Marijuana and Cannabis News
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| Freedom of Medicine and Diet |
| Dana Beal: "I'm not a run-of-the-mill drug runner. I'm a medical advocate. I had to do it." |
Dana Beal, 65, is looking at up to five years in the clinker after his arrest near Ashland, Neb., in 2009 in a van carrying 150 pounds of marijuana, reports Paul Hammel at the Omaha World-Herald.
Beal, a resident of New York City, said he was hauling the load of weed to a club of buyers from New York and Washington, D.C., who use cannabis for medicinal purposes. Medical marijuana is still illegal in New York, but has been legalized in D.C.; however, all cannabis sold to patients in D.C. is required to be grown within the District by licensed cultivators.
Beal and other proponents say New York City has a more lenient attitude toward enforcing the marijuana law, but ironically, the Big Apple also has the reputation of the pot bust capital of the world.
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| DeCrescenzo/NY Daily News |
| Beal at the 2008 Worldwide Marijuana March in New York City |
Last week, Beal's attorney argued that he should be allowed to submit evidence about the medical benefits of marijuana in presenting a "choice of evils" defense: He said that Beal chose to break the drug laws to avoid a greater evil by letting AIDS and cancer patients and others go without their medicinal cannabis.
Late on Tuesday, Saunders County District Judge Mary Gilbride sustained the state's request to bar such evidence from the trial. The judge cited an unpublished opinion from the Nebraska Court of Appeals in 2000.
The court ruled, in that case, that another man caught delivering cannabis for a buyer's club in New York failed to establish that his actions were "the least harmful alternative available."
Nebraska isn't one of the 17 states (and the District of Columbia) that have legalized cannabis for medicinal purposes.
Glenn Shapiro, Beal's Omaha-based attorney, said he wasn't shocked by the ruling but plans to introduce evidence about the benefits of medicinal cannabis at the trial, scheduled to begin July 18.
"If you believe most people, he's not a drug trafficker for profit," Shapiro said of his client. "He does it for the better good of society."
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8 comments
I have first hand experience that this man is a compassionate care giver to very sick people and modern day robin hood. Dana has done the right thing at great expense to his own well being for several decades and has not benefited from it in any way except in the good karma and peace of mind he must have doing god work.
I believe were all.missing the point which is .....IF YOU GOT 150lbs in the trunk MAKE SURE ALL YOUR LIGHTS WORK. EVER hear of a trap car? These ole hippies move wieght like its no big deal. ITS,A VERY BIG DEAL.
Nebraska, where Big Farm Inc. gets government subsidies to grow corn (and some to grow nothing) to give America diabetes and kidney problems, needs to be weaned off the taxpayers' teats. It wouldn't cost the government a dime to legalize -at the very least- medical marijuana there to re-invigorate the almost extinct family farm and put people back to work in that state. In addition to which there would be no need for Pot Police, hence a big saving of taxpayer dollars. New York, on the other hand, has been under martial law since 9/11/2001. You wouldn't expect a 21st century police state to back down on something as subversive -- yea, as seditious and hedonistic, say Hallelujah, say amen -- as marijuana, would you? Interesting that the residents of Washington DC weren't subjected to this repression after THEY were attacked on 9/11, likely because that's where all the defense lobbyists are -- we wouldn't want to accidentally offend the politicians' financiers by stopping and searching one of them. But if any of the favored class have the need, they can get medical marijuana in D.C. Why won't New Yorkers and Nebraskans and all the residents of the other 30-odd repressive states come to their senses? People, if you don't agree with anything else I say, you HAVE TO agree with this: Marijuana is SAFER than bacon & eggs, beer, sushi, enriched white flour and high-fructose corn syrup. This country's got its priorities up its collective bunghole.
