<p>They probably used a private mail carrier to reduce the chances of being caught.</p>
<p>Uh…I think the police know about Fedex and UPS!</p>
<p>What I am saying is that both the sender and the recipient (assuming the charges are true of course) were committing major crimes. It doesn’t really matter that medical marijuana is legal in CA. It’s still not legal to send pounds of it to PA, nor to receive it.</p>
<p>Minn senate just approved a medical marijuana bill, so perhaps soon they will be state #22, where medical marijuana is legal.
Agree that in PA, lack of legality implies that anyone involved is a criminal.</p>
<p>I understood what you are saying, oldmom, and I don’t disagree. Private mail carriers may be less inclined to analyze the contents of packages since it would reduce their profits. But of course, that does not make transporting it legal. </p>
<p>It looks like PA is about to become one of the next states to legalize medical marijuana: <a href=“Bill To Legalize Medical Marijuana In Pennsylvania Has Bipartisan Support For First Time Ever | HuffPost Latest News”>HuffPost - Breaking News, U.S. and World News | HuffPost;
<p>From what I can tell from a cursory search, possession of less than 2 lbs of marijuana appears to be a misdemeanor in PA, and jail time may be waived for the first offense. Pot dealers would be wise to keep their inventories down to those amounts, which might have been what has happened in the case being discussed. Of course, sale and distribution of pot commands much harsher penalties, but is also harder to prove.</p>
<p>No, it looks like a felony: <a href=“http://www.wcupa.edu/_services/stu.inf/atod/documents/Marijuana_CrimesCode.pdf[/url]”>http://www.wcupa.edu/_services/stu.inf/atod/documents/Marijuana_CrimesCode.pdf</a>.</p>
<p><a href=“http://ask.superlawyers.com/pennsylvania/drug-and-alcohol-violations/what-are-the-penalties-for-marijuana-possession-in-pennsylvania/6b3f7249-0cfe-4059-a388-507c9463096b.html[/url]”>http://ask.superlawyers.com/pennsylvania/drug-and-alcohol-violations/what-are-the-penalties-for-marijuana-possession-in-pennsylvania/6b3f7249-0cfe-4059-a388-507c9463096b.html</a></p>
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<p>Of course the fact that they apparently (allegedly?) targeted high school students as a market will raise the stakes.</p>
<p>Periwinkle,</p>
<p>The first link you posted does, in fact, confirm that straight possession is a misdemeanor. </p>
<p>In the case at hand, the defendants were apparently charged with intent to distribute, among other things, which is a felony. </p>
<p>Editing: Reading the statute is enough to make one bleary-eyed. Editing to add that distribution may not be a felony either, depending upon the weight involved, at least according to this easy-to-read chart, but I cannot vouch for its accuracy: <a href=“http://norml.org/laws/item/pennsylvania-penalties-2”>http://norml.org/laws/item/pennsylvania-penalties-2</a></p>
<p>I have no idea what punishment is right for these kids. I am just angered that among all the choices they had available to them, they chose a career of hooking HS kids to drugs. It is bad enough desperate people without many opportunities dealing drugs. These kids had more oppotunities than most kids and this is what they chose.</p>
<p>Very unfortunate that these boys saw such little value in the opportunities and privileges that were afford them. Not sure what went wrong here, but I agree with others who say the legalization of marijuana has contributed to the mind frame that it is just not that big of a deal. I live out west right now and I can tell you it is viewed as no worse than a cocktail where I live. Many believe it as an up and coming industry where money can be made once the majority of the states jump on the bandwagon. Those who have a structure in place will be at an advantage, so the thinking goes. I am kind of on the fence about the legalization issue, but stories like this make me think it is not a good thing for the nation as a whole. </p>
<p>I am not a parent that is going to fall down dead if I determined one of my children has smoked a joint, but dealing seems to escalate it beyond the usual teenage experimentation phase.</p>
<p>Here is an interesting study on time served for violent crimes. As you can see the average time served for these crimes is under 4 years.
<a href=“http://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/PSATSFV.PDF”>http://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/PSATSFV.PDF</a></p>
<p>I don’t know what punishment any of these guys will get and, honestly, I don’t really care. These are non violent crimes.</p>
<p>I do care about sending a message to other people. I care about sending a message to young people that this is just really stupid and harmful. I think having your face and your families name spread all over the nation is pretty huge punishment to begin with. </p>
<p>Like college tuition these young people have no idea how much money it really is for their parents to shell out to save their butts. </p>
<p>Most importantly, they might never find out that that high school kid they sold drugs to for the first time ended up really into drugs and lost his life and destroyed his family.</p>
<p>There will no doubt be people whose lives are destroyed by legalization of marijuana, but I think the majority of Americans are coming to the realization that under a cost-benefit analysis, there will be fewer lives lost and ruined, and fewer resources wasted by legalizing and regulating it, and that seems to be where we are headed.</p>
<p>Which is why I can’t get too worked up over some guys selling “quality” pot to anyone 18 or older. In my mind, it is on the adult consumer to make the decision about smoking it or not, and his/her responsibility to pay the price if any laws are broken in the process. </p>
<p>I feel differently about selling to and using drugs by the under-18 crowd. But it is interesting to note that under medical marijuana laws I have seen, even children can obtain a prescription, which doesn’t happen with alcohol to my knowledge, and that must say something good about marijuana, at least today.</p>
<p>It’s not the pot that bothers me. It’s the coke.</p>
<p>There was very recent study showing that pot causes brain damage in people under 30. </p>
<p><a href=“Marijuana Use Causes Brain Damage Confirmed”>http://www.medicaldaily.com/marijuana-use-causes-brain-damage-confirmed-241869</a></p>
<p>What did they define as “frequent heavy-use”? </p>
<p>My thing with pot is that I have not seen one credible study that describes the effects of infrequent pot use. Until I see that data that would make me think otherwise, I say legalize it. </p>
<p>I don’t have an educated opinion about coke, other than my own experience, which is that I will guess that many of my friends and acquaintances have tried it at some point in their lives with no apparent lasting ill effects. I think it was probably much too expensive in my day for kids at my hs to afford, although I know many of them smoked pot. Imo, the damage that can be done to a person’s life via publication of a drug violation may be much worse than any effect a couple of uses might have on his/her long term health. But that alone may be useful as a deterrent to unlawful use. </p>