Since Vermont is one of the 17 states to (finally) decriminalize possession of marijuana, one could say that the Legislature and governor should be patted on the back for doing the right thing.
But wait. Not so fast.
Is decriminalizing marijuana really an admission of guilt and culpability in criminalizing people who were not criminals before?
There cannot be a great difference in marijuana use today than five, 10 or 40 years ago. If it’s decriminalized now, that suggests there was no legitimate reason for criminalizing marijuana in the first place.
Therein lies the tragedy of marijuana criminal laws. What it means is that the majority of people who are now or have been in prison for marijuana criminal charges were unjustly incarcerated.
It seems to me that a call for release, reparations and redress for most marijuana prisoners is a logical conclusion, especially in light of the growing legalization of marijuana efforts in this country.
After all, somebody has to pay for the harm that was done to millions of Americans. Indeed, the criminalizing of nonviolent marijuana users was uncalled for in the first place. Moreover, the sentences handed out were unnecessary and far exceeded any reasonable bounds of jurisprudence in their exercise of cruel and unusual punishment.
It is important that we come to grips with these disgraceful deeds by legislatures, members of the media and the public who unjustly supported the stigmatization, criminalization and incarceration of a class people based on inherently harmless, victimless behavior.
~Vidda Crochetta
[This article was published in the Rutland Herald, April 17th, and The Weekly Commons, April 23rd]
Not Clemency - It's Remedy, Set Right and Compensate to Redress
The NYTimes reported that the justice Department announced plans to census the entire federal prison population to “to find inmates who committed low-level crimes and could be released early. It is expected to generate thousands, if not tens of thousands, of applications for clemency. It represents the Obama administration’s latest break from the criminal justice policies created to fight drugs.”
When facing past transgressions against the American, Obama has shown he prefers to “look forward.” Instead of justice to those maligned by the criminal justice system, his administration wants to employ clemency for so-called “low-level crimes.”
Since clemency is a form of forgiveness for wrong-doing, it keeps marijuana users stigmatized as criminals when, in fact, the majority truly “were not criminals before.”
It’s isn’t clemency that’s called for – it is the remedy, set right and compensation to redress for infringement of unjust public law rights and grievances against our citizens.
The gulag behind the forced imprisonment of adult marijuana consumers has always been politically-driven, not based on sound scientific, medical or social reasoning.
Clemency for Marijuana Consumers Stinks
Clemency of federal sentences can only happen through pardons by the president. But, while the president can free federal prisoners it does not eliminated a criminal record. That stinks.
Presidential pardons do not affect any of the marijuana prisoners of the 2 million inmates in state prisons.
There are hundreds of thousands of marijuana prisoners in federal and state prisons now who should never have been there in the first place and should not ever have had a criminal record.
Additionally, we’ve had over 40 years of incarcerating marijuana users. I use the term gulag…it is shameful and nothing less.
Total federal and state marijuana prisoners in 2004
Total federal and state marijuana prisoners in 2004 = 44,816
Thus, those in prison for marijuana offenses represent about 12.6% of those incarcerated for drug law violations and 3.2% of total state and federal prisoners.
It should be noted that these numbers exclude those among the 700,000+ inmates who may be in local jail because of a marijuana arrest.
These facts and others like them can be found in the Prisons and Drugs Chapter of Drug War Facts at http://www.drugwarfacts.org.
The Free Press: Past marijuana violators owed redress
Past marijuana violators owed redress
http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/story/opinion/readers/letters/2014/05/05/past-marijuana-violators-owed-redress/8633199/
[This article was published in the Rutland Herald, April 17th, and The Weekly Commons, April 23rd, iBrattleboro OPED page, April 23rd and the Burlington Free Press, May 5, 2014]