I’m gonna try to condense a very long and very funny story down to a few paragraphs here.
A friend of mine is a realtor. He once was selling a house that was empty. A random package showed up at the address (correct on the package). He asked the owners if it was theirs they said no so he threw it in the back of the trunk and forgot about it for months.
Randomly while grabbing something in his trunk, he found it and was like “I should try and mail this back to the sender.” It didn’t have any return info on it so he opened it to see if there was any info inside. There was another box inside full of loose coffee beans and inside that was a metal tin. Now curious he opened the tin and found it packed full of little vials with powder in them.
He called the non-emergency police line in a bit of a panic thinking he should report what he found but they blew him off saying he should file a police report online. Not wanting to be in possession of drugs he drove it to a police station where the cop at the front desk was SO confused about what was going on and basically told him to get lost.
Finally he just decided to call it a day and threw it away in a dumpster.
The cops were doing your friend a solid. Much to the chagrin of HN, cops aren’t dumb, but can’t tell you it’s no big deal.
If they acknowledge the issue and take the stuff, there’s now a record that Mr. Sharkweek’s realtor friend surrendered a bag of heroin or whatever.
That can jam you up in a few ways. A decade later you apply for a federal job, you’ll be explaining this story to a suspicious investigator. Some jackass prosecutor or person up the chain may decide it is a big deal after all, etc. Or… they pretend not to understand you and you (and the problem) go away
If they acknowledge the issue and take the stuff, there’s now a record that Mr. Sharkweek’s realtor friend surrendered a bag of heroin or whatever.
Only if they choose to make a report saying so. However, it's easier just to shrug instead of doing any paperwork or taking on any responsibility whatsoever, so that's the action they choose.
And yet there are many, many people serving a decade or more in prison for possession of less.
There is no case to avoid drug law reform, disagree on the nature of what is required but /something/ needs doing. This bullshit where there is nothing like the rule of law and equality before it has to go. It's a cancer that eats away at society and however bad you think it is, it's actually a lot worse.
> Do you have evidence people are doing 10+ years where their only crime is possession of recreational amounts?
"only crime", a minor one at that, and three serious crimes don't match up, and is possession of recreational amounts a serious crime in any jurisdiction?
Yes. The whole point of three strikes laws were to make low-level drug offenses punishable by life in prison. It would be cruel and unusual punishment to do it for the first offense, so they made it happen after three, and the courts OKd it.
I'm going to need more than that as when I checked yesterday it was only felonies and what most people would think are actually serious crimes that were counted as strikes. The closest I could find to a "minor" crime was Rummel v. Estelle[1] where the offences totalled $230 of fraud, but the offences were felony fraud, so I couldn't find any sympathy for said fraudster, it actually reduced any possible sympathy - if you're going to do something that risky it should be for a big reward.
> If it's not a distribution-level amount of drugs I think police just don't give a fuck, especially in larger cities.
As someone who has a record over an ounce, lol.
Cops LOVE weed being illegal. Claiming to smell weed provides an easy path to justifying a search that vanishes when it becomes legal.
There are also a lot of states that have a laughably low threshold for personal use and anything above that is is legally considered to imply intent to distribute. This then opens the door for all kinds of seizures of vehicles, computer equipment, and most importantly cash in a backwards "guilty until proven innocent" scenario where the person doesn't even need to be charged with a crime to lose their property.
How I explain US federalism to Germans: in 2014, an amount of marijuana that could be purchased in a nice, state-regulated shop in Colorado by anyone over 21 years old could have gotten you a $100 fine in New Mexico, and up to 6 months in jail and a $2000 fine in Texas.
Not him but my friend has a record that he got last year over 0.06g (0.002116438 of an ounce, according to Google) of weed. At that amount it's less than an average breadcrumb but it was good enough to lock him up for a day and have his entire house searched.
> It didn’t have any return info on it so he opened it to see if there was any info inside.
Before reading this, I think curiosity would have gotten the better of me were I in the same situation. But the story is a good life lesson: when you come in possession of a package with no return address, there’s probably a good reason why the sender didn’t want anyone to know who sent it.
A friend of mine is a realtor. He once was selling a house that was empty. A random package showed up at the address (correct on the package). He asked the owners if it was theirs they said no so he threw it in the back of the trunk and forgot about it for months.
Randomly while grabbing something in his trunk, he found it and was like “I should try and mail this back to the sender.” It didn’t have any return info on it so he opened it to see if there was any info inside. There was another box inside full of loose coffee beans and inside that was a metal tin. Now curious he opened the tin and found it packed full of little vials with powder in them.
He called the non-emergency police line in a bit of a panic thinking he should report what he found but they blew him off saying he should file a police report online. Not wanting to be in possession of drugs he drove it to a police station where the cop at the front desk was SO confused about what was going on and basically told him to get lost.
Finally he just decided to call it a day and threw it away in a dumpster.