Fake marijuana for PlayStation deal goes awry

A fight in Lehigh Township over a deal with fake drugs and a filched video game system earned two men probation and a lecture from a judge.

Nathan Shiller of Moore Township and William F. Shelhamer II of Northampton, both 20, took plea deals Monday in which they admitted to misdemeanor charges in the March 8 beating.

”You grown people were fighting over a toy,” said Northampton County President Judge F.P. Kimberly McFadden. ”Remember when you did that in kindergarten?”

Assistant District Attorney Richard Pepper said Shiller and Shelhamer had arranged to swap marijuana to Richard L. Davis, 17, for a PlayStation. But they instead gave him oregano, leading to an argument and eventually a fight in a wooded area, Pepper said.

Under the plea deal, Shiller admitted to simple assault and an unrelated October 2008 marijuana possession charge in Nazareth. Shelhamer pleaded guilty to simple assault and attempted theft.

Each got 18 months of probation and 20 hours of community service from McFadden. She also ordered them to get drug and alcohol evaluations and undergo random drug testing.

McFadden also noted that Shiller spent four months in jail for lack of bail while the case was working its way through the justice system.

”Four months for a toy?” McFadden asked.

”Well, there was the oregano, judge,” Pepper pointed out.

This case is so stupid I can only address the stupidity in bullet points:

• How far do you have to go to find two people who really think they can find an American teenager who can’t tell oregano from cannabis?  Apparently, Pennsylvania.
• OK, so Shiller got popped once before for marijuana, but how do we justify sending Shelhammer to random drug testing for trafficking in oregano?
• Why is it that beating another human being only gets you probation and community service?
• Does the teenager get in any trouble for trying to trade his PlayStation for marijuana, or is he off the hook because it was oregano?

Once again, stupid is as stupid does; no change in law is going to stop stupid.  However, if marijuana were legal and reasonably priced, stupid people wouldn’t be trying to trade videogames for marijuana and other stupid people wouldn’t be trying to pass off pizza spices as marijuana.  I mean, when’s the last time anybody ever tried to swap an Xbox for what turns out to be apple juice in a Jack Daniels bottle?