76-Year-Old Vet Sentenced to Die in Prison for Treating His Illness With Cannabis
As public frustration helps sound the death knell for the drug war, its arbitrary laws and policies appear even more absurd. In the latest inexcusable enforcement of an antiquated law, 76-year-old disabled veteran Lee Carroll Brooker will live out what should be his golden years behind bars — for simple possession of cannabis.
Brooker had been treating multiple chronic conditions with cannabis he grew in his son’s backyard; but when officials in Alabama officials discovered the three dozen plants, they threw him in prison for life — without the possibility of parole.
Thanks to a pointless mandatory minimum sentencing catchall — and the Supreme Court’s refusal to hear his case this week — Brooker has been left little recourse but to ultimately die in jail for treating his ailments with a plant.
“Alabama, like three other states, mandates a life without parole sentence for simple possession of small amounts of marijuana by people with certain prior felony convictions — and Mr. Brooker had been convicted of a string of robberies twenty years earlier in Florida, crimes for which he served ten years in prison,” The New York Times explained. “In such a case, the law doesn’t require prosecutors to prove any intent to sell the drug.”
Essentially, Brooker has been imprisoned twice for the same crime — because he sought relief from nature instead of arguably dangerous, legal and often lethal pharmaceuticals, courtesy of Big Pharma. Worse, Alabama’s already irrational law sets the cutoff in a case like this at 2.2 pounds (1 kilogram), and Brooker’s plants weighed just 2.8 pounds — but that included unusable parts, like stalks and leaves.
Make no mistake — this is an unjust law, an unjust conviction, and a ridiculous capitulation by the Supreme Court to Alabama’s archaic notion a nonviolent offense should somehow land a vet behind bars for life and separate him from his medicine — as if law were an inflexible monster to be beholden to, no matter its worth.
In fact, as the Times pointed out, “[W]hile the sentence was mandatory, the prosecutor was not required to bring the precise charges that triggered it. Prosecutorial discretion here, as in most cases, is a central factor in determining what punishment defendants face.”
In other words, the prosecutor railroaded Brooker over his personal, medicinal plants — by choice. Brooker, who joined the U.S. Army at age 17 and came under fire in both Lebanon and the Dominican Republic, eventually rose to the rank of sergeant in the 82nd Airborne — where he was decorated for infantry service.
Vox reported that even “notoriously conservative” Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore characterized Brooker’s sentence as “excessive and unjustified.” And according to the Times, the judge deciding the vet’s fate would have preferred to hand down a lighter sentence, but once the charges had been brought as they were, he was obligated to enforce the letter of the law.
Yes, this disabled man technically broke the law; but proffering such a rebuttal rings hollow, if not cold, considering the majority of Americans support cannabis legalization. Legality does not dictate morality.
A growing segment of officials and public figures do, as well, as The Free Thought Project reported recently, more than 1,000 police, world leaders, celebrities, and others signed a letter calling to summarily end the disastrous war on drugs.
In fact, though little comfort to Brooker now, the Drug Enforcement Agency will likely downgrade cannabis from its inexplicable Schedule 1 classification to Schedule 2 — as early as July of this year. Note that while a plethora of viable arguments can be asserted for rescheduling, considering states with laws like Alabama’s — and cases like Brooker’s — the slight concession by federal law would make a comparative, whopping difference.
Brooker attempted to bring his case before the highest court in the land as an inarguable violation of the Constitution’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment — to no avail. The court’s stonewall, in itself, could be considered as much — in an increasing number of states, Brooker’s so-called crime would have been perfectly legal.
For now, though, it appears the 76-year-old will suffer the consequences of bad policy, unjustifiable law, and the cruelty of ostensible authority figures who were all just doing their jobs.
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source: http://www.activistpost.com/2016/04/76-yo-vet-sentenced-to-die-in-prison-for-treating-illness-with-cannabis.html
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Whistler Blowers, Insiders
YUP, this country NEEDS a complete RESET and NEW blood in ALL political arena’s including the justice system.
You should post, or leave a link, to the judge & court address to send letters to object to this. If enough people protest-in writing-Maybe he’d get a fair trial & be released
Satanic government.
The real problem as I see it is the blatant hypocrisy in the war on drugs. Correct me if I’m wrong but isn’t it our troops who guard the opium poppies in Afghanistan while their DEA’s counterparts smuggle the processed narcotic into the United States for marketing? Didn’t we under President Bill Clinton, the former cocaine kingpin/Arkansas governor liberate the ethnic Albanians who supply Europe with heroin. Hasn’t the DEA allowed the supply of foreign manufactured pharmaceuticals to saturate the American streets, drugs like the hydrocodone laced with Fentanyl recently in the news.
As unbelievable as it seems the CDC acting as a mouthpiece for the healthcare industry cunningly blamed the influx of pharmaceuticals not on the DEA’s collaboration with Mexican cartels or their smuggling of these drugs into the US, but on chronic pain patients. The chronic pain patients however according to the American Medical Association are three times less likely to abuse their prescriptions than the public at large. This profit saving scheme has worked well for the Healthcare industry who has used this purposeful misinformation to restrict pain medication to suffering patients.
Because of the mounting epidemic of fibromyalgia among babyboomers due to environmental factors and the chronic pain experienced by our military service personnel who have been inundate with depleted uranium the demand for these drugs soon exceeded the supply of the industry’s two favored generic substitutes for opiates, Oxycodone and Hydrocodone. Because the expense of providing relief to the legitimately agonizing became unmanageable the healthcare industry designed dignity degrading requirements intending to dissuade pain sufferers from seeking ongoing treatment. They unleashed restrictive policy along with a coordinated assault on the patient’s trust worthiness to justify their malfeasance.
IN one recent incident my 80 year old Father-in-law who had fallen and hurt his hip was denied pain relief. When because of pain he pressured the doctor, the physician whipped out his cellphone and snapped his photo. My father-in-laws picture along with his demand for pain relief was forwarded to the local fusion center for review.
Ironically in the peer review magazine Medscape about a month or so ago it was brought out that one third of doctors surveyed admitted using marijuana for recreation themselves. These same doctors in correlation with healthcare policy routinely end pain therapy of patients who are legally prescribed medical marijuana. This fascism is enough to make you vomit!
As a matter of personal conviction I obey God and adhere to the best of my ability the ten commandments, however I have strong reservations about participating in a broken system that victimizes it’s own citizenry. The way I see it is that the rule of law has been abandoned by both our government and their corporate cohorts. They made the decision not me or you! In light of this sad reality it would be totally ridiculous for the civilian population to either acknowledge or abide by any laws, rules or requirements that do not uniformly apply to everyone including those who draft or bribe them into creation. My momma didn’t raise no idiot, did yours?
I also have a real difficult time understanding how a huge crowds of protesters always allow a handful of police to manhandle them. If everyone simultaneously charged the police line they could easily overpower the cowards. I personally observed reality this during the 1970 CalExpo riots here in Sacramento. The sissies ran and hid. They called in the National Guard to fight the battle they maliciously started. If this tactic is used the people can use the cop’s so called nonlethal weapons on them for a change. A few times being tasered and pepper sprayed themselves and these narcissists will not be such a hurry to bring their pain inspiring toys to a legal and peaceful demonstration.
Let me point out that according to the US Constitution or the supreme law of the land those in authority interfering with the public’s right to assembly are actually the criminals, not the protesters. Constitutional law requires no permit, or designated free speech zones to appreciated such rights. Of course the criminals would have you believe otherwise but the law is just not on their side.
Folks as the next year unfolds both your faith and courage will be put to the test. You can best defend yourself from what lies ahead clothed in the armor of God’s Spirit. Be sure you haven’t fallen prey to the falsehoods of the harlot. Read Rev 21:2 for God’s actual plan. As you can easily see by this passage the religions who advocate the false doctrines of the immortal soul, the ascension to heaven, burning in hell, or who celebrate pagan holidays of Christmas, Easter and Sunday worship are not of the one true Eternal God Yahweh Elohim. Let this truth be the foundation for you to build your future upon.
No part of this world