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Art Garfunkel: A Menace To Society?Jan 22 '04 Write an essay on this topic.
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The Bottom Line Legalize em! The fighter will still remain.
Art Garfunkel a pothead? Who’da thunk it? According to the Associated Press, the singer was driving in New York on January 17 when his limo was pulled over for speeding. Police immediately detected the odor of marijuana and searched his limo. A small amount of the drug was found in Garfunkel’s pocket, according to the AP report. Quicker than one can say, “lie la lie”. Garfunkel was in handcuffs. The AP article also says that the maximum penalty will most likely be a $100 fine. In that case, Garfunkel should count himself lucky that he was not arrested in Texas, where the penalties for possession of pot include serious prison time. For the most part, the Garfunkel incident will likely remain a blip on most people’s radar screens. Yet looking at it from this perspective reveals just how silly the whole thing was. Doesn’t anyone else think it’s rather dumb for them to stop Garfunkel on a speeding charge and then bust him for pot possession? Putting aside the speeding issue, how was Garfunkel’s pot smoking endangering other people’s lives. Is the man who helped give us “Bridge Over Troubled Water” now a menace to society? Yet the anti-pot crowd will now doubtlessly say that Art should have the book thrown at him for this incident. They say that morally or ethically right or not, whether for medicinal purposes or not, Marijuana is illegal and thus possession of it is a crime and people who do partake in possession of it should be treated as criminals. But how dangerous is pot really? And what useful purposes can it serve. Let’s examine the case of James Burton. Burton (no relation to Elvis Presley’s guitarist) is (according to the official website of Libertarian Presidential Candidate Harry Browne) “a former Kentuckian who is living literally in exile in the Netherlands. A Vietnam War veteran, he suffers from a rare form of hereditary glaucoma. All the males on his mother's side of the family had the disease, and several of them have gone blind. Burton found that marijuana could hold back, and perhaps halt, the glaucoma. So he began growing marijuana for his own use. Kentucky State Police raided his 90-acre farm and found 138 marijuana plants and two pounds of raw marijuana. At his trial, ophthalmologist John Merritt — at the time the only physician in America allowed by the government to test marijuana in the treatment of glaucoma — testified that marijuana was the only medication that could keep Burton from going blind. Nevertheless, Burton was found guilty of simple possession and was sentenced to one year in a federal maximum-security prison, with no parole. The government also seized his house and farm. Under forfeiture laws, there was no defense he could raise against the seizure of his property. No defense witnesses were permitted at his hearing. After release from prison, Burton and his wife moved to the Netherlands, where he can legally purchase marijuana to stave off his blindness. Now, instead of living on a sprawling farm, they live in a tiny apartment, an ocean away from family and friends. They would love to return to America — but not at the cost of his going blind.” Another example from Browne’s Website: “In 1992, Jimmy Montgomery of Oklahoma was sentenced to 10 years in prison for possession of two ounces of marijuana. That's the same weight as the tobacco in two packs of cigarettes. Montgomery was using the marijuana to relieve painful muscle spasms in his paralyzed limbs. Montgomery is a paraplegic who has been in a wheelchair for over 20 years after an industrial accident. His harsh sentence was because he was convicted both for possession and for intent to distribute — based on the testimony of a cop who said he had never seen anyone with two ounces who didn't intend to distribute. This poor man nearly died twice in prison because of lack of medical care. Because he had infectious sores that endangered other inmates, he was put in an isolated cell where he couldn't call for help. He had to remove his own bloody bandages without benefit of salve. Guards lost his urine bag, putting him in danger of death from infection. He eventually was released, but the lack of medical treatment in the government's prison led to his leg being amputated.” Let’s pause here and ask ourselves a question. Do the above two cases sound like something out of a truly free society or do they sound like something from a totalitarian dictatorship? Of course some ardent drug warriors will say: “But Wilder. Marijuana is dangerous!” Is there any case on the books where Marijuana has actually killed anyone? I’ve done quite a bit of research and found none. I can understand why people may have pause about legalizing harder drugs like cocaine and heroin. However, as Larry Elder writes in his book The Ten Things You Can’t Say In America: “Legalization does not mean acceptance”. Legalizing the drugs and treating the problem as a health problem instead of a law enforcement one is a step in the right direction. So is actually LOOKING at the benefits of pot. By this point, I’m sure the drug war advocates are standing up and yelling, “Legalize drugs Wilder. You must be insane”. Actually (and yes I have had a psychiatric evaluation) I am perfectly sane. And no sane society would allow the insanity I listed above to continue. Legalize em! The fighter will still remain. Or if we're going to persist in this sort of thing, how about a war on bad reality TV shows? Considering how many Americans blow brain cells watching those things when they could be doing things that could build their mind and body, shouldn't they be illegal?  |
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