Milkman who supplied cannabis to elderly faces jail
A milkman who supplied cannabis to elderly customers to ward off their “aches and pains” is facing a possible jail term in Britain.Robert Holding, 72, pleaded guilty in Burnley Crown Court to two counts of supplying and possessing the drug, newspapers reported on Tuesday.
The court in Lancashire, north-west England, heard that Holding supplied cannabis to 17 households when residents left hand-written requests out with their empty milk bottles.
Defence lawyer Phil Holden said Holding had told police the drug was for “elderly people with aches and pains”.
“Those who he supplied, and there were not many, were through word-of-mouth and his customers were all of a certain age,” The Daily Mail quoted Holden as saying.
Adjourning the case for a pre-sentence report, Judge Beverley Lunt flagged a likely prison term.
“You must understand these are serious offences and in my judgment the likely outcome is an immediate custodial sentence,” she said.
Thought #1 – the milkman who delivers weed is named “Holding”? File this one in the Dr. Mitch Earleywine Appropriate Names File*. And then his defense lawyer is “Holden”? Really?
Thought #2 – I didn’t know there really were still milkmen in the world, much less those who will deliver cannabis. I thought these days milkmen only existed as plot devices in pornography. So I’m told.
Thought #3 – A 72-year-old man is delivering cannabis to other elderly people and you want to throw him in jail? Because, what, stoned geriatrics are a threat to society and a drain on productivity? Because smoking pot is a serious danger to their health and longevity? I think when you reach a certain age (let’s say the average life expectancy at your birth, like 72 or so) you should be allowed to use any drug you like. That’s your final age to wait for — 16 for driving, 18 for smokes, 21 for booze, 35 for President, 55 for AARP, 65 to retire, then, finally at 72, you get to smoke, drink, snort, shoot, and eat whatever you like.
Thought #4 – Keith Stroup has made a point about growing older and the aches and pains that come with it and that use of cannabis at a certain age is by definition medical. I agree with him, although I think I set the age at about 22.
* I so dubbed this file based on talking with Dr. Mitch Earleywine – a researcher who’s authored many studies on alcohol use. Earleywine, alcohol, get it? Then he told me of cocaine research done by a Dr. Blow, LSD research done by Dr. Fried, and he has a grad student who works on his cannabis research named Smoker-Barnwell. Just this last month the Michigan medical marijuana clinic opened and the ophthalmologist who wrote recommendations for medical cannabis is named Dr. Eisenbud.
That’s a very good point. Whenever prohibitionists tell me there are better drugs out there, I ask, “Better how?” Certainly not better in side effects, toxicity, addictiveness, and cost!
What they mean by “better” is “not illegal”. That’s all. See, because marijuana is illegal. Because it is bad. It was so bad they had to make it illegal, and you don’t want to take an illegal drug, because illegal drugs are bad.
It’s so simple!
Hey Russ, Merry Christmas!! I’m unashamably addicted to the daily audio stash. Great work man!
In addressing your thought #5 that you mentioned in the 12/24/08 stash, “studies on whether it’s an effective pain reliever have been conflicting”, my question is this:
The FDA doesn’t test whether new drugs are better than existing ones on the market, it only tests whether they meet the manufacturers’ claims and they’re within specified levels of safety.
So why does EVERY prohibitionist say “there’s better drugs out there”??? That isn’t what the FDA tests!
If the FDA doesn’t test other drugs to see if they’re better than what’s currently available then why should marijuana be forced to meet this standard?
Marijuana is a GREAT drug for some things, and as safe as hell! That’d be enough to allow other drugs to pass the FDA’s testing, so why isn’t enough to allow marijuana to pass???
The Government needs to send marijuana back to the FDA, and get them to test it right this time!
Happy toking man!