UK - A CANNABIS dealer told by a judge to write about the dangers of drugs will inste

[edgarshade]

The Sun

By JAMES BEAL
27 Mar 2013

With reader comments

Lines of drugs
Dealer's crack at judge in cannabis rap essay

A CANNABIS dealer told by a judge to write about the dangers of drugs will instead call for dope to be legalised.

Terry Bennett, 32, was spared jail by agreeing to do the essay. He has a week left to complete the task or face prison — but told The Sun yesterday he would use it to argue for a law change. Bennett, who was caught with almost a kilo (2.2lbs) of cannabis, was ordered by Judge Julian Lambert to write 5,000 words.

But the pusher claims he wants to “open the judge’s mind” to arguments against cannabis being illegal. Jobless Bennett, who left school without any qualifications but later completed five GCSEs and an Art GNVQ, has now started researching his essay online — yet has so far written just ONE LINE.

He told us: “Cannabis does cause mental problems, especially if it is consumed in massive quantities, but I think legalising it would restrict the supply. “Also, the amount of revenue that could be generated by taxing drugs is astronomical. In my opinion, the benefits of legalising drugs sharply outweigh the bad things that come with drugs.”

Bennett admitted possession with intent to supply and was given a 12-month suspended sentence at Bristol Crown Court last October. He was also ordered to do 240 hours of unpaid work but dodged it on health and safety grounds because of a shoulder injury. So he was back in court last Thursday and the judge gave him two weeks to do the essay — or his suspended term could be activated and he would be sent straight to jail. The cheeky ex-plumber, who lives with his mum in Cold Ashton, Glos, even asked if he could write about on the pros and cons of cannabis but was firmly slapped down.

Judge Lambert also imposed a four-month curfew between 8pm and 8am and made him wear a tag. Bennett has to provide drug test samples so he can see his two sons, who live with their mothers.

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepag...use-it-to-call-for-drugs-to-be-legalised.html

 

[20max10]

Bennett has to provide drug test samples so he can see his two sons, who live with their mothers.

This always has seemed fairly disgusting to me. He can drink a litre of vodka every day no problem but if he smokes a bit green he gets denied access to his children.

pretty shitty lol

 

[RedLeader]

Seems kinda selfish. I mean sure, if it's just him on his own he can do whatever he wants. But he has two little kids. Just write the damn essay to stay out of jail and be able to be there for your kids! Nobody will be affected by even the best legalisation paper ever in this situation. Heck, write the best possible arguments out for the opposing side, and then use that as a basis against which a response effort could be made after his probation is over, which he can try and use to sway public opinion. That is, if he really cares (and doesn't support prohibition like a lot of greedy dealers). But ya, the best way to write a good legalisation paper is to first lay out the opposing view as best as possible and then pick it apart. He could take advantage of this, again, if he really cares.

 

[plmar]

Just write the damn thing, the judge is pretty much letting you off with nothing all you gotta do is get your ass on MS word for a couple hours.

 

[Captain.Heroin]

This always has seemed fairly disgusting to me. He can drink a litre of vodka every day no problem but if he smokes a bit green he gets denied access to his children.

pretty shitty lol

^ agreed

the same thing can happen out here in California; the state can charge parents who are medical marijuana patients with endangering their own children.

This normally happens when the parents "secret" gets out, and some overzealous official (whether it be a CPS worker, a police officer, or another type of a variety of quasi-authority figures that seem to infiltrate our society so thoroughly) sees to it that their kids get taken away.

I am afraid this happens to responsible parents just as much as legitimately neglectful ones, if not more so to the responsible parents (normally responsible MMJ users will have more to lose by having their kids taken away, etc. compared to poor, irresponsible parents which have little to nothing to offer to get their kids back; whereas responsible MMJ parents could cough up a ton of money just to get their kids back, etc.)

Just write the damn essay to stay out of jail and be able to be there for your kids!

They should have stipulated his essay put an unnecessary and uncalled for negative spin on possessing/using/distributing marijuana. Instead, the judge just stipulated the length of the essay be 5,000 words, and to be on the topic of the "dangers of drugs".

If I was in his shoes, I would do just that, and highlight about how prohibition makes almost all drugs more dangerous (due to unscrupulous producers/dealers which could cut/contaminate product, the fact that a black market will have no guaranteed quality/quantity, the fact that you can get access to insane quantities of drugs which would be harder to acquire if drugs were legalized and regulated in the most basic of ways, and so on and so on...) - and if the judge didn't like the way I wrote the essay, I'd urge him to write one himself instead, since it seems if I can't read the judge's thoughts and verbatim use exactly what he wants me to in the essay, I'll go to jail anyways.

 

[23536]

I can see where he's coming from. It's hard to take a man in a wig seriously.

I'd have a really hard time staying on topic too.

 

[GodSpeedK]

To be fair to the judge, he's being pretty lenient. An essay for marijuana selling? Wow, that's almost like it's legal. This is exactly the sort of situation where you put your beliefs on hold, suck it up, and conform willingly.

It's sort of like one of those situations where you're not allowed into a club by a moronic bouncer, so you try to reason with him. Completely futile. Be glad you're not having your head pounded into the pavement and move on with your life and consider it a lucky escape.

 

[HCandKROD]

He's going to jail for sure. The judge gave him a very easy out and he's going to piss this judge off by writing off topic. To write any legal argument to a judge is ridiculous. Not to mention the guy has only written one line!! That just reinforces the stereotype of a lazy pot smoker.