Here is an example reported by the local community newspaper in Clawson, MI, where law enforcement don’t even consider the possibility that a man may be protected under state law.

A 32-year -old Oak Park man will see if his explanation of having marijuana for medical reasons holds up in court.

Clawson police found the marijuana in his back pocket. They had been called to Kenilworth and Dreon Drive at 11:15 p.m. April 17 on reports of yelling and found the man staggering as he walked.

An officer asked if he had been arguing or screaming and he denied it. He said he had just arrived.

When asked about slurred speech and trouble walking, he said it was “because I’m handicap.”

“It’s for medical purposes,” he said about the marijuana found in his back pocket.

Also found was a gray cylinder container which he said was “to grind my cigarettes.”

The items were confiscated. The man was cited for possession of marijuana and given a court date of May 6 in 52-4 District Court in Troy.

It seems as though to me that if police found a man who had medicine in his pocket, they would ask for documentation to justify the possession.  In this particular case, it would seem to suffice that if the man was obviously handicapped they would err on the side of caution.  Instead, we know to be ‘truth’ in this article is that a man who is claiming to be handicapped and on medication is being sent to jail simply for being in possession of said medication.  This is a great example of American Heavy Handed Law Enforcement Hard at Work at Oppression (not doing much protection or policing here).

Let’s hypothetically examine what may happen to him if he is found guilty and sent to prison.  For smoking marijuana, he will likely be placed in the general population.  After being identified as being a prison bitch and raped repeatedly, day after day, he will likely be beat to within inches of his life several times, a month.  If he survives a year in prison, he will never be the same.

Law enforcement would content that he DESERVES it.  After all, he was medicating without having his recommendation in his pocket.  [The dirty little secret of law enforcement; they know how bad our prisons are and don't consider that reality when arresting people.]

In Michigan, sixty-three percent of voters approved Proposal 1 on November 4, 2008; the law took effect on December 4, 2008. Specifically, it removes state-level criminal penalties on the use, possession and cultivation of marijuana by patients who possess written documentation from their physicians authorizing the medical use of marijuana.

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(CBS) So far, there hasn’t been much negative reaction to the photo showing Olympic gold medalist Michael Phelps smoking what appeared to be marijuana. 

A few years ago, it might have ruined his career, but so far it hasn’t — perhaps a sign of changing attitudes.

The seeming lack of outrage… may reflect America’s changing attitudes towards marijuana – an estimated $30 billion dollar industry in the United States alone.

While a majority of Americans still oppose the legalization of marijuana use, a new CBS News poll shows a big swing in opinion in recent years.

Twenty-seven percent supported legalization in 1979; 41 percent support it today.

Understand that when you get “41% support legalization”, that’s over 2 out of 5 people when asked, “Should marijuana be legalized” who will say “yes.”  That’s without any explanation of how, where, when, or for whom it will be legalized, so that includes the spectrum from “fine-only possession, jail for sales, cultivation, and trafficking” to “pre-rolled joints at the convenience store”.

When you change the question to actually define what you mean by “legalization”, the numbers rise.  In a 2001 Zogby poll, ten weeks after 9/11, we found:

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Download the NORML Daily Audio Stash for 2009-02-02

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Well, wasn’t THAT one hell of a Super Bowl?  I was pulling for the Cards and thought my 23-21 Steelers-miss-last-second-FG prediction was going to be pretty darn close.  But what do you know, a stoner goes and catches the game winning last minute touchdown and is voted MVP.

Well, wasn’t THAT one hell of a Super Bong?  Michael Phelps was pulling from a big ol’ piece of glass without remembering that cell phone cameras exist now and he is the most famous Olympian on the planet.  But what do you know, a stoner went off to Beijing and became the only human to win eight gold in one Games.

Well, wasnt’t THAT one hell of a Super Bhang?  George Obama was pulled out of a Nairobi slum and was headed to the slammer for possession of marijuana and resisting arrest.  But what do you know, a stoner gets released from jail with charges dropped because his half-brother (a stoner) went and got elected President of the United States.

(It’s Groundhog Day.  Sonny & Cher keep playing on my radio.)

On today’s Stash, Allen St. Pierre drops by to give his take on the toker trifecta we hit this Super Bowl weekend, and Kelly Maddy from Jopin NORML is here to discuss medical marijuana legislation in Missouri.

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“You express a great deal of anxiety over our willingness to break laws. This is certainly a legitimate concern. Since we so diligently urge people to obey the Supreme Court’s decision of 1954 outlawing segregation in the public schools, at first glance it may seem rather paradoxical for us consciously to break laws. One may well ask: “How can you advocate breaking some laws and obeying others?” The answer lies in the fact that there are two types of laws: just and unjust. I would be the first to advocate obeying just laws. One has not only a legal but a moral responsibility to obey just laws. Conversely, one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws. I would agree with St. Augustine that “an unjust law is no law at all.”

Now, what is the difference between the two? How does one determine whether a law is just or unjust? A just law is a man made code that squares with the moral law or the law of God. An unjust law is a code that is out of harmony with the moral law. To put it in the terms of St. Thomas Aquinas: An unjust law is a human law that is not rooted in eternal law and natural law. Any law that uplifts human personality is just. Any law that degrades human personality is unjust.”

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Letter from a Birmingham Jail
April 16, 1963

Today our nation honors what would’ve been this week the eightieth birthday of the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr., on the eve of the inauguration of Barack Hussein Obama as the 44th president of these United States.  I was sixty-four days old when an assassin’s bullet cut down Dr. King in the prime of his life.  Today I am six-hundred forty days older than Dr. King when he was killed.  Tomorrow I will see something few people my age and older thought we’d ever see, yet something Dr. King had dreamed from the start.

There remains a grave injustice to be battled, the most unjust of laws to be disobeyed, a law that by its definition is not rooted in eternal law and natural law: the man made code that declares nature itself to be illegal, the prohibition on cannabis.  Yet when I mention marijuana law reform in the context of the great civil rights struggles in America, so many are quick to dismiss me with snickers of derision.  ”You just want pot legal so you can get high!” is a common refrain.

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