Raid finds 400 pot plants in Hermantown home where two young ch...

Herman the German wrote:

http://www.hermantown.k12.mn.u s/documents/Menus/09/High_11_0 9.pdf
the Hermantown Hermits

The Loon wrote:

Actually Rob, nine times out of ten, the police just enforce the law. Fortunately, in our system, they don't get to decide what laws to enforce. The way to avoid unwanted trouble with the law is to simply avoid breaking the law. Really quite simple. If, on the other hand, you feel you must break the law, don't be surprised when you end up in jail.
I just thought I would repeat that so you could have a second chance to understand my thesis.

Rob wrote:

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Even the cops who are enforcing laws that they are required to enforce know that the drug laws in this country are screwed up. Non-violent drug offenders are filling our jails and prisons costing us huge amounts of revenues spent on incarceration. Breaking the law is not necessary to be imprisoned, everyone who breaks the law is not imprisoned, nor are the laws administered fairly. If you really believe in the stark simplicity of your statement, you are quite frankly a simpleton. It's impossible to avoid breaking all laws, and the injustice inherent in the legal system make sure that inequality and injustice rule this country. Just thought I'd muddy the waters so you wouldn't mistake your simplistic view of the world for reality. Though I'm sure it helps you not to look at things too realistically...

Rob wrote:

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Even the cops who are enforcing laws that they are required to enforce know that the drug laws in this country are screwed up. Non-violent drug offenders are filling our jails and prisons costing us huge amounts of revenues spent on incarceration. Breaking the law is not necessary to be imprisoned, everyone who breaks the law is not imprisoned, nor are the laws administered fairly. If you really believe in the stark simplicity of your statement, you are quite frankly a simpleton. It's impossible to avoid breaking all laws, and the injustice inherent in the legal system make sure that inequality and injustice rule this country. Just thought I'd muddy the waters so you wouldn't mistake your simplistic view of the world for reality. Though I'm sure it helps you not to look at things too realistically...

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The Loon wrote:

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Let me try one more time. If you want to avoid trouble with the law, all you have to do is not break the law. Piece of cake, basic, simple concept inherent in a civilized society which bases its laws on free and fairly fair elections. If you want to change the law, please do so in the normal way. Until then, for the fourth time, if you want to avoid trouble with the law, don't break the laws.

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Rob wrote:

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Again, not breaking laws does not ensure avoidance of trouble with the law. What you have stated and restated is simplistic to a fault. Reiteration does not a premise prove. I'm guessing you're white, educated, and middle class. And you reflect the cultural cluelessness of that group. Because anyone who is outside the mainstream of white culture knows how easy it is to find one's self in trouble for no reason at all other than prejudice. In other words, what you aver is not wrong, but doesn't go far enough in describing the real situation for a lot of people. Marijuana laws should be, and probably eventually will be, changed. Until that time, however, a huge minority of people will continue to break the law, because the law is wrong and was instituted based on prejudice and racism.

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Incredible70 wrote:

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So, because he is white, middle class, and educated, he won't smoke pot (and hence not break the law), but other classes will? I'm not sure how that equates to bad law. I think it equates to certain social and ethnic classes simply more willing to break the law, and using excuses about class status to explain their behavoir...

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The Loon wrote:

I was born into a poor, working class family. My father and mother lived with us. Each had gone to school through grade 7 only. This was during the Great Depression and they were required to work. I paid my own way through university by working both part time and full time. In all that time I did not need drugs, alcohol, pot, crime, etc.
Why should I feel sorry for those who do less and "need" to break the law? I don't.
I repeat for the fifth time, if you do not want trouble with the law all you have to do is not break the law.

Rob wrote:

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The fact that a person smokes a harmless plant puts them outside the legal realm, that in itself is injustice. The mainstream I was suggesting is everyone who doesn't fit the profile, according to vague and bigoted definitions, of upstanding citizens. The ethnicities and social classes that you suggest are more willing to break the law are in fact victimized by the highly prejudiced nature of the inception and administration of said laws. Thus the drug laws are unjust and should be struck down.

Incredible70 wrote:

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The fact is even simpler...that plant you call 'harmless' has been declared illegal by the congress of this country, which is made up of people of all races. There is no gray area...it is illegal. Just because you feel that the law is wrong, does not excuse anyone who uses it. They are breaking a law. If you don't like the law, then lobby for it to be changed, and don't smoke it until the law is changed. If you do, regardless of your race or socia-economic class, you are breaking the law.