You Can Go to Jail For 27 Years For Selling Marijuana
Famed NY Giants kicker Lawrence Tynes won't get to celebrate his Super Bowl victory with his brother. As The New York Times reports, Mark Tynes is serving 27 years in prison for selling pot.
"I'm not embarrassed about it," Lawrence Tynes said. "Everyone has skeletons in the closet or whatever. You could go in that locker room and find 50 other stories probably similar to mine. He’s my brother. I love him. He made some bad choices. Rightfully so, he should be punished. But the extent of the punishment, to me, is ridiculous."
So how do you catch 27 years for a marijuana crime? Prior convictions don't help, but it seems that refusing to rat out other people was the biggest factor here:
But Mark Tynes had a record, including felony convictions for possession. And he "paid a heavy penalty for refusing to cooperate," a managing assistant United States attorney told The Pensacola (Fla.) News Journal after sentencing. The others cooperated fully. They became government witnesses. Lawrence Tynes watched as each testified against his brother.
And as tragic as it is to think that selling a relatively harmless substance like marijuana can land someone in prison for decades, consider also that Tynes story never would have been told had his brother not kicked the field goal that put the Giants in the Super Bowl.
Whether they are sitting behind bars or merely sitting around after losing aid for college, the victims of America's brutal war on marijuana typically suffer in silence, injured and marginalized by laws far more potent and destructive than the drug they prohibit.
digg
redditno snitchin
Comment posted by Anonymous on Wed, 02/06/2008 - 12:04pmJust imagine the poor guys choices......this is way wrong and it needs to be stopped. We also need to figure out a way to actually be 'done' with your punishment....not only do punishments exceed what they should they NEVER go away.......they are like a stain.....no matter how much you wash....
Re: Stand up Dude
Comment posted by Anonymous on Wed, 02/06/2008 - 5:14am"Mark Tynes was pinned as the leader of an extensive operation that authorities said moved 3,600 pounds of marijuana from Texas to Florida over several years. "
Redundancy!!!
Comment posted by Anonymous on Wed, 02/06/2008 - 2:06pmHow many times have we heard what authorities say happened and what really took place have become 2 different things! If the authorities said 3600 lbs it was probably more like 36 lbs and the extent of the operation was more like 3 people...They exaggerate the numbers grotesquely, making those involved appear to be public enemy #1. I'm so unbelievably sick to my stomach, regarding this so called-War on Drugs. It's really time we Fight back and say enough of putting anyone behind bars for a Marijuana conviction for 27 years! Absolute Stupidity!
Re: Redundancy!!!
Comment posted by Anonymous on Wed, 02/06/2008 - 8:09pmI think it makes the marijuana law enforcement look like #2 when it takes them several years to finally stop an unregulated dealer trafficking tons of marijuana. So much for deterrence. In any case, his buddies, or plenty of other connected people, will take his place. If we don't arrest the profit that fuels the marijuana market, then our marijuana law enforcement is only creating job openings. We need to lawfully regulate and tax marijuana to remove the market from the hands of unregulated dealers.
The U.S. Department of Justice's Office of Community Oriented Policing Services issued a report, "Drug Dealing in Open-Air Markets", that stated the following:
"Simply arresting market participants will have little impact in reducing the size of the market or the amount of drugs consumed. This is especially true of low-level markets where if one dealer is arrested, there are, more than likely, several others to take their place. Moreover, drug markets can be highly responsive to enforcement efforts but the form of that response is sometimes an adaptation that leads to unintended consequences, including displacement or increased revenue for dealers with fewer competitors."
Aaron in Indiananiel. How
Comment posted by Anonymous on Wed, 02/06/2008 - 5:33amAaron in Indiananiel. How do you think I feel I got punked by the police and lost my financial Aid in my Junior year with a 3.3 gpa. What a waste of money by the feds and the state. In the attempt to get money up out my pocket for a misdeamoner offense...possession/a blunt roach they lost many dollars economically. Instead of being a productive member of society forever I will be judged as a pot head. And u best believe I am going to stay on wellfare the rest of my life. Just another lame ass excuss I think not...Victims me and my 3 yr old son whom inspired me to become the first of my family to go to college. Hopefully we can do something to change the decrimilization of pot or he'll probly be srcewed as well b/c my family is know to smoke pot...were mostly bi-polars that don't want to be depakote zombies but none of us sell. Just blaze to medicate....u know keep me from jumpen and shit....what the F***!
bad choices?
Comment posted by rita on Wed, 02/06/2008 - 1:29pmSorry, I don't buy it -- why should ANYBODY be punished for bad choices?
Where's Lawrence Tynes' backbone?
complete bullshit. All drugs
Comment posted by Anonymous on Wed, 02/06/2008 - 9:28pmcomplete bullshit. All drugs should be legal so no fuckin illiegal immigrant gansters come in our country to grow weed and sell it to people. They are the ones who kill for drugs.
Drug "Prohibition" Increasing Illegal immigration
Comment posted by Anonymous on Thu, 02/07/2008 - 12:00amThe govt has cited on numerous occasions that drug smugglers are taking over human trafficking operations. Certainly regulating and taxing all drugs would take away a huge amount of the resources now being used toward such efforts.
21 years is an awful long
Comment posted by Anonymous on Thu, 02/07/2008 - 12:38pm21 years is an awful long time in prison for selling weed. Maybe it was a very large amount. Either way, it wont look good on his criminal record.
AWW MAN THAY BETTA LET MY NIGGGA OUT!
Comment posted by Anonymous on Thu, 02/07/2008 - 3:04pmNAW HOMIE THIS AINT RIGHT. WEED IS FROM THE EARTH. GOD PUT THIS HERE FOR ME AND YOU. TAKE ADVANTAGE MAN.
27 yrs ? what is he max for weed in usa? 27 yrs?
Comment posted by Anonymous on Sun, 02/10/2008 - 10:05amUSA what a strange place, you have the best weed scene and the worst with the worst laws that brother of his is a wimp.
When it happens to "your rear-end" you will care.
Comment posted by Anonymous on Tue, 02/12/2008 - 5:40amOver a kl. is a felony. Add that hand gun, shot gun, old 22 from when you were a kid will do just fine. That will get you 25 years - mandatory miniumn. Your kids got anything growing? 2 or 3 plants will put you in this exact situation. "Oh. You don't support the war?" "If day aint one a us den day gots to be one a dem." "Your a TERRORIST."
Exact thought process. Exact words. And your next. Took one year and an excellent group of local lawyers that really went to bat for me. $$$$$ No ching or other lawyers and I would be in Holman Prison as we speak.
Anti Fascist - Excessive sentencing law in Germany after WWII - might be the model needed for these 25 & 35 year sentences. Use same wording as the German law and then paint the Bible Thumpers & Law Enforcement as the evil Simese Twins they are as they go BALLISTIC against it.
Senator Dodd has this law & could introduce it in Congress if it had a chance to go anywhere.
i love my weed i love to get high
Comment posted by Anonymous on Thu, 02/28/2008 - 12:46pmi love to get high off my weed
wow u.sa. fuicing blows
Comment posted by Anonymous on Fri, 04/11/2008 - 2:25pmweed- yea it can give you the munchies and make u tired, should def not be illegal i hate the usa im movin to amsterdam. fuck all u scumbags who think weed should be illegal
DEA GO AWAY
Comment posted by Anonymous on Thu, 09/25/2008 - 5:17pmif the governemnt spent as much time worrying about murders and child neglect ect... and quit thinking people that use marijana and sell marijuana are criminals, then maybe we would be living in a world thats not so fucked up. Last time i checked weed dosnet kill people, the government just ruins lives over it.
Stand up Dude
Comment posted by Anonymous on Wed, 02/06/2008 - 2:37amcan you imagine refusing to snitch and then watching as your so called friends snitch on you. To think he got 27 years over pot is absurd, I think the sentence for manslaughter is 20 years, but don't quote me on that. Twenty-Seven years, man that's a long time. how many metric ton's was it!