Pubdate: Wed, 28 May 2014
Source: Texarkana Gazette (TX)
Copyright: 2014 Texarkana Gazette
Contact:  http://www.texarkanagazette.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/976
Author: John M. Crisp, McClatchy-Tribune News Service
Page: 7A

HASH-OIL BROWNIES LOADED WITH IRONY

This would be easy to overstate, but in comparison with much of the 
world, our country does a decent job of administering justice in a 
measured, equitable manner.

Sure, there's lots of room for improvement. For example, blacks are 
considerably more likely to be executed or incarcerated than are 
whites who commit the same crime. We should work on this.

Still, in a world that has at least 37 countries that outlaw 
homosexuality, at least 10 of which punish it with the death penalty, 
we do a reasonable job of administering even-handed, 
let-the-punishment-fit-thecrime justice. Then there's Jacob Lavoro. 
Last week my local newspaper, the Austin American Statesman, reported 
that Lavoro, a 19-year-old from Round Rock, Texas, has been charged 
with possession of a controlled substance with intent to deliver.

Lavoro was caught baking brownies and cookies with a special 
ingredient, hash oil, a derivative of marijuana with a higher THC 
concentration than in the regular leaf.

He's in particular trouble because prosecutors can charge him based 
on the entire weight of the brownies' ingredients-660 grams-instead 
of just the weight of the hash oil. And in Texas, possession of over 
400 grams of hash oil with intent to deliver can result in a sentence 
of as much as life in prison. Yes, life.

I'm no avid proponent of marijuana decriminalization or use, but it's 
disconcerting that a 19-year-old kid, who still lives with his 
parents, worked in a hamburger joint, and has no criminal record, 
could be sentenced to life in prison for a practice that is perfectly 
legal just 900 miles to the north in Denver.

In fact, if you search for "hash oil in Colorado" at least a dozen 
sites in Denver alone pop up immediately, each touting the quality 
and efficacy of its products.

Dr. J's invites you to "Treat Yourself Daily!" with the doctor's hash 
oil-infused selection of chocolate bars, caramels and hard candies. 
Or you can take a vegetarian "Health Capsule" if you want to avoid 
the extra calories.

Since the recreational use of marijuana become legal in Colorado on 
Jan. 1, sales have exploded, topping $14 million in just the first 
month and providing $3.5 million in additional revenue for the state's coffers.

Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper expects taxes and fees from marijuana 
sales to amount to $134 million during first year, the first $40 
million of which will go to school construction.

I don't have a position on whether all this is a good idea or on 
whether taxing marijuana sales is a seemly way to finance public education.

But something is terribly and ironically wrong when the only 
difference between healthy tax revenues from a profitable business 
like Dr. J's and the possibility that a 19-year-old kid could go to 
prison for life is a couple of state lines.

Here's another stunning dose of irony: The same edition of the 
newspaper that reported Jacob Lavoro's dilemma reported also on the 
opening of a new church in Fort Worth, Texas, a collaboration between 
Calvary Lutheran Church and Trinity Lutheran Church.

Their two pastors noted that young people are leaving the church "in 
droves." The pastors are sharing the pulpit at a "pub church," a 
weekly assembly- at about Happy Hour time-of the otherwise 
unchurched, who gather to "worship, chat and enjoy craft beer."

How do we make sense of a culture that's able to accommodate a church 
whose essential attraction is alcohol, a state that supports its 
public school system with the plentiful taxes levied on the sale of 
an intoxicating substance, and another state, only a short distance 
away, that puts its citizens in considerable jeopardy for doing 
something that will probably be legal before long?

I can't resolve the paradox. We should work on that, too. In the 
meantime, Jacob Lavoro's problem isn't theoretical or abstract. Life 
in prison, or even a long sentence, would be a staggering 
misapplication of justice.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom