http://www.bloggingbaby.com/entry/1234000080046079Parents could do 10 years for selling a joint under proposed drug law
Posted Jun 9, 2005, 10:05 AM ET by Jim McQuiggin
Related entries: Health & Safety, Lifestyle
Remember the scene in Poltergeist where, after the kids are in bed, mom and dad settle down with a glass of wine and a few tokes? According to Wisconsin Congressman James Sensenbrenner, those parents are deserving of ten years in prison.
With Sensebrenner’s proposed House Bill H.R. 1528, `Defending America’s Most Vulnerable: Safe Access to Drug Treatment and Child Protection Act of 2005’, a mother who sells her neighbor a joint would get a 10-year minimum sentence, even if her kids were at school at the time. However, there is much, much more to the bill. The bill virtually eliminates the ability of federal judges to give sentences below the minimum sentence recommended by federal sentencing guidelines, essentially creating a mandatory minimum sentence for every federal offense (including both drug and non-drug offenses).
The bill also stipulates a 10-year minimum sentence for anyone 21 or older who gives marijuana or others drugs to someone under 18 (i.e. a 21 year old college students gives a joint to his 17-year old brother). A second offense would be life in prison. ”Drug-free” school zones would be expanded to include almost any place in an urban area including hospitals, drug rehabs, video arcades, public libraries, or day-care centers. It would increase penalties for selling or distributing drugs in that area (enhancing penalties for people in inner cities, while people in rural and suburban areas get less time for the same offense).
Worse than that, the bill mandates that you inform on loved ones and friends. If you have knowledge of any kind of drug offense and don’t pass that knowledge onto the police within 24 hours, you would face an automatic five years in prison.
As a therapist who deals primarily with substance abuse clients, I think this bill is nuts. If I were aware of a meth lab in my neighborhood, I’d inform the cops in a New York minute. But threatening me with a mandatory 5 years of prison for not reporting someone smoking weed is absolute insanity.
Fortunately, I’m also a citizen and I can make sure this bill dies a quick and certain death.