will go to jail, possibly to prison for years.

One of the stories about Massoud stated that it was the DEA, the same people who ostensibly will be upset by your possessing marijuana, who stopped Massoud and found his $52 million in cash. Massoud did not go to prison because he was not found guilty because there was no court case because there was no arrest because...? "the vice-president was allowed to go on his way without explaining where the money came from" or, presumably, where it was going or why and he certainly didn't give it up.

"Injustice alone can shake down the pillars of the skies, and restore the reign of Chaos and Night." --HORACE MANN, A Few Thoughts for a Young Man

to which I would add, what chance then of survival, hath a mere empire?

TRB