A Tale of Two States

Consider this story out of Lake Lure, North Carolina last week:

Based on tips from the neighbors, Rutherford County deputies obtained search warrants for a remote warehouse on a dirt road and raided the place, finding over 600 plants and 83 pounds of marijuana.

While North Carolina's pot laws are nowhere near the worst in the U.S., nonetheless the accused face multiple felonies at this point,  possible mandatory minimum sentences, possible loss of homes, savings, and other assets.

North Carolina also taxes marijuana (!) at the rate of $3.50 per gram, so 83 pounds works out to about $132,000, before tacking on the 140% penalty for non-payment, plus interest.

Surely it sucks to be a busted pot grower in North Carolina.  Taxing illegal drugs with penalties for non-payment is an especially Kafkaesque twist.

But now compare the above bust--600 plus plants, 83 pounds, etc.-- to Oregon. After July 1, the day Measure 91 goes into effect, say five adult housemates grow twenty plants--four apiece--but technically sixteen over the limit, no matter how many adults live on the property.  What happens to you under Oregon's "legalized" marijuana?

You're hit with a Class C felony, face five years, a $125,000 fine, and so on.

What if you carry five ounces in your car--perfectly legal at your house--but four ounces over the limit in public?  Say you give away five ounces to one person?  Or one joint to a twenty-year old--?

Five years. $125,000, etc.

It goes on and on, but I think the point is made.*

Oregon has not legalized marijuana.

We simply moved the War on Drugs over a few ounces.

Peace.
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* If you care to pore over the details (non-lawyers, please let your loved ones know you're going in before clicking) the text of Measure 91 is here, and the state laws it modifies are here.  Don't say I didn't warn you.