# It's Not Over Yet!



## subcool (Mar 10, 2010)

John Lennon&#8217;s voice is echoing somewhere over Texas tonight.

That&#8217;s because a moment has arrived &#8212; a very special moment, the likes of which drug policy reformers have not seen in a generation.

It all centers around a man named Henry Walter Wooten, a 54-year-old Texas resident who will likely be spending the rest of his life behind bars. That&#8217;s because a jury in Tyler sentenced him to 35 years in jail after he was caught in possession of just over a quarter pound of marijuana. The prosecutor in Smith County originally sought 99 years, due to the man&#8217;s prior felony convictions in the 80s and his proximity to a day care center, deep within one of the dreaded &#8220;drug free zones&#8221; where legal penalties become much more stiff.

Thirty-five years. That&#8217;s 420 months. This jury, this court and this prosecutor are sending a message directly to marijuana consumers the nation over.

It&#8217;s as if radical poet, musician and author John Sinclair were never actually freed. And who is John Sinclair? If you&#8217;re a drug law reform advocate, you should know this by now. First, a word from the immortal Beatle &#8230;

The song is from the &#8220;Free John Now&#8221; rally in Michigan, circa 1971, when over 15,000 people converged to protest a 10 year jail sentence over the distribution of two marijuana cigarettes. (&#8221;10 for two, John Sinclair&#8230; Breakin&#8217; the rules, but he don&#8217;t care.&#8221

A decade of imprisonment over an otherwise minuscule amount of pot is just as outrageous now as it was then. Days after the &#8220;Free John Now&#8221; rally, the Minnesota Supreme Court overturned Sinclair&#8217;s ruling and declared the state&#8217;s marijuana statues of their day unconstitutional.

In the annals of the American drug war, this was simply revolutionary. It was a cultural watershed that has not been repeated. It&#8217;s not that the chance never presented itself &#8230; There just hasn&#8217;t been another pot prisoner like John Sinclair.

Until now.

I do not personally know Henry Walter Wooten, but he doesn&#8217;t strike me as a revolutionary sort like Sinclair. He was reportedly smoking pot somewhere inside a drug free zone when police smelled the stuff &#8212; not exactly the brightest move. They found an additional 4.6 ounces in his vehicle, along with a digital scale.

Now he&#8217;s likely facing death in a cement cage; although, the greatest travesty here was that Smith County Assistant District Attorney Richard Vance first sought a sentence of 99 years. Ninety-nine years?!?

Wooten&#8217;s sentence is identical to the punishment dealt to Alejandro Arreola, who was given 35 years in jail by a jury in Del Rio, Texas for his involvement in a multimillion dollar marijuana smuggling ring. Arreola, according to reports, transported over 24 TONS of the stuff into the United States. His accomplice, Casey Bob Hutto, got 24 years.

Twenty-four tons? Meet 4.6 ounces. You&#8217;ll both be sitting here for three and a half decades. And I ask you, WHERE IS THE EQUALITY OF JUSTICE?

This is something that everyone should be concerned about. In my line of work, I&#8217;ve seen rapists get shorter sentences.

If nothing else, this presents a brilliant opportunity to campaign against drug free zones, which have had virtually no effect on public health or safety, according to the Justice Policy Institute in Washington, D.C. Instead, the think tank found, drug free zones disproportionately target minorities, who serve inflated sentences because of this Reagan-era insanity.

But the greater trouble here is the silent cry of Lady Justice being smothered for Mr. Wooten. His sentence is so stunningly, terrifyingly unjust, if drug reform advocates do not fly into an uproar over this case, I may just give up all hope of seeing this drug war problem rectified in my lifetime.

John Lennon thought Sinclair&#8217;s 10 for two was bad. I cannot imagine what he&#8217;d sing about this.

By
STEPHEN C. WEBSTER


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## Irish (Mar 10, 2010)

titled, Societies Child...

have you ever felt like you did'nt belong
and nothing you did, ever seemed to be right?
your feeling the tension society deals out
and it deals it both day, and both night...

do you feel your caught up in the wheels that turn time
and do you feel that your going it alone
do you feel that time has'nt waited for you
do you feel like an outcast, or an unknown...

do you find yourself being pushed here , and there
do you often feel that you've been exiled
i guess thats why some call me what they do
and what they call me is societies child...

they say were striving for a kinder, and gentler nation
you can read it in the papers every week
they talk about the far, and the near
open your eyes america, take a peek...

but each , and every time you try to speak your mind
do you usually get knocked all around
well, they can strive near, and they can strive far
cause i'm striving from the lost to be found...

billions of dollars are being spent every year
to eliminate povert, drugs, and crime
but each and every day, society slowly slips away
and it slowly fills our streets up with it's grime...

racism, corruption, guns, drugs, and money
our government deals out greed
you can meet your own fate, by the plagues they create
they've planted the ultimate seed...

theres no where to run to, and no where to hide
from a nation that makes you feel so vile
the titles aquired, no matter how undesired
and the title is societies child...

i wrote this pre john sinclair era, a very long ago time. i hope this is appropriate here, as a tribute from an era we should be long ago passed. they say the past often repeats itself subcool, so maybe there can be a change of heart?...


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## PencilHead (Mar 10, 2010)

And the guy who tried to extort 2 mil outta Letterman gets 6 months.  4.6 ounces, meet $2,000,000.  

We've become a nation of sociopaths--we've lost the ability to view people as people.  The pot smoker next door goes from neighbor to felon and--poof--we can't see him as a person anymore.  It's pretty crazy behavior.


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## leafminer (Mar 10, 2010)

That's Texas for you. They could pretty much transplant the whole place to Saudi Arabia and they would fit in just perfectly... both places are full of religious nutcases and fundies; both are completely intolerant of any substance that gives fun; both places have guys that dress up in white robes and silly hats; overall, the best thing to do would be to return Texas to Mexico, whose property it was to start with. Then, nobody would be going to jail any more for personal pot possession. Because it would be legal.
Believe it or not, Texas even has a tourist board! HAHA!


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## PencilHead (Mar 10, 2010)

leafminer said:
			
		

> *Texas even has a tourist board! *


 
Yeah, it's made outta Ponderosa pine and they strap you to it and pour water up your nose for scats and giggles.


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## ishnish (Mar 10, 2010)

hence I will never be a tourist in Texas...
I love Alaska..  
I know someone that was caught with 6 plants...  the cops cut them down and said, "shame on you."
and someone with close to 50 plants.. went to court..  got 2 years probation for the bud but spent a year for something else they did wrong, un MJ related.
once a buddy that was transporting 5 lbs got pulled over, trooper said it smelled like marijuana..  he gave to trooper a twenty sack outa the glove box and said, "my stepdad must have left this in here..."
cop took the twenty, gave him a ticket to show in court.  buddy went to court and they lost his paperwork...  hmmm....  trooper must of liked the smoke..
I will pray for Texas, but never visit.


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## lowrydergrower775 (Mar 10, 2010)

mmm i hate stories like this one, i don't know i lived in texas recently for basically all of my life and knew tons of people like this. I mean don't get me wrong i understand you know stuff happens, but a lot of it is brought onto people by themselves. I mean i have smoked all my life will even go to the extent to say that i grew very near a police station in my time in texas and never got looked at twice. I feel sorry for the guy but he was blazing out in the open in a school zone, and who carries 4 ounces on them in their car in texas? drug dealers about the only answer, i do believe in the fight yes but i can't really feel too sorry for this guy seemed he brought this on himself and im sorry if that comes off to members in the wrong way yall know i love you guys!!! lol


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## dman1234 (Mar 10, 2010)

I'm Canadian, and proud of it, but i also love the good ole USA and all its fine people, and i gotta say, that is f'd up, your marijuanna laws especially in the south are a joke, how ridiculous


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## lowrydergrower775 (Mar 10, 2010)

dman what laws in the south aren't ridiculous? Lol and Welcome to my world lol


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## D3 (Mar 10, 2010)

From what I understand, El Paso has just started to zone for medical marijuana dispensaries. It was aproved & passed.


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## gettinggray1964 (Mar 10, 2010)

DLM3 said:
			
		

> From what I understand, El Paso has just started to zone for medical marijuana dispensaries. It was aproved & passed.


for real bro, know joke???? if so then i am headed to el paso,


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## lowrydergrower775 (Mar 10, 2010)

are you serious? i have to look this up


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## leafminer (Mar 10, 2010)

This is really, really funny! 
Do you know what city lies on the other side of the border with El Paso?
CUIDAD JUAREZ! 
Which is a place to be avoided at all costs! Massive amount of murders, firefights with machine guns and grenades ... it's more dangerous than Afghanistan!


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## Hick (Mar 10, 2010)

> El Paso Cit-y, by the Rio Grand-e
> Could it be that I could be
> The cowboy in this mystery
> That died there in that desert sand so long ago
> ...


...


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## PencilHead (Mar 10, 2010)

I had typed out a post that said I'd been to El Paso and I wouldn't move there if they had bud trucks running around giving out free Thunderpud, but deleted it cause I thought we might have some El Pasonians in the house.


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## fellowsped (Mar 10, 2010)

That's crazy thirty five years for a quarter pound.  I don't care how stupid the guy was blazing near a school and all no one deserves that kind of punishment for something so binine.  Thankfully Vermont has a law that is either in the works or just passed (can't remember which) that makes up to 4ounces a non criminal offense or up to 2 plants punishable by up to a $1000 fine.  But you texans should be furious about this and doing everything you can to let your elected officials and court personel know that you won't stand for that sort of injustice.  How can people still be doing time like that for herb anywhere in the usa.  It's unconstitutional, unjust, and abuse of power.


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## D3 (Mar 10, 2010)

I think there trying to cut down the drug related death on the border. I just wonder if there going to decriminalize it all along the border. I hope this starts to spread through the US.


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## legalize_freedom (Mar 10, 2010)

There was a child molester found here last year sentenced to 10...Our laws our insane...TCVG...I'm proud to be American...but this government is out of it's head!  I'm sooo close to crossing the bridge!  Every time I have visited Toronto, when I get home I say to everyone how badly I just need to move up there.

35yrs...and didn't hurt a soul!

A better questions for you Texans...are you all happy where your tax money is going?  I guess that goes for all of us, paying taxes to support laws and house those who break said laws...that we don't even believe in!


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## TexasMonster (Mar 10, 2010)

leafminer said:
			
		

> That's Texas for you. They could pretty much transplant the whole place to Saudi Arabia and they would fit in just perfectly... both places are full of religious nutcases and fundies; both are completely intolerant of any substance that gives fun; both places have guys that dress up in white robes and silly hats; overall, the best thing to do would be to return Texas to Mexico, whose property it was to start with. Then, nobody would be going to jail any more for personal pot possession. Because it would be legal.
> Believe it or not, Texas even has a tourist board! HAHA!


 
Texas does have those things but its full of laid back grass smoking RedNecks like me too. I would be opposed to giving back Texas as some really good men died fighting for her. 

That is a very harsh sentence and here in Texas he has a pretty good chance of a sentence reduction in the appeals process.


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## Killuminati420 (Mar 11, 2010)

wow...35 yrs for weed :cry:    really hits ya right here>  :heart:


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## leafminer (Mar 11, 2010)

Hick said:
			
		

> ...


 :rofl::rofl:
And there is also "Old El Paso" taco shells. :huh:
Pencilhead 





> I wouldn't move there if they had bud trucks running around giving out  free Thunderpud


 :rofl::rofl:


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## leafminer (Mar 11, 2010)

Actually this risks shutting down trade and ruining the stores on the USA side and destroying tourism. It is getting to the point where it will be too dangerous to risk driving across the border.


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## greener pastures (Mar 11, 2010)

Texas has a border ? i dont think it works


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## the chef (Mar 11, 2010)

greener pastures said:
			
		

> Texas has a border ? i dont think it works


 Yeah cali, airizona, and new mexico have that same problem.


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## greener pastures (Mar 11, 2010)

absolutley Chef locks and fences only keep the honest people out. The thought that people still go to jail for a naturally growing plant is beyond me. But thats what keeps this great gov of ours running so smooth. Honest hard working people.Hopefuly that will change someday soon. More room for the real freaks and thers pleanty of them.


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## Dahova (Mar 11, 2010)

thats why i want to own my 100 acres in the middle of nowhere like Montana and just raise my kids and produce the finist Herb  i can. Our country is just going down the gutters and nobody seams to care. I got busted with 11 plants a few years back i was growing outside they tried to scare me with  you are facing 25 yearsfor this. Im in  the DC area and long story short is that i did make a deal for cultavation and was giving a 20 day sentence with 3 years probation(no urine test TG) but to hear that this guy got the 35 years is scary to me . We all need to be careful with our passion. It is not a slap on the wrist like most think it will be. i guess i got lucky


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## TexasMonster (Mar 11, 2010)

Dahova said:
			
		

> thats why i want to own my 100 acres in the middle of nowhere like Montana and just raise my kids and produce the finist Herb i can. Our country is just going down the gutters and nobody seams to care. I got busted with 11 plants a few years back i was growing outside they tried to scare me with you are facing 25 yearsfor this. Im in the DC area and long story short is that i did make a deal for cultavation and was giving a 20 day sentence with 3 years probation(no urine test TG) but to hear that this guy got the 35 years is scary to me . We all need to be careful with our passion. It is not a slap on the wrist like most think it will be. i guess i got lucky


 
Can you share what caused to them to come to realize that you had those 11 plants so that others may take precautions?
:cool2:


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## frogman71 (Mar 11, 2010)

I have lived in Texas my whole life and the marijuana laws are not as strict as many of you make them out to be, are we as tolerant as other states in the NW and NE?  No, but we have made tremendous strides in recent years and since September anyone caught with 4oz or less is a misdemeanor and the officer has the discretion to write a ticket and not take the person in, not great but much better then the old antiquated laws of being locked up.  The problem this person made was not knowing the laws and especially having a criminal record and not knowing the laws.  I know this doesn't justify 35 years but the guy made a very very poor choice by carrying that much with him, especially having priors.  

I have forwarded this to my state rep and encouraged him to fight for the decriminalization of marijuana.  I don't feel my congressman or senator has any business dealing with this issue as it is a state issue not a federal.

The following is a summary of Texas MJ laws, I know they are severe compared to other areas but they are much better than we had in the recent past.  These are maximum punishments and should not reflect the norm, alot of it is going to depend on the judge.   Progress sometimes takes little steps at a time, but progress is progress.  I will continue the fight through letter writing and membership in my local NORML chapter.

*Possession*
2 oz or less* class B misdemeanor 180 days $2,000
2 to 4 oz* class A misdemeanor 1 year $4,000
4 oz to 1 lb* state jail felony 180 days - 2 years $10,000
1 to 5 lbs state jail felony 180 days - 2 years $10,000
5 to 50 lbs felony of the third degree 2 - 10 years $10,000
50 to 2,000 lbs felony of the second degree2 - 20 years $10,000
More than 2,000 lbsfelony5 - 99 years $50,000

* With no prior felony convictions, if convicted of possession of less than one pound of marijuana a judge must impose a sentence of probation with mandatory drug treatment.  If no treatment center exists within the jurisdiction, the judge may waive the treatment requirement.  They judge can also waive all fines.


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## dman1234 (Mar 11, 2010)

6 months in prison for under 2 ozs, yeah that doesn sound to strict


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## frogman71 (Mar 11, 2010)

dman1234 said:
			
		

> 6 months in prison for under 2 ozs, yeah that doesn sound to strict


 
I didn't say they weren't strict, I said it is not as bad as many people make them out to be.  If you look on the NORML website and look up MJ laws around the country you will notice Texas falls in line with most other states.  In fact, even in California someone caught with more than 28.5 grams can be sentenced to 6 months.  We all know Cali is much more lenient than Texas, but it shows you every state has maximum penalties.  I am not defending Texas by any means, I am responding to the ideology that everyone busted in Texas for weed is going to prison when it is just not true.  I despise the current marijuana laws and am not sitting around whining but am actively involved in promoting a more tolerant approach then the one currently in place.


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## AcesUp (Mar 11, 2010)

Ok am I losing my mind? My post in this thread is MIA.


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## greenfriend (Mar 11, 2010)

Honestly i still think Cali law ($100 fine for 1oz or less) is too strict although, where i live in Cali i can possess unlimited plants and bud, and its straight up legal for anyone 18+ to possess or grow


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## Irish (Mar 12, 2010)

i'm with ya frog. easy big guy, it's all good. take a look at the mj laws on michigans books one time. . 

even with the new law concerning mmj, they have yet to figure it all out, and even if you are a card holder, leo everywhere are going rogue on gardens yet, as if a silent vote was administered, and they missed the memo saying, "mich voters vote yes on proposition one in a landslide in all eighty-three counties"...

ssshhhhhhh!!!


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## frogman71 (Mar 13, 2010)

Hope I didn't come across as fired up.  I was just wanting to clarify some misinformation, I'm a pretty laid back guy.


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## Dahova (Mar 14, 2010)

TexasMonster said:
			
		

> Can you share what caused to them to come to realize that you had those 11 plants so that others may take precautions?
> :cool2:


 
I had a 40 acre farm andplanted 10 plants per acre in  the back fields bout 10 acres .  the police said they had gotten a call bout illegal huters poaching deer neer my farm they randomly walked into the field looking for them.. shitty luck but what can you do


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## AcesUp (Mar 14, 2010)

Dahova said:
			
		

> I had a 40 acre farm andplanted 10 plants per acre in the back fields bout 10 acres . the police said they had gotten a call bout illegal huters poaching deer neer my farm they randomly walked into the field looking for them.. shitty luck but what can you do


 

Tell them to get the hell off your land unless they have a warrant that specifically lists what they are searching for.


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## ozzydiodude (Mar 14, 2010)

Dahova said:
			
		

> I had a 40 acre farm andplanted 10 plants per acre in the back fields bout 10 acres . the police said they had gotten a call bout illegal huters poaching deer neer my farm they randomly walked into the field looking for them.. shitty luck but what can you do


 
The police may need a warrant but Game wardens and DNR officers don't. Anywhere wild life (deer,turkey,any game animals) is they can go. And in some states they actually have more power that a state trouper.


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