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Does Sharing Marijuana Constitute Distribution?
Posted by CN Staff on November 15, 2012 at 15:42:34 PT
By Martin Finucane, Globe Staff
Source: Boston Globe
Massachusetts -- Civil liberties activists today challenged prosecutors’ arguments that sharing a small amount of marijuana among friends constitutes drug “distribution.” “The Commonwealth is simply wrong to argue that sharing marijuana constitutes criminal distribution,” Matthew R. Segal, legal director for the ACLU of Massachusetts, said in a statement. “More fundamentally, the Commonwealth’s argument contradicts the will of the voters who approved marijuana decriminalization in 2008. The voters sought to limit marijuana prosecutions, not to invite creative ways for the Commonwealth to increase them.”
The activists warned that someone convicted of distributing marijuana could face up to 2 years in jail for the offense. And they suggested that anyone who shares a marijuana cigarette could be deemed a distributor. The 2008 ballot referendum decriminalized possession of less than one ounce of marijuana. Cape and Islands District Attorney Michael O’Keefe, vice president of the Massachusetts District Attorneys Association, defended such distribution prosecutions, saying sharing marijuana remains illegal. He said the sharing constituted drug distribution, even if no money changed hands. “The law is still the law,” he said. He also saw activists’ criticisms as “a kind of incremental attempt to water the law down.” “It’s the slow erosion of our drug laws,” said O’Keefe. “If that’s the way society wants to go, then let’s have an honest debate about it. But I think it’s a mistake. ... It’s just not a healthy thing, in my judgment, for our society.” He said law enforcement and medical professionals were concerned about keeping marijuana out of the hands of youth, who could proceed from there to succumb to addiction to other drugs. The civil liberties group said it was challenging prosecutors’ interpretation of the law in a “friend of the court” brief filed today in Commonwealth v. Pacheco, a case in the Supreme Judicial Court on appeal from Lynn District Court. An Essex County district attorney’s spokeswoman had no comment on the case.Source: Boston Globe (MA)Author: Martin Finucane, Globe StaffPublished: November 15, 2012Copyright: 2012 Globe Newspaper CompanyContact: letter globe.comWebsite: http://www.boston.com/globe/ URL: http://drugsense.org/url/D1wNL7piCannabisNews -- Cannabis Archiveshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/list/cannabis.shtml 
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Comment #11 posted by Vincent on November 22, 2012 at 08:24:27 PT:
The DA's comments 
The DA Michael O'keefe says:
“It’s the slow erosion of our drug laws, If that’s the way society wants to go, then let’s have an honest debate about it. But I think it’s a mistake. ... It’s just not a healthy thing, in my judgment, for our society.”
 
They always do reveal their feelings about this issue, in subtle and in not-so-subtle, even blatant, ways. This creep doesn't respect "honest debate" -- he, and his kind, just wanna win, that's all. It could be a Generational thing...the so-called "Silent Generation" of the Forties, Fifties and Early Sixties will not accept Marijuana as a good thing, even thought they were the ones to start really doing it. It will hafta be the Baby Bomm Generation that will have to implement the newer policies.
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Comment #10 posted by John Tyler on November 17, 2012 at 07:48:53 PT
Soundtrack to sharing
Soundtrack to sharingWith a little help from my friends
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EmOtWyjs8iUPoems prayer and promises
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4d-NmoMHBbE&feature=related
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Comment #9 posted by afterburner on November 15, 2012 at 20:07:47 PT
Mexico, Honduras, Costa Rica, and Belize wondering
With Pot Legal in Two US States, Latin American Leaders Call for Review of International Drug Policy. By Kristen Gwynne, AlterNet. November 12, 2012. Leaders form Mexico, Honduras, Costa Rica, and Belize are wondering what marijuana legalization in WA and CO means for the region. READ MORE» http://www.alternet.org/pot-legal-two-us-states-latin-american-leaders-call-review-international-drug-policy?akid=9677.313040.rhxvq_&rd=1&src=newsletter743582&t=15 
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Comment #8 posted by Dr Ganj on November 15, 2012 at 19:47:33 PT
Finally, The End Is Near...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tear_down_this_wall!
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Comment #7 posted by FoM on November 15, 2012 at 19:27:51 PT
Dr Ganj 
I hope the walls are crumbling down.
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Comment #6 posted by Dr Ganj on November 15, 2012 at 19:08:45 PT
Uruguay. Mexico next? 
http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/marijuana-law-introduced-uruguay-congress-17731511#.UKWr8YdfBBA
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Comment #5 posted by FoM on November 15, 2012 at 18:55:52 PT
Just a Comment
I can't imagine people not sharing marijuana. Even John Denver from way back when sang these words. Lie there by the fire and watch the evening tireWhile all my friends and my old lady sit and pass a pipe aroundAnd talk of poems and prayers and promises and things that we believe in
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Comment #4 posted by HempWorld on November 15, 2012 at 18:42:06 PT
Sharing is
Caring
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Comment #3 posted by kennyg on November 15, 2012 at 18:09:38 PT
freedom of the people rights
In a democracy people decide they don't have people make the decisions for them 
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Comment #2 posted by kaptinemo on November 15, 2012 at 17:18:15 PT:
Playing chicken with a bullet train
He wants a debate, does he? Okay, we're all for it. A debate, mind you, not a lecture. Not a press conference, where he can hide behind a podium, using the cachet of his (taxpayer-supplied) office to appear overwhelmingly 'official'. No, get down in the blood-soaked, muddy trenches...engaging those whom he and his ilk have hurt for decades with their support of prohibition. And after what he and his have put us through for so long, we are not inclined to take prisoners.They know that. They fear that. And, now, we're more than ready for them. In two States we've drawn their blood, for once...and we've acquired a taste for more. In their intellectual flabbiness they honestly think they can go toe-to-toe with a blood-in-the-eyes, fire-in-the-belly, pissed-off, in-intellectual-fighting-trim reformer who's been raked by prohibition's claws and wants payback? Any one of those who comment here could not only mop the floor with him but use him to pick their teeth with. We have the facts, they have the lies...and most of the audience already knows that, thanks to the generational shift that brought under-30 voters to the polls to pass cannabis re-legalization initiatives. Brave noises...from a dying breed. We're willing to let them slink off into well-earned ignominy, but if they want to exit the stage courtesy of a humiliating  $$-kicking, we'll be quite happy to oblige.
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Comment #1 posted by The GCW on November 15, 2012 at 15:52:42 PT
Amazing ignorance.
Broken gears.IG NOID
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