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 SbstratAlchemist
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 Mass. High Court Rules Marijuana Dealing Charge is Valid Even When Dealer Only Posseses Small Amount 
#15805780 - 02/13/12 08:47 PM (3 months, 13 days ago) |
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http://www.boston.com/Boston/metrodesk/2012/02/mass-high-court-rules-marijuana-dealing-charge-valid-even-when-alleged-dealer-only-possesses-small-amount/vKgaXTNcWhf1VEcS3oIaGO/index.html
The state’s highest court has ruled that people can be charged with possession with intent to distribute marijuana even if they were caught with less than an ounce of the substance, despite the decriminalization of simple possession of such small amounts.
The Supreme Judicial Court said a 2008 referendum that changed possessing less than an ounce from a criminal offense to a civil offense had no effect on the separate law that makes it a crime to possess marijuana with the intent to distribute it.
“We conclude that the passage of [the referendum] did not repeal the offense of possession of marijuana with intent to distribute [...] where the amount of marijuana possessed is one ounce or less,” Chief Justice Roderick Ireland wrote in today’s opinion.
Shawn M. Keefner faced the possession with intent to distribute charge after police in Great Barrington responded on May 23, 2010, to a complaint from a woman who said her daughter and others were smoking marijuana. Police found six people, including Keefner, sitting on the front porch. They searched Keefner and allegedly found three sandwich bags of marijuana, weighing a total of 6 grams, or less than a quarter of an ounce, the court said.
Keefner argued that the possession with intent to distribute charge had been invalidated by the decriminalization of the simple possession law. A District Court judge agreed, but prosecutors appealed.
The court said that the referendum “did not expressly repeal” the possession with intent to distribute law. “Nor is there any clear implication of a repeal,” the court said.
“The [referendum law], insofar as it relates to the simple possession statute, only applies to a small amount (one ounce or less) of marijuana. In contrast, the crime of posssession with intent to distribute applies to any amount of marijuana if the intent is to distribute it (as opposed to personal use),” the court said.
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Revolutionine
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 Re: Mass. High Court Rules Marijuana Dealing Charge is Valid Even When Dealer Only Posseses Small Amount [Re: SbstratAlchemist]
#15805859 - 02/13/12 09:02 PM (3 months, 13 days ago) |
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this dude fucked up by having multiple bags. its pretty stupid that if you have 27 grams all in one bag you only get a ticket but if you have 3 grams in 3 different bags you get arrested. sucks for this guy but he had to learn that lesson the hard way.
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Smoke weed everyday
All I ever wanted was to be free,
and in the end that's how it turned out to be
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 ifoundwaldo
Registered: 09/28/10
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Re: Mass. High Court Rules Marijuana Dealing Charge is Valid Even When Dealer Only Posseses Small Amount [Re: Revolutionine]
#15806056 - 02/13/12 09:43 PM (3 months, 13 days ago) |
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Quote:
Revolutionine said:
this dude fucked up by having multiple bags. its pretty stupid that if you have 27 grams all in one bag you only get a ticket but if you have 3 grams in 3 different bags you get arrested. sucks for this guy but he had to learn that lesson the hard way.
It's pretty retarded.
What if you buy three different strains from your dealer?
I used to do that regularly, and (of course) I'd keep them separate.
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nooneman
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Re: Mass. High Court Rules Marijuana Dealing Charge is Valid Even When Dealer Only Posseses Small Amount [Re: SbstratAlchemist]
#15806277 - 02/13/12 10:27 PM (3 months, 13 days ago) |
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Apparently everyone is a dealer now, especially people who don't sell.
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withoutawire
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Re: Mass. High Court Rules Marijuana Dealing Charge is Valid Even When Dealer Only Posseses Small Amount [Re: nooneman]
#15806321 - 02/13/12 10:37 PM (3 months, 13 days ago) |
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Seperate bags shouldn't indicate if he's dealing. If he had 10 bags in 1 gram each with $120 in $5's and $10's that would be valid.
But 6 grams, 3 bags, and some people smoking weed....that's not PCS with intent. Even if it could be it definitely is not concrete enough to make that charge.
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Lord_McLovin
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Re: Mass. High Court Rules Marijuana Dealing Charge is Valid Even When Dealer Only Posseses Small Amount [Re: withoutawire]
#15807140 - 02/14/12 06:10 AM (3 months, 13 days ago) |
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This is very bad news. Prosecutors might now charge people for "possession with intent to distribute" even though they have absolutely no evidence for that and the amount is small. People who don't know their strategy might give in.
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Humility
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Re: Mass. High Court Rules Marijuana Dealing Charge is Valid Even When Dealer Only Posseses Small Amount [Re: Lord_McLovin]
#15808359 - 02/14/12 01:08 PM (3 months, 13 days ago) |
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How do you even get caught with 6 grams of weed? How long does it really take to put a few buds in your mouth and eat them between a couple-few people?
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luvdemshrooms
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Re: Mass. High Court Rules Marijuana Dealing Charge is Valid Even When Dealer Only Posseses Small Amount [Re: Humility]
#15808364 - 02/14/12 01:10 PM (3 months, 13 days ago) |
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They may have never even seen the cops coming.
It may have been in their pockets and they didn't want to make any sudden moves.
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“In politics, few talents are as richly rewarded as the ability to convince parasites that they are victims. Welfare states on both sides of the Atlantic have discovered that largesse to losers does not reduce their hostility to society, but only increases it. Far from producing gratitude, generosity is seen as an admission of guilt, and the reparations as inadequate compensation for injustices – leading to worsening behavior by the recipients.
Thomas Sowell
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A thin-skinned Mod that deletes rates of himself that he doesn't like.
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Humility
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Re: Mass. High Court Rules Marijuana Dealing Charge is Valid Even When Dealer Only Posseses Small Amount [Re: luvdemshrooms]
#15808430 - 02/14/12 01:24 PM (3 months, 13 days ago) |
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Possible; says they were sitting on the front porch. That makes that situation (them not seeing) more unlikely.
I tend to not let people sneak up on me. With 6 people on a front porch there was a no justification for ANYONE to get busted for weed.
Fuck the cops. Go inside, shut the door in their face, lock it and flush that shit. Do anything; whatever you do don't get caught with 6 grams of cannabis.
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luvdemshrooms
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Re: Mass. High Court Rules Marijuana Dealing Charge is Valid Even When Dealer Only Posseses Small Amount [Re: Humility]
#15808459 - 02/14/12 01:33 PM (3 months, 13 days ago) |
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I too tend not to let people sneak up on me.
However, some people are so unobservant that a circus parade with 76 trombones and 110 cornets could march right up to them, and they'd never see it coming.
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“In politics, few talents are as richly rewarded as the ability to convince parasites that they are victims. Welfare states on both sides of the Atlantic have discovered that largesse to losers does not reduce their hostility to society, but only increases it. Far from producing gratitude, generosity is seen as an admission of guilt, and the reparations as inadequate compensation for injustices – leading to worsening behavior by the recipients.
Thomas Sowell
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A thin-skinned Mod that deletes rates of himself that he doesn't like.
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Humility
Working on it
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Re: Mass. High Court Rules Marijuana Dealing Charge is Valid Even When Dealer Only Posseses Small Amount [Re: luvdemshrooms]
#15808577 - 02/14/12 02:03 PM (3 months, 13 days ago) |
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Agreed.
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