House Insanity - HR 1528:5 Years For Passing A Joint!

[genieroze]

House Insanity - HR 1528:
5 Years For Passing A Joint!
TalkLeft.com
4-17-5


Republican Congressman James Sensenbrenner has launched his next assault on freedom. The full House Judiciary Committee is set to vote as early as next week on H.R. 1528, which creates a new group of mandatory miniumum penalties for non-violent drug offenses, including a five year penalty for passing a joint to someone who's been in drug treatment.

That's right: Passing a joint to someone who used to be in drug treatment will land you in federal prison for a minimum of five years.

The "Defending America's Most Vulnerable: Safe Access to Drug Treatment and Child Protection Act of 2005" (H.R. 1528) was introduced by House Judiciary Committee Chairman James Sensenbrenner (R-WI) on April 6, and it has already passed out of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security.

We warned you about this bill last September. It's now coming home to roost. Please visit here to e-mail your U.S. representative and two U.S. senators today. Stop this bill in its tracks.


http://www.rense.com/general64/fdei.htm

[bushisanidiot]

1. Will Barbara and Jenna have to share a cell or will they receive their own

private accommodations?

heh..

i predict lots of rich repuke parents will be paying major bucks to keep their pot smoking spoiled brats out of prison.

[Liberty Belle]

3. Don't forget Jeb's druggie daughter.

[indepat]

18. Kids of rich Repuke parents need not worry: this bill is designed to

incarcerate the poor only.

[Liberty Belle]

2. Kick!

The bill also imposes a mandatory 10 year sentence on anyone who provides a small amount of marijuana to a person under 18. So if your 18-year-old son shares a joint with his 17-year-old girlfriend, he could go to jail for longer than a rapist!

:kick:

[Freedom_from_Chains]

4. It's not just 5 years they are talking about

From the bill:

Whoever intentionally offers, solicits, entices, persuades, encourages, induces, or coerces a person enrolled in a drug treatment program or facility, or who is under a court order to enroll in, or who has previously been enrolled in, a drug treatment program or facility, to purchase, receive, or possess a controlled substance, or attempts or conspires to do so, shall, except to the extent that a greater minimum sentence is provided for, be sentenced to a term of imprisonment which may not be less than 5 years or more than life and if death or serious bodily injury resulted from the use of such substance shall not be less than 10 years or more than life.

That's right, you could end up doing life. These people are insane.

[jimshoes]

6. These people are

through the looking glass. By the way what is the punishment for illegally attacking a foriegn country and killing 100,000 innocent people? Bet its less than 5 years.

[Freedom_from_Chains]

7. I think the penalty in America is

You get re-elected.

Seriously, they more I think about this, the more it looks like a great tool to use against political dissenters. That is how authoritarian regimes work, isn't it?

[Fire Walk With Me]

19. Heh

Google "bush failed businesses" to find the answer to the punishment for invading Iraq for oil.

"Profit, while all crumbles around them."

[genieroze]

5. Here is the original link, good site.

http://www.talkleft.com/new_archives/010374.html

[BattyDem]

8. Wouldn't this qualify as "cruel and unusual" punishment?

I know ... they don't care about silly things like that, but I'm just asking. Would this type of sentence be Constitutional? Do we really want to send a 17 year old kid to jail for life for passing a joint at a rock concert?

[Skip Intro]

9. unbelievable!

Screw millions in illegal corporate activities (Enron) - take a cruise.

LIE to your country and its soldiers to start a war that still gushes blood two years later - take some time off at the ranch.

Pass a fucking joint to someone, five years in the Federal Pen, at minimum.

This is some of the most outrageous bullshit I have ever heard of.

Anyone that believes in freedom should be repulsed by it.

We have a whole lotta assholes in our government.

[ovidsen]

10. hypocricy

thy name is "war on drugs".

Tell me again, how many people have died of a marijuana overdose?

[struggle4progress]

11. Goodbye, OSHA. Goodbye, EPA. Hello, Congressional intervention ...

... in your private medical care, the FBI sneak-peeking through your papers, and police in your livingroom and bedroom.

[enki23]

12. how are you going to enforce that one?

what sort of evidence would be needed to convict someone of passing a joint? it's one thing to find someone in posession, and we define "intent to sell" mostly on how much we find in their posession. but how do you determine whether they've passed someone a joint or not, with any degree of certainty? and if you can, would this affect them if they had no reason to know someone had received drug rehabilition treatment? is this just going to become the basis for a bunch of sting operations? or what? or is this just going to be a way to get second time offenders to rat out their buddies for a five year mandatory minimum by claiming they passed them a joint at some time or other?

weird.

[genieroze]

13. I think the whole thing is insane.

These people are off their rockers.

[genieroze]

14. A mistake I think it's supposed to be H.R.4547

A mistake I think it's supposed to be H.R.4547

http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c108:H.R.4547:

I wonder if they are trying to sneak it in by piggybacking it to HR 1528

[genieroze]

16. Yup sneaky a-holes

http://www.govtrack.us/congress/billtext.xpd?bill=h109-1528

[proud2BlibKansan]

15. My friend spent the night in jail for a DUI

and she met a girl who was there for standing next to a guy who was smoking a joint! She was walking into a bar and the guy called to her, she went over to say hello, the cops walked up and she got arrested. She said he didn't even have time to pass the joint to her.

[genieroze]

17. It's gonna get worse if this thing goes through. eom

[zanne]

20. Freepers like their pot, too.

This is one thing I've always noticed about right-wing Republican males: most of them want marijuana laws relaxed. They may be against freedom in any other form, but they do like da weed!

[genieroze]

21. This is why I don't understand why they support the pugs.

Every repressive marijuana law came from republicans.