Felony Friday: Florida Toughens Marijuana Paraphernalia Laws

Statists often say that politicians are well-meaning, compassionate, even selfless individuals.  They make this claim even though the legislation politicians pass has detrimental impacts on society, but Statists maintain their elected officials intentions were derived from a compassionate heart.This may be true for an extremely small number of politicians, but the argument doesn’t hold water on a large scale.  The evidence opposing this stance is overwhelming.  Legislators at the federal, state, and local level pass far too many laws that punish peaceful individuals for this claim to be true.  Why would a compassionate, tolerant individual support a system that locks peaceful individuals in a cage?The reason for this misconception is simple.  Americans are asleep at the wheel.  They do not make the connection between their cousin Tommy, who spent two years in jail on a felony conviction for selling pot and the “tough on drugs” politician they voted in who drafted the legislation that put Tommy in jail.For more evidence of this insanity, let’s take a look at a new bill that was signed in law last week by Florida Governor Rick Scott.  The “bong ban” bill will charge someone caught possessing a pot pipe for the second occasion with a Felony, reports the Huffington Post.

Florida Governor Rick Scott signed into law the "bong ban" bill this weekend. Under this statute, someone caught selling a pot pipe twice in the state is a felon, which in Florida means losing the right to vote virtually for life.  Drug convicts must wait seven years after fulfillment of all prison, probation, and parole to apply to a clemency board to consider restoring voting rights in Florida.  This has meant 10 percent of all voting-age Floridians -- and a shocking 23 percent of black Floridians -- cannot vote.  (Note to bitter Democrats: Those votes would have given us President Gore in 2000.)

This statute is only applicable to pot pipes being sold that have been previously used as a pipe to smoke marijuana.  Retailers are allowed to sell pipes if they are intended for tobacco use, nudge nudge.This law is madness and will only result in locking more nonviolent consumers in a cage.  It is troubling to imagine how many more people could have their lives ruined.  Please tell me how this law is compassionate?Statists lack compassion; they are opportunistic individuals who trust centralized force over the compassion of the market.  The overarching goal of the Statist is to maintain power at any cost.  When their power is threatened, as was the case with the Cathy Jordan Medical Marijuana Act, they take their ball and go home, the Huffington Post reports.

Florida legislators also have repeatedly rejected the Cathy Jordan Medical Marijuana Act.  Named after the Florida woman who has survived over two-and-a-half decades with Lou Gehrig's disease after being given two years to live, thanks to her use of medical cannabis, the Act has not even been debated in the Florida Legislature.  Manatee County Sheriffs even raided Cathy's medical grow the day after the bill was published, with her name and address in the public record giving them the location to search.To their credit, the Jordans refused a plea deal, as Cathy's husband Bob told NORML, "If I could handle Vietnam, I can take whatever the State wants to try and hit me with. I am protecting my wife. No deals. No nothing. I want a trial. I want a jury to see my wife and try to convict her."  The State's Attorney decided to drop the charges against her, recognizing an obvious precedent-setting case of medical necessity that he didn't want on the Florida books.

Don’t mess with Bob and Cathy Jordan!  You have to love their attitude.  They didn't get their chance to expose the State as heartless souls, but they did speak truth to power and win.  The risk of losing power caused the State’s Attorney to drop the charges.  The State knew they would lose if they challenged this woman, and rather than risk losing an invasive avenue into the personal lives of Floridians, they dropped the case.  Sure doesn’t sound compassionate to me.The Jordans fully understood what they were up against.  They stood up to the criminal enterprise known as the war on drugs and won.  Unfortunately, the State didn’t lose.  The State will lose when people like Bob and Cathy Jordan outnumber those sympathetic with caging peaceful people.Receive access to ALL of our EXCLUSIVE bonus audio content – including “Conspiracy Corner”, “Degenerate Gamblers” and the “League of Liberty Podcast” by joining the Lions of Liberty Pride and supporting us on Patreon!