by Royce Radcliffe

Created on: December 18, 2011   Last Updated: December 19, 2011

“Is Possession of Fourteen Grams of Plant Material Worth Killing a Man Over?” 

I think my reaction to the news of hearing that Chris Diaz faces up to life in prison for possession of a half ounce of plant material was impacted by the news I had been reading before, about our beloved House of Representatives debating Resolution 489, which promised to “protect the symbols of Christmas.” Oh, how many wonderful variations that filibuster could have taken…. Meanwhile there is this little issue of a man who is about to be PLACED INSIDE A BOX FOR THE REST OF HIS LIFE for picking up a little too much of a plant that grows freely on God’s earth. Am I the only one who thinks our lawmakers’ priorities are flat out insane?

The story is as follows: The twenty year old asthma sufferer Chris Diaz (who has a medical marijuana card in California) went to California to get some marijuana to stock up on and take home to Texas. The thing is, his medical marijuana card is worthless in Texas. They pulled him over for expired plates and searched the car, finding a combination of medical marijuana and medical hashish in the amount of fourteen grams.

It is the hash that complicated things. Since of the fourteen total grams confiscated over four of them were hash he automatically qualifies as having “possessed a controlled substance with intent to deliver.” That is right: they charged him with dealing for possessing an amount beyond their threshold of what they thought a user would possess with no other form of proof. And that threshold amount to qualify as a dealer was so low that most users would easily exceed it. This legal assumption has always been absurd but here it is even more damning because of the medical issue and extremely small amount involved. No one who has actual experience in these matters would think him a dealer based on such a paltry amount.

He faces a potential life sentence for this. LIFE!

Our members of Congress are so out of touch with reality that they spend more energy protecting symbols than men. They turn their minds toward minutia while horrors rage all around them. They value vague concepts over tangible life. What sort of people are these and how did things get so bad off that they rule us? Why do I feel like I am living in a madhouse?

When you allow your government to send a man to prison for life for possession of a plant, you have crossed any number of moral boundaries. We the People are almost

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