The hammer falls on Newland today. Stay tuned – more coverage coming…
I notice I didn’t get an appeal for clemency and whining about having to do the time for being caught in the act of a crime from noted South Dakota drug legalization advocate Bob Newland who is due to be sentenced today for carrying around a whole bunch of pot.
Was he carrying this huge amount of an illegal drug for his ministry to the sick, who might not be able to afford illegal drugs to alleviate their suffering as defined by Bob? No. He was doing it because he has an overriding personal need to be under it’s influence.
Why did I not get this appeal? Probably because instead of writing a letter appealing for clemency in his sentencing, I would have written one to the judge – Judge Jack Delaney – requesting that a long time and recidivist offender be given a stiff sentence, and mandatory treatment for his marijuana addiction.
Since there were a few hours left before the hammer falls on Newland today, in hopes I could catch the judge before he goes into chambers, I sent a letter off to Judge Delaney. I had posted it here, but it’s going to be a moot point in short time. we’ll know at about 5pm central today if the State will just be seeing him back in court for the same thing a few years from now, or if they’ll actually do something to prevent future violations of the law due to substance abuse.
More coverage will be coming on this as it develops. Will it be outrage over him getting his hand slapped? Or will it be congratulations towards the judge for justice well deserved?
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Comments
“In one instance, Mr. Newland also publicly suggested I should encourage my six year old son should grow up and use marijuana.”
Pat, I remember this incident between you and Newland and am pretty sure you’re taking the remark out of context. Perhaps you can provide a link to the exchange so your readers can see for themselves what was really going on.
If not, I’ll do my best to recap the real conversation here, assuming you’ll print it — objective and fair minded as you are.
Typically the court will order the defendant to cover the costs of treatment, so Bob would be the person responsible for paying to get better.
Bill –
Why? Because I don’t defend Bob, and instead think he needs to do the time, because he did the crime? Because I think he needs treatment for his addiction?
In la-la land? Don’t think so. I think Bob has been there for 50 years plus, and today should be his wake up call that it’s time to come in from the fringe of society.
I’m sorry if you feel bad that your friend stands a chance of going to jail today, but it is what it is. He broke the law and will go to jail.
Some like you think it’s bad. Some like me think it is good. Either way, he still needs treatment and both of us should encourage him to get it.
I’d like some of those who espouse incarceration for all that don’t meet their personal expectations to bring numbers of the cost to our system. SD has one of the most overburdened prison systems in the country and it seems like it has become SD’s largest industry. I guess if you just want to take him out and shoot him for this misdemeanor, I would carefully watch our steps as many fail that test daily. PP and all reading this, tell me that last time you drove home slightly over the legal limit on alcohol!
I don’t think it’s bad, PP, I think it’s good.
Just as I think it was good that Henry David Thoreau went to jail for refusing to pay an unjust tax, and that Gandhi went to jail for making salt, and that the Civil rights people went to jail for protesting segregation, and that Nelson Mandella went to jail to fight apartheid, and that John Lennon my friend Harold Storsve went to jail for protesting an unjust war in Vietnam, and that Cesar Chavez went to jail for fighting for field workers human rights.
When it comes to fighting government oppression, jail time is part of the gig.
p.s. Bob’s diagnosis and treatment for possible chemical addiction is none of your business or mine.
How did this post get be about PP if he does or does not drive drunk? Do you know something or just trying to make something up?
oldguy, PP can clear it up for you by reposting the exchange between himself and Newland involving his son. I noticed he’s not jumping up and down to do so, however.
Someone has to help me with understanding the whole liberal cognitive dissonance here.
The judicial system is overburdened so we should just throw our hands in the air and let law-breakers keep breaking laws?
Moronic at best. The guy broke the law and should do whatever time is deemed necessary to repay his debt to society.
Does anyone else detect more than a hint of sanctimony and vindictiveness in PP’s post? And, how does PP know Newland is “addicted”? Most people who use marijuana aren’t addicted and that well may the case with Mr. Newland despite long-term and/or heavy usage.
Anon – did you read your statement….
“Most people who use marijuana aren’t addicted and that well may the case with Mr. Newland despite long-term and/or heavy usage.”
“Long-term” and “heavy usage” of an illegal drug would put him at odds with the law. And is not breaking the law to assure your consumption of a substance one thing that drug and alcohol counselors might consider an element of a person’s addiction?
I think I’m within my rights to believe that because of the behaviors that Bob exhibits with regards to this particular illegal drug that there is a possibility Bob has a behavior that needs correcting.
2:16 Anon.
Yes.
Also, PP insists Newland is “addicted” to a substance which hasn’t definitively been proven to be addictive nor life threatening, while arguing for the protection of places that allow second hand smoke and exposure to nicotine inhalation, one of the most addictive of all substances hands down, and a known killer.
In short, PP’s action here is pure, petty-minded vindictiveness and unbridled aggressive hostility toward someone who routinely challenges him on his often specious and incoherent arguments.
If you can’t beat ‘em, beat ‘em up.
In this regard, PP’s lashing out is not unlike that of another hyper-emotionally driven, often-wrong-but-never-admits-it, golden girl, Sarah Palin.
I wonder how PP would look in lipstick.
Rowr, baby rowr.
Bill –
“a substance which hasn’t definitively been proven to be addictive nor life threatening?” At least one on-line source disagrees……
http://www.addict-help.com/marijuana.asp
MARIJUANA ADDICTION
Marijuana is the most commonly abused illicit drug in the United States. It is a dry, shredded green and brown mix of flowers, stems, seeds, and leaves derived from the hemp plant Cannabis Sativa. The main active chemical in marijuana is tetrahydrocannabinol; THC for short.
Marijuana is usually smoked as a cigarette (joint) or in a pipe. It is also smoked in blunts, which are cigars that have been emptied of tobacco and refilled with marijuana. Since the blunt retains the tobacco leaf used to wrap the cigar, this mode of delivery combines marijuana’s active ingredients with nicotine and other harmful chemicals. Marijuana can also be mixed in food or brewed as a tea. As a more concentrated, resinous form it is called hashish, and as a sticky black liquid, hash oil. Marijuana smoke has a pungent and distinctive, usually sweet-and-sour odor.
Long-term marijuana abuse can lead to addiction; that is, compulsive drug seeking and abuse despite its known harmful effects upon social functioning in the context of family, school, work, and recreational activities. Long-term marijuana abusers trying to quit report irritability, sleeplessness, decreased appetite, anxiety, and drug craving, all of which make it difficult to quit. These withdrawal symptoms begin within about 1 day following abstinence, peak at 2-3 days, and subside within 1 or 2 weeks following drug cessation.
Is Marijuana Addictive or isn’t It?
and…
Some people are “addicted” to marijuana and try to rationalize or justify using it. Like any other drug, marijuana can become the focal point of your life.
As far as “pure, petty-minded vindictiveness” I think I could show you a number of posts from Bob that exhibit those qualities, merely for the simple reason that I don’t drink his pot legalization Kool Aid.
PP, what’s so definitive about that, PP?
It looks pretty speculative to me.
Like an opinion, not a clinical fact.
From the very same web page PP just linked to:
Is Marijuana Addictive or isn’t It?
Based on all the information available, the answer is yes and no. For people with dependency tendencies, the answer is YES. There are too many people in the world who smoke marijuana almost every day to say otherwise. Other people argue that they can take or leave it and have quit for long periods of time. And for those people the answer would probably be NO.
The thing about marijuana is it so subtle. There are places in California where it is legal to possess small quantities for private use. So what’s the problem?
Note also that the link is to a treatment center, not exactly an objective source.
Hmmm. Interesting,
I just got a comment deleted.
Veeeeery interesting.
Later all, I’m going to the courthouse now.
If it’s illegal, the Law should be upheld. Basically, we all have to agree to play under the same rules, to be a part of the same society.
But, as we’ve seen, certain people don’t HAVE to play under the same rules. Then they pout when they get caught.(Don’t control illegal drugs, but DO control the legal, FDA, corporate manufactured ones.)
PP- according to result polling, 81% of respondents supported legalizing medical marijuana, and 43% favored outright decriminalization for recreational purposes. Newland is in the second category, which isn’t a majority, but definately isn’t a fringe.
And yes, marijuana is addictive, most drugs are. Medical researcher rankings of the addictive quality of drugs can be found with a quick google search. Heroine is usually ranked as the most addictive, followed closely by alcohol. Marijuana is always at the bottom of the list, usually behind caffeine.
Newland broke the law and should pay the consequences. I wouldn’t put him in the same category as Gandhi, Mandela, or Chavez, who fought against deep immorality. He’s fighting against a law whose merits are questionable at best.
http://www.pollingreport.com/drugs.htm
Correction: the medical marijuana support is 80% not 81%, and the percentage favoring legalization is 46%, not 43%. My mistake.
Ok, back from court.
I gotta tell ya, PP’s comment about “blog pimping” at 3:29 is so transparently hostile and self-serving, I hardly know what to say.
Pat, what do you call those long list of links to the right? You gets all kinds of traffic from other blogs and routinely sends readers to other sites (even Sibby’s) when it suits your purposes. Whatever. That’s your call and I’ll deal with it.
The upshot from me is, if you want to know how Newland’s sentencing went from someone who was there and heard every word everyone involved said, you’ll have to catch me writing about it somewhere else.
Because after what PP has tried to do to my friend today, I wouldn’t give him the time of day.
Later fellow Americans.
Sorry Bill, but as I noted on Epp’s website, I can’t work up even a dusty semblance of a tear for Bob.
His pattern of personal abuse to myself on this website is long and served little purpose but to harass me. Why? Simply because I disagreed with him politically.
As I said, hopefully he will get some state sponsored assistance, and won’t feel the need to ingest an illegal substance again.
One final thought on all of this. We do need to take into serious consideration the hundreds of billions of dollars OUR war on drugs is providing to S and C American drug cartels. Wherever there is profit profiteers will follow. Communism is actually starting to get a kick start because of drug money in both S and C America. This would be a good lesson for Liberals to attest to finally understanding even if it takes the drug trade to accomplish. I personally do not know the right answer in changing what has been a horrible failure and outreageously expensive war on illegal drug use but what OUR country has done in the past is not working. Actually quite similar to our war on Terror and the trillions of dollars it provided to radical nations in the form of $150 a barrel oil. Play the political card as you may but facts speak volumes when they come back to our shores in the form of $5 gas and dead citizens lying around border towns.
Good stuff Charlie, a legislator with balls. We have lost the war on drugs. The US has thrown the baby out with the bathwater by winning the war on family. Discipline is barely tolerated and dollars that could be spent on drug education and shoring up family structures are sent across borders in futile attempts to control others. Bob Newland is not the problem as Pat would have it, Bob is a consequence of our society. If pot was legal it would be a multi billion dollar reason for less pressure from the cartel’s. I bet we don’t have ten legislators in Pierre that would risk their political can legalizing pot even if they knew the results would minimize drug trade in SD. Why are we as a nation allowing this war on drugs to destroy our country?
Thanks for the compliment Les. I try to say things the way I see them and don’t consider myself a seasoned politician nor do I ever care to. Maybe what we need more than anything today in DC are some common sensed folks who aren’t afraid to take on the establishment instead of all the over-educated Ivy grads writing 300 page laws.
Are you kidding me Pat? This is just ridiculous. How many taxpayer dollars are you willing to spend to stop an old man from getting high?