Another POW in the insane War on Drugs

[Ghost in the Machine]

I'd like to introduce you all to a friend of mine:

Officer acting as mailman delivered drug parcel then arrested receiver

By John Zambenini
October 2, 2008

A Frankfort man has been indicted on felony drug charges after allegedly receiving more than 13 pounds of marijuana in the mail.

John B. Littleton, 65, 353 Greenfields Lane, faces a single charge of trafficking in marijuana after the dope showed up on his doorstep, prosecutors said.

A U.S. Postal Service inspector flagged the priority-mail package at its origin in Texas, Commonwealth's Attorney Larry Cleveland said, noting the package matched the profile of potentially drug-laden parcel.

In the box's journey north to Frankfort, Cleveland said, it was deemed suspicious and inspected by drug-sniffing dogs. A federal search warrant was obtained to open the box to confirm its contents and then it was resealed and delivered to Littleton, Cleveland said " by state police.

Cleveland said police borrowed a post officer truck and uniform to deliver the 13.6 pounds of pot Aug. 22. "And they delivered it on time," Cleveland said.
"They keep track of packages going through the mail pretty closely," Cleveland said.

Police came prepared with a warrant and arrested Littleton on the spot.
http://www.state-journal.com/news/article/4437426

When he was first arrested, they told him he was facing 25 years to life. John was sentenced this week to 36 months in prison, 5 years probation and a $545,000 fine. They suspended the fine as there is no way he could ever pay it once he gets out, and he'll have to do at least 85% of his time, or 32 months.

They told his fiancee, Renee, that he would probably be held in the county lockup for a day or two, then they would snatch him out during the middle of the night and put him in transit to Oklahoma. They said he'd probably be treated like shit along the way, then once in Oklahoma, they'd hold him until the shipped him to the prison of his choice (he was allowed to choose from 3 prisons). Hopefully he'll get sent to N.C. or S.C. so he'll be close enough for Renee and some of his other friends to be able to visit him.



John, hang in there brother, your friends are standing behind you. One day soon, sanity will prevail and these draconian drug laws will be history...

Peace,

Ghost

[Heidi]

1. Ya know, I don't care whether it was 13 pounds or 13 TONS,

whether it was medicinal or recreational marijuana. To send _anyone_ to prison for possession or even selling pot, absent a violent accompanying crime, is just ridiculous.

[tridim]

3. Yep, that's one thing that will remain illegal even if legalization happens

Same reason you can't buy cigarettes online from other states.

[Ghost in the Machine]

5. Seems to me that the Post Office could use the revenue...

Didn't they recently lay people off, for the first time in their history?

:hi:

[rcrush]

17. Yeah and a LOT of people send weed through fedex, mail etc

You'd think they'd want to get in on the action?

[Ghost in the Machine]

21. The extra revenue would negate the need for rate increases, imho...

So much revenue is lost that it's not even funny..

[Ghost in the Machine]

4. It is ridiculous, isn't it?

The number one cash crop in Tennessee & Kentucky is marijuana. This is true for about 12 other states, if memory serves me correctly. It's criminal that our government isn't taking advantage of the tax revenues lost by keeping marijuana illegal..

:hi:

[Heidi]

8. It was also the No. 1 cash crop in Oklahoma and Arkansas

when I was growing up in Oklahoma.

I'm not a pot smoker, but it's clear to me that the prison industrial complex very much depends on the War on People in order to remain solvent. No way is the PIC gonna cede even a portion of its self-perpetuating economy to give taxpayers even a tiny slice of in the form of tax relief. Prison is too big a business, and we who support decriminalization and/or legalization are its competitors.

[Ghost in the Machine]

13. See the chart on post #12...

.. and thanks for caring...


Peace,

Ghost

[Kievan Rus]

2. War on Drugs = quagmire

[Heidi]

9. War on Drugs = War on People. (nt)

[Ghost in the Machine]

10. The 'War on Drugs' has been a complete and total FAILURE...

It hasn't made a dent in the flow of drugs in this country. It's a sham, pure and simple....

Welcome to DU, Kievan Rus...

:hi:

[Vidar]

19. Nonsense, it drives up the price. Good business for the CIA et al.

[Ghost in the Machine]

22. Good point..

CIA = Cocaine Importing Agency

[barbtries]

6. 32 months

more time than the woman who killed my daughter did.

[Ghost in the Machine]

11. ........

:hug:

I'm sorry for your loss, barbtries...

[barbtries]

14. thanks ghost

justice is twisted in this country. well everywhere i suppose.

[rcrush]

23. holy shit

thats all kinds of fucked up. My condolences.

[Ghost in the Machine]

32. tell me about it

I'm going to forward the OP and this response to Obama..


Monday kick...

[Bodhimarshall]

7. Nothing new

The US has more people imprisoned by far and away than any other country in the world......most of the people who's lives are being wasted in US prisons are imprisoned for victimless crimes......essentially they are political prisoners....21st century slaves.

What's Obama doing about this? Laughing up his sleeve perhaps?!?

Yeah Change you can beleive in maybe....but I can't beleive in fairy tales.

[Ghost in the Machine]

12. 775,000 people were arrested for marijuana in 2007 alone...

... and that was just for possession, no other crimes involved




The numbers speak for themselves...

[Ghost in the Machine]

16. Sorry about my manners, too... Welcome to DU, Bodhimarshall

:hi:

[Fuzz]

15. It's not a war on drugs, it's a war on personal freedom.

[Ghost in the Machine]

25. It's more in line with 'Legislating Morality'...

Religious people, Mormons to be exact, were the cause of the first laws making marijuana illegal:

For most of human history, marijuana has been completely legal. It's not a recently discovered plant, nor is it a long-standing law. Marijuana has been illegal for less than 1% of the time that it's been in use. Its known uses go back further than 7,000 B.C. and it was legal as recently as when Ronald Reagan was a boy.

The marijuana (hemp) plant, of course, has an incredible number of uses. The earliest known woven fabric was apparently of hemp, and over the centuries the plant was used for food, incense, cloth, rope, and much more. This adds to some of the confusion over its introduction in the United States, as the plant was well known from the early 1600's, but did not reach public awareness as a recreational drug until the early 1900's.


However, the first state law outlawing marijuana did so not because of Mexicans using the drug. Oddly enough, it was because of Mormons using it. Mormons who traveled to Mexico in 1910 came back to Salt Lake City with marijuana. The church was not pleased and ruled against use of the drug. Since the state of Utah automatically enshrined church doctrine into law, the first state marijuana prohibition was established in 1915. (Today, Senator Orrin Hatch serves as the prohibition arm of this heavily church-influenced state.)
http://www.congressunderfire.com/dc/dcboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=106&topic_id=2&mesg_id=2&page=

So much for separation of church & state, huh?

[warren pease]

29. Sure is...

... And as such, it's the perfect template for the so-called "War on Terror." The physical and legal infrastructure's already there; the American people are already conquered and pacified to an extent far greater than that achieved by the Third Reich in WW II Vichy France.

Aerial and satellite surveillance has been a fact of life for decades, particularly in rural areas. Zero tolerance means they can steal your stuff for absolutely no reason, and indeterminate sentencing makes sure that either you keep your mouth shut about systemic abuse (don't want an extra 20 years added on for bitching) or you roll on anybody -- everybody... Friends, co-workers, family... It doesn't matter.

And to assure corruption, local cops and DEA offices get to keep what they steal or auction it off. Property seized by our brave drug warriors shows up on eBay and Craigslist all the time.

So we're completely screwed already, and we know it. As a result, the only people who will mess around with bulk sales, transportation, importation and distribution are very bad guys -- usually bad guys with financial hooks into the local "protect and serve" crowd. Often very bad guys with high-level CIA/DoD/NSA/FBI et al jobs and/or contract positions.

They're also the very bad guys who have absolutely no problem opening fire on crowds of civilians if that's going to keep the cops busy long enough for them to escape. Very bad guys who have replaced the largely casual bunch of fuckups and dope fiends who sold dime bags to support their own habits back in the '50s and '60s.


Then along comes Hani Hanjour, fake commercial pilot's license in hand, ready to take a gigantic Boeing 757 for a joy ride on the morning when, as the Bushies liked to say, "the whole world changed."

Sure as hell did, didn't it? Now we get to do a striptease for the dumb fuck TSA voyeurs just to board a commercial flight.

Before Hani's day was done, he allegedly pulled off this aerobatic maneuver. Beginning at 7000 feet at an air speed of 396 knots, he allegedly dove almost 5000 feet within a 330 degree turn while pulling about 5 Gs (about what you'd expect through a hard turn riding one of the world's most radical roller coasters), and covered 5 miles in about 3 minutes.

He levels off at 2200 feet to take a quick look around. Then, engines roaring as he moves the thrusters to full power and, with a very steady hand, Hani begins the final minute of his life.

Firm but supple pressure on the joystick to avoid sudden twitches that could result in overshooting the target or nosediving into the lawn, now inside ground effects (causing massive turbulence) as he wastes a few streetlight standards but manages to miss the huge reels of fiber optic cabling lying right in his path, and finally rams into the Pentagon at 460 knots -- a direct hit on the only part of the Pentagon that had already been reinforced and which was as far away as possible from Rumsfeld's office.

Does this really sound like the same guy who, about a month before "the events of 9/11"(tm), was turned down when he tried to rent a Cessna 172 at Freeway Airport in Bowie, Md., 20 miles west of Washington?

Same guy, though, according to flight instructor Sheri Baxter, who recognized Hani Hanjour's name when the FBI released its list of 19 suspects who pulled off these four alleged hijackings.


So they create the perfect, all-purpose excuse for running absolutely any program, game or thing draconian. Following the advice of Goering, Goebbels and Bernays, they brand anyone who disagrees with the official story "unpatriotic."*

Thanks to the drug war, the tables are already set -- except for Pelosi's, which is empty largely because they co-opted her way back in 2002 re approving torture and she's lived in their hip pocket ever since.

And now, it's show time.

Sound like maybe kinda a viable way to interpret "the events of 9/11"(tm) and their relationship to the drug war?

Naaaaahh....


sf

* Nazi leader Hermann Goering, interviewed by Gustave Gilbert during
the Easter recess of the Nuremberg trials, 1946 April 18, quoted in
Gilbert's book 'Nuremberg Diary.'

Goering: Why, of course, the people don't want war. Why would some
poor slob on a farm want to risk his life in a war when the best that
he can get out of it is to come back to his farm in one piece.

Naturally, the common people don't want war; neither in Russia, nor in
England, nor in America, nor for that matter in Germany. That is
understood. But, after all, it is the leaders of the country who
determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the
people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or
a parliament, or a communist dictatorship.

Gilbert: There is one difference. In a democracy the people have some
say in the matter through their elected representatives, and in the
United States only Congress can declare wars.

Goering: Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the
bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them
they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of
patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in
any country.

[Ghost in the Machine]

33. Damn, I wish I could rec your reply....

Thanks for posting...

:hi:

[Ezlivin]

18. He should have just tortured others or installed illegal wiretaps

Then he would not only go free, but appear on television shows.

Make no mistake: Pot smokers are directly responsible for the attacks of 9/11. If there had been no pot smokers in the U.S., we wouldn't have had to torture people and wiretap everyone. It's really that simple.

[Ghost in the Machine]

26. The real criminals walk free while the gub'mint chases pot smokers..

What a country!

[MadHound]

20. I hope that John has easy time and is out soon

Perhaps a good lawyer can find a technicality to get him out on appeal. This WOD sucks, and in my opinion we need to legalize it all, and control and tax it like alcohol.

One thing I've got to ask though, WTF was John thinking getting thirteen pounds of dope shipped to him through the post office? Hell, that's been compromised for thirty years now, a given that packages were inspected, X rayed, etc. And frankly both Fed Ex and UPS became unreliable around twenty years ago when they started hopping into bed with the DEA. Sure, you might be able to get something by once in awhile now, especially if you have a cut-out, but the fact of the matter now is that sending any drugs by any mail service is just asking to get busted sooner or later.

[Ghost in the Machine]

27. Thank you

I don't think there's any technicalities that would help him. It was a pretty cut~n~dried case (pardon the pun)...

Apparently, they had been doing this for over 6 years... and it finally caught up with them...

I agree with you that "we need to legalize it all, and control and tax it like alcohol"... that's the key. Legalization without taxation and regulation won't ever happen. Legalize it, then tax and regulate like the alcohol & tobacco industries....


Peace,

Ghost

[The Gunslinger]

24. He should have gon out got drunk and killed someone with his car....

That only gets you 30 days in jail.

[Ghost in the Machine]

28. There's something very wrong with that picture, isn't there?

:hi:

[tabasco]

30. Rational laws are too much to ask of cowardly politicians.

Can't look soft on crime, ya' know.

[Ghost in the Machine]

31. Wanna look tough on crime? Legalize!!

"See? The crime rate dropped by almost one million arrests, prisons aren't overcrowded, the court systems aren't clogged up with petty possession charges... legalization has reduced crime!"

There, I just wrote the talking point for 1 year after legalization takes effect....

:hi: