Willie Nelson was in the news again recently. As reported several months ago, the famous country singer was arrested in 2010 after a Sierra Blanca checkpoint search and seizure for possessing six ounces of marijuana. He was later charged with a misdemeanor. Most people in his position are turned over immediately to the Hudspeth County Sheriff's Office, where they might remain in the Hudspeth County jail for 48 hours before seeing a Justice of the Peace and having a bond set.
Nelson recently sought a plea deal, where he would plead guilty to the violation and pay a $500 fine for possession of drug paraphernalia. When the prosecutor floated this idea to Hudspeth County Judge Becky Dean-Walker, she rejected it. Willie Nelson shouldn't get special treatment, she said- claiming that County Attorney Kitt Bramblett wouldn't make this deal with anyone else. In fact, my experience has been that most people with a good lawyer don't end up with jail time, but rather pay a hefty fine and face conviction for a class B misdemeanor.
In Nelson's case, the ball is still in Bramblett's court, because it his responsibility to prosecute misdemeanors in Hudspeth County. That is, it is the County Attorney's job to see to it that the prosecution moves forward -- if not, the case could be dismissed in a few years for lack of prosecution. However, the notoriety of Willie Nelson's arrest makes that prospect a remote one indeed.
The continuation of Willie Nelson's story comes at an interesting time. The federal government recently declared that marijuana has no health benefits. The Department of Justice claimed that "marijuana has a high potential for abuse, has no accepted medical use in the United States, and lacks an acceptable level of safety for use even under medical supervision." This might come as a surprise to medical marijuana users in California and the 15 other states that have made it legal. A decade ago, medical marijuana supporters asked the federal government to reclassify cannabis, claiming that it helped treat glaucoma and ease the side effects of chemotherapy. In its latest decision, the government claimed that marijuana had "no accepted medical use" because no adequate studies had been performed of its health benefits. Well that settles everything.
The federal government is in an increasingly awkward position. For decades, it has been locked into the mentality that no drug is a good drug. Mild drugs like marijuana are just a gateway to more lethal drugs. Yet among the general public, acceptance of marijuana use is growing. Many of those who have smoked marijuana during a serious illness have testified to its benefits, while managing to not become serious drug abusers in the process. Many of those caught at border checkpoints like Sierra Blanca or in police raids on their homes did not pose a danger to anyone else. They were not violent or psychotic -- not even Willie Nelson. Yet the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Department of Justice can't just give up decades of strongly held belief. It is easier to force people who dabble in drugs to hire a federal criminal defense attorney to keep them out of jail than to rethink their punishment.
This is not to say that marijuana is harmless and we shouldn't be cautious. Marijuana can have harmful effects on an individual -- but about how many over-the-counter and prescription drugs could we say the same? Studies crop up all the time showing how seemingly "safe" (DEA-approved) drugs harm our bodies. Before too long, there will be a study proving that illicit drugs are safer than some of the most common prescription medicines.
It was a welcome change when the Obama administration decided not to fight the states that permitted medical marijuana. This recent turn of events is disappointing. Still, as acceptance of marijuana use continues to grow, the federal government may finally decide that its evils are overblown. And maybe some day, six ounces of pot in a tour bus won't even raise an eyebrow.
