Risk high that marijuana possession in NOLA can get you 5 to 20 yrs.

[jody]

Smoke screen by Richard A. Webster

The flood of new felony charges didn’t target murderers, rapists or armed robbers — they targeted small-time marijuana users, sometimes caught with less than a gram of pot, and threatened them with lengthy prison sentences.

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A first-time marijuana possession charge in Louisiana is a misdemeanor punishable by up to six months in prison but typically results in a small fine. A second offense is a felony that can carry up to five years in jail and a third offense up to 20 years.

* * * * * * * * * * * *

“If you want a recipe for bankrupting society, you got it here in New Orleans,” Scharf said. “You charge someone for smoking a joint, clog up the time of attorneys, juries and judges and then give them a 10-year sentence that will cost society $300,000 for keeping them in jail. They can’t catch murderers so they may as well go after dope smokers.

* * * * * * * * * * * *

“They’re targets of opportunity, lower-class individuals without resources. And for the most part, the public doesn’t seem to care. But you start arresting a bunch of Loyola and Tulane students and give them 12 years for smoking a joint and just see what happens. Parents will be out in the streets screaming with moral outrage and demanding justice.”•

Why don’t we legalize pot now that we know Presidents and presumptive Presidents used the drug without harm?

[RNdaSilva]

1. Yep, same restrictions as alcohol.

[OwnedByFerrets]

2. Got to keep those "for profit" corporations filled up....nt

[flashl]

3. Maintaining facade of Law&Order against targets of opportunity -- lower-class -- creates

false sense of safety and increases for-profit prisons bottom-line.