Sentencing Disparities for Violent and Non-Violent Offenders ... On Weed

By Anne M. Davis, Esq.

The day after the New Jersey medical marijuana bill passed both houses, the victory appeared in newspapers nationally, and the news that New Jersey would become the 14th state to legalize medical marijuana ran in the state’s largest newspaper, the Star Ledger. Directly below this long-awaited news appeared the following story: “Ex-Net (basketball) player Jayson Williams sentenced to at least 18 months following his guilty plea of the shooting death of his 55 year old limo driver...”

This guilty plea came six days after Williams’ car accident in NYC in which he was charged with drunk driving. He plead guilty to aggravated assault for the 2002 accidental shooting which he tried to cover up and faced five years on that charge, but the sentences will be served concurrently and he will be eligible for parole in eighteen months. 

I sat back in awe reflecting on the fact that just two weeks prior I had spent a cold wintery day protesting outside of the Somerset County courthouse where MS patient John Wilson was facing 20 years for growing 17 marijuana plants in his yard for his own personal use. The judge had ruled on a pretrial motion that Wilson was not permitted to mention to the jury that he had MS because New Jersey did not recognize medicinal use as a defense at the time of his arrest.

This is the law in New Jersey. Engage in a victimless crime, hurt no one, while utilizing an affordable natural medicine that is less toxic to the human body than alcohol, and face 20 years. However, a famous athlete can drive drunk and kill someone and even attempt to cover up the shooting and still be eligible to walk the streets in 18 months.

There is not one opponent to the reform of marijuana law who could justify this. Do our state legislators truly believe marijuana is more heinous than the taking of a human life? Do they really believe that New Jersey citizens should have their children taken away and face long-term jail sentences for marijuana because that is worse than shooting someone to death and trying to cover it up? The marijuana plant is natural, safe, affordable and scientifically proven to help people, and a possession crime has no victim. When I see that a murderer can get out in 18 months while dying patients sit in jail for possessing or growing marijuana, I can no longer sit idle and watch it happen. When my friend tells me that her health insurance may be canceled because she is a legal medical marijuana patient, and that she may not qualify for a liver transplant because she uses cannabis legally in California, I am appalled.

At the same time the country is in financial despair, should we be spending billions of dollars fighting the marijuana trade? Marijuana exists in every state of this country, and there are both medical marijuana patients and recreational users in each. The financial impact of Federal marijuana law reform would be twofold: Billions of dollars will be saved on law enforcement, on investigations, prosecution, judicial resources, probation programs, corrections facilities and anti-marijuana campaigns – we could apply some of those funds to drug and alcohol awareness campaigns for teens based on truth – and billions of dollars will be gained from taxation and regulation, from the sales tax on marijuana, paraphernalia, and growing supplies; from payroll taxes and the relief on the unemployment system by creating thousands of job openings; federal and state. There would be income tax from dispensaries, growers, paraphernalia stores and grower supply stores; from state licensing fees paid by dispensaries and treatment centers; from state licensing fees paid by medical patients; from local township permit fees; from growers license fees, both state and local, and a host of other possibilities as well. Out of the billions in revenue generated, the medical programs will fund themselves and have plenty of surplus to apply to our failed, costly health care system. There is phenomenal research out there and there are creative proposals for taxation and regulation in several parts of the country. The more the public avails itself to this information and learns about the benefits of cannabis, both scientifically and economically, the closer we will all become to achieving wise solutions to obvious problems.

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