Colorado Persecutes HIV+ Man for Growing Pot
I could have said prosecutes but persecutes is more fitting.
The guy has survived HIV+ for 20 years and is now facing up to six years in prison.
From Reason:
The strange thing is, this wasn’t even a federal bust. It was a state task force that arrested Branson. Colorado legalized medical marijuana in 2000. The problem is that under that law, Branson had to have been smoking under a doctor’s recommendation. The doctor who gave him that recommendation wouldn’t put it in writing because she worked for the University of Colorado. The school won’t allow its doctors to prescribe medical marijuana because to do so would put its federal funding at risk. Branson has since obtained written permission from another doctor, but he still must stand trial for the plants seized before he had that permission, when he was relying on the oral recommendation of the university doctor. She’s now in South Africa, and it’s not clear if the state will permit her to testify from out of the country.
Caught in the nexus of this sick web of federal blackmail, misplaced law enforcement priorities, and prosecutorial excess is Mr. Branson, who anticipates a slow, painful death if convicted, or if by way of a plea he is forced to give up his marijuana. He has indicated that he’ll commit suicide instead.
I’ve always maintained that with regard to HIV/AIDS, battling HIV is the easy part. Fighting ignorance has always been the most difficult challenge. No matter how much knowledge you throw at it, it keeps mutating into new forms that are highly resistant to all forms of reason.
This is an excellent example of what happens when the state starts playing doctor. Just wait for “universal” health care when politicians will make all the choices for you and your doctor.
A recent article from AmericanScientist.org detailed how marijuana is the least lethal of recreational drugs and alchohol is one of the most lethal. (Be sure to check out the graph by clicking on the small graph icon on the right side of the page if my link doesn’t work.) The fact that marijuana is illegal but alcohol is not tells you that our drug laws are not based on any effort to save lives.
It should also be noted that when the issue of medicial marijuana was recently decided by the Supreme Court, it was the liberals who created this confusion about state v. federal law with regard to medicinal marijuana.
From CNN:
In a 6-3 vote, the justices ruled the Bush administration can block the backyard cultivation of pot for personal use, because such use has broader social and financial implications.
“Congress’ power to regulate purely activities that are part of an economic ‘class of activities’ that have a substantial effect on interstate commerce is firmly established,” Justice John Paul Stevens wrote for the majority.
Justices Sandra Day O’Connor, William Rehnquist and Clarence Thomas dissented. The case took an unusually long time to be resolved, with oral arguments held in November.
The decision means that federal anti-drug laws trump state laws that allow the use of medical marijuana, said CNN senior legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin. Ten states have such laws. [emphasis added]
The liberals are also the ones pushing for universal health care, although “conservatives” are starting to like it as well. Imagine what life will be like when the treatments you get for illnesses are decided by the Supreme Court rather than you and your doctor.
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