Homework from a judge?!

[snooch]

This is just so nonsensical I don't even know where to start

 

http://www.mercurynews.com/breaking-news/c...?nclick_check=1

 

NV judge orders drug offender write report on pot

The Associated Press

Posted: 08/21/2010 09:02:24 AM PDT

Updated: 08/21/2010 09:02:24 AM PDT

 

 

GARDNVERVILLE, Nev.—A Nevada judge has issued a homework assignment in the form of an unusual sentence for a 25-year-old Sacramento man who sold marijuana to a police informant in a casino parking lot at Lake Tahoe.

District Judge Dave Gamble ordered Matthew Palazzolo to write a report on what the judge called the "nonsensical character" of California's medical marijuana law.

Gamble gave Palazzolo 90 days to complete the paper discussing his self-admitted realization that marijuana was a gateway drug that led him to use more powerful narcotics.

"Here's a young man with a bachelor's degree and a rosy future and now is a potential felon. It's just the height of stupidity," Gamble said during Tuesday's sentencing in Gardnerville south of Carson City.

Palazzolo pleaded guilty to conspiracy to violate the Uniform Controlled Substances Act. He was arrested outside a casino in Stateline in February after he sold a quarter-pound of pot to an informant for $1,060.

Palazzolo, who works for a law firm in Sacramento, admitted he grew it after obtaining a medical marijuana card.

"I had a sore back," Palazzolo said. "I used records from my chiropractor who had diagnosed I had regular back and neck pain. ... I was never laid up or in bed."

He said he developed the pain through activities like snowboarding, wakeboarding and martial arts.

"So you decided to grow your own?" Gamble asked. "If this isn't testimony to the absolute asininity of medical marijuana laws in California and the path Nevada is choosing."

Palazzolo's attorney Derrick Lopez said the arrest and substance abuse treatment convinced his client he had a drug problem.

"He's been abusing drugs for a long time," Lopez said. "He changed roommates, got rid of all his marijuana, and asked California to void his medical marijuana card."

"He would benefit from diversion. He has never been in trouble before except the marijuana. He is really embarrassed about this situation," Lopez said.

Palazzolo admitted he obtained the card for recreational drug use.

"I have a drug problem, and I would not have said that a month and a half ago," he said. "Alcohol and marijuana are gateway drugs that led to harder drug use."

He said drug use had taken him down "a path that is a very ugly place" and he intended to stay sober.

Gamble allowed Palazzolo to enter a diversion program in California and ordered quarterly appearances before his court and random drug testing. He also told him to contact "the quasi-bureaucratic outfit in California and tell them you want them to cancel the card."

[Mattick]

18 User(s) are reading this topic (17 Guests and 0 Anonymous Users)

is that a glitch?

[brick]

First off he works for a law firm.

 

If he is studying law then I reckon he has shit himself and a conviction could fuck his life.

 

So admit to everything to placate the cops and the judge.

 

Tell/show them you are on the road to being an upstanding citzen.

 

Fuck the back pain, I will go on prescription drugs that will fuck me up really good.

[snooch]

So they guy writes an essay on how cannabis is a "gateway drug that led to harder narcotics". Then what? This judge obviously has a personal bias against the medical cannabis laws, so does he use this paper as some sort of political statement to "prove" that it's a gateway drug (despite statistics showing otherwise) and that cannabis laws should not change?

 

Why not ask him to write a paper on the lunacy and ineffectiveness of prohibition? The abject waste of money in law enforcement alone that should be channeled back into the health system to actually help those who may have problems with their drug use, rather than making criminals out of people who are otherwise good citizens?

[Nooby]

So his 'interrogator' has forced him to write a false confession under threat of further persecution?

 

Didn't Marxist Russia and China use the same tactics?

[headstone]

What an idiot and complete pussy.

 

I can understand him agreeing to write a paper instead of going to prison, but to do it at the expense of people who actually need cannabis as a medicine is unforgivable.

 

While I hate saying this, I hope he dies before he can submit his work...

[buzzo]

Hey Guys look at the big picture.

 

This is one mate looking after another mate. The Judge looking after a fellow Lawyer.

Can't just let him off.....so in exchange for a "Non Conviction" he has to sell his soul.

Lawyers would sell off there own Granny if there was something in it for them.

[snooch]

Hey Guys look at the big picture.

 

This is one mate looking after another mate. The Judge looking after a fellow Lawyer.

Can't just let him off.....so in exchange for a "Non Conviction" he has to sell his soul.

Lawyers would sell off there own Granny if there was something in it for them.

 

couldn't agree more. the whole scenario is ridiculous. the judge wants to keep pot illegal for his own vested interest, the cop who busted the lawyer in covert operations (wonder how much that all cost the taxpayer, result: write an essay ) wants to keep pot illegal for his vested interest and the lawyer wants to save his career and livlihood. Unfortunately, it's the general public (and especially cannabis users, recreational or medicinal) who are being played the fools.

 

Sorry, couldn't help myself, so here's my essay to the judge.

 

Dear Judge Gamble,

 

"Kangaroo be stoned. He's guilty as the government.

 

"Ganja? pahlease. YOU MUST HAVE BEEN OUT YOUR MIND!"

 

Fuck you very much

 

Snooch

Edited August 23, 2010 by snooch

[penny]

Tokers, don't be so hard on the young lawyer. Did he grass on his supplier, turn in his mates or do anything nasty? He just saved his career.

He will write his essay " why I love the judge and hate the weed" ; get off with a pithy lecture and keep on thinking the law is an ass. Heck, he will probably be a great legal advocate in years to come for legalization.

[snooch]

he will probably be a great legal advocate in years to come for legalization.

 

Maybe, or maybe he'll end up like other lawyers, charging $1500 for a basic plea to a possession charge, a hell of a lot more to defend more serious charges or to plead not guilty. The same lawyers who enjoy toking just as much as the rest of us, but who gain benefits from the justice system not available to you unless you can pay for it.

 

I'm not necessarily critical of the lawyer in this situation, but I sure as hell am critical of a system that allows so many people to profit so handsomely off prohibition. And I'm certainly critical of a lawyer who gets to write an essay after selling half a pound to a cop, when others (particularly minority groups in the US) are sent to jail for long periods of time for much less.

 

No he didn't give up anyone else, yes he's trying to make the best of his situation, but I would hope that you could see there's something seriously wrong and unfair going on here.