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Do Americans ever feel cheated by their drug laws?

Zopiclone bandit

Zopiclone bandit

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Everything I ever hear about people busted for drugs in the USA sounds horrific, I remember talking to some young teenager when I was over there & he got caught with a 1/8th of weed (over here the cops would take it off you & send you on your way) & he ended up being piss tested, probation for 2 years & a threat of jail if caught again.

A famous interview with Mike Williams also showed how fucked up the laws are there, he was caught with methadone he had stolen from a pharmacy after Hurricane Katrina hit & got 5 years probation for it, I mean WTF 5 years probation & with added piss tests. I've been caught with methadone that wasn't mine & the cops gave it me back & said it wasn't worth their time arresting me for it.

Do American folks ever think how shitty they have it?

You may have legal weed but that doesn't mean anything in some states, I'd not be surprised if the USA brought back public hanging for possession of more than 2 grams of heroin myself.
 
Zopiclone bandit said:
Everything I ever hear about people busted for drugs in the USA sounds horrific, I remember talking to some young teenager when I was over there & he got caught with a 1/8th of weed (over here the cops would take it off you & send you on your way) & he ended up being piss tested, probation for 2 years & a threat of jail if caught again.

A famous interview with Mike Williams also showed how fucked up the laws are there, he was caught with methadone he had stolen from a pharmacy after Hurricane Katrina hit & got 5 years probation for it, I mean WTF 5 years probation & with added piss tests. I've been caught with methadone that wasn't mine & the cops gave it me back & said it wasn't worth their time arresting me for it.

Do American folks ever think how shitty they have it?

You may have legal weed but that doesn't mean anything in some states, I'd not be surprised if the USA brought back public hanging for possession of more than 2 grams of heroin myself.
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The laws aren't like that anymore because the courts are overwhelmed by opiate, meth and crack crime. In Orlando pot is basically decriminalized. They can give you a fine if they want but usually they don't bother for small amounts.

They have begun to focus on treatment and interdiction programs like drug court and rehab for more serious drugs. I recently had the state toyally drop what originally was going to be a felony heroin possession charge for a tiny amount in a dime baggie and I'm actually on probation in the state. My probation officer didn't even violate me, which blows my mind because in the past they definitely would have. I also know people that have failed probation drug tests for pot several times without much repercussion.

Possession of small amounts of hard drugs is now simply an opportunity for the parent state to intervene and force treatment on you for your addiction and usually doesn't carry any jail time.

They are however serious about cracking down on dealing. In the state of Florida possession of 3 grams of heroin could earn you a trafficking charge, which depending on your record and circumstances could definitely put you in prison for a year or more.
 
It's misdemeanor vs felony, Z B. TL;DR version is Minor or Major crime.
There's also County vs State vs Federal, which is jurisdiction. Each state and county jurisdiction can have different laws and sentences. Federal law is uniform through all states.
 
All charges are either state or federal. Most would be state charges involving drugs except interstate trafficking. Each crime is either a felony or misdemeanor. Felony being the more serious crime. Unfortunately all hard drug possession is considered a felony but any interdiction program gives you the chance to escape a felony conviction upon completion.
 
America is relaxing actually, we used to be super draconian but things are changing. No one gives a fuck about weed anymore, it's gonna be federally legal soon, a bunch of states have it legalized. I mean technically they can fuck you over pretty bad but it seems worse in a number of other countries.

We've come a long way since "reefer madness"...
 
With this much access to the amount, availability and variety of substances, there is not much escape from paying your dues:)
 
What would happen if you had a boot full of weed in a sate where it was legal & you corssed over into another state where it was illegal?
 
Zopiclone bandit said:
Ever think you'll see the day the USA is like Portugal?
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I hope so. However I think decriminalization of the really hard drugs (crack, heroin, meth) is probably not going to happen anytime soon because we have really big problems with them here and people are terrified. I think we will see in the relatively near future a total legalization of marijuana and a social acceptance and medical/therapeutic use (and subsequently decriminalization) of psychedelics, and perhaps even legalization of psychedelics (a few places have legalized mushrooms for recreational use already).

Zopiclone bandit said:
What would happen if you had a boot full of weed in a sate where it was legal & you corssed over into another state where it was illegal?
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I'm not sure, probably you would get in trouble as per that state's laws, for the amount you had. You might get a drug trafficking charge too (crossing state lines with a drug) but probably only if you had a lot. All or almost all of the states have decriminalized personal amounts (usually under an ounce) of weed already though, it's been that way for a while. You just have to pay a ticket in most places. If you had a large amount, you could get slammed though.

Weirdly, in many states (including the one I grew up in and the one I live in now), up to an ounce of weed is just a simple ticketable offense, but paraphernalia (like a pipe) means you have to go to court and take drug classes and carries a much larger fine and goes on your record. It's so dumb, makes no sense to me.
 
Xorkoth said:
but paraphernalia (like a pipe) means you have to go to court and take drug classes and carries a much larger fine and goes on your record. It's so dumb, makes no sense to me
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I wonder what the founding fathers would make of this?
 
I think the soldiers that are permanently crippled with chronic pain fighting for america, that are being denied opioid medication or even pot due to the drug war, and are now blowing off their heads from the amount of pain they are in....i would imagine they feel quite cheated.

I have never sacrificed a god damn thing other than tax money for this corrupt evil christian government - and i feel cheated, can't imagine how soldiers feel. Here are some examples:


  • Kevin Keller, a Navy veteran from the USS Independence in the 1980’s from Virginia took his own life at age 52. He shot himself after breaking into the house of his friend, Marty Austin, and took his gun. Austin found a letter left by Keller saying “Marty sorry I broke into your house and took your gun to end the pain!” Keller had experienced a stroke 11 years earlier, and he had worsening pain in the last two years of his life because VA doctors would not give him pain medicine
  • Travis Patterson, a Texan, a decorated Staff Sergeant in the Army, combat veteran of Iraq and Afghanistan, was injured by a road side mine, and discharged from the army in 2016. He was in daily pain. He not receiving inadequate pain treatment, tried to commit suicide and was admitted to a Topeka Kansas VA hospital by his 26 year old wife. The VA refused to treat his war wounds with pain medicine and offered instead a stress ball. Two days later he made sure of his own method for the intractable pain by killing himself. He had future with his wife and studying law but it did not matter. He showed no signs of mental illness, just the stress of failure to treat his underlying war injuries with long term daily pain.
  • Mercedes McGuire, recently ended her life after struggling with intractable pain that returned after she her pain medicine was cut back due to CDC regulations. She was in such pain she went to the ER where they gave her a small prescription. She went to the pharmacy where they refused to fill it “because she had a pain contract”. She went home an killed herself. She was a young mother with a 4 year old son, Bentley.
  • Bob Mason, age 56 was denied pain medicine to treat his chronic pain after losing access to his pain control doctor and finding no one else, took his own life in July of 2016. According to Mason’s daughter, Mason “didn’t like the drugs, but there were no other options.” His suicide became the other option.

  • Former NASCAR driver Dick Trickle of North Carolina shot himself at age 71. He suffered from long-term pain. Although he went through several medical tests to determine the cause of his pain, the results could not provide relief. After Trickle’s suicide, his brother stated that Dick “must have just decided the pain was too high, because he would have never done it for any other reason.”
 
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I think some strict rules they have are setting a good example, but The US are dropping the ball to keep it light, where this epidemic and illegal prescribing crackdown is concerned.

Chronic pain patients are being made to feel like criminals and/or drug seekers for expecting pain management. Sorry if I have gone off topic a bit, just seems to be getting more and more prevalent, with some in despair on here. Very unfair!!!!!
 
It's true, and not being a chronic pain patient, that side of things isn't forefront on my mind. I agree that right now pain patients are being treated like criminals and it's fucked up. It's the wrong approach to the opioid problems. It's just going to lead to even more fentanyl.
 
Xorkoth said:
It's true, and not being a chronic pain patient, that side of things isn't forefront on my mind. I agree that right now pain patients are being treated like criminals and it's fucked up. It's the wrong approach to the opioid problems. It's just going to lead to even more fentanyl.
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I really can’t comprehend how the powers that be have come to the conclusion they have. As you say it is solving nothing by dramatically reducing prescription amounts that seem to reach every corner of every state, person and medical professional without individual assessment.

We often moan about the NHS here for lack of services and mega waiting times etc, but not this never this!!!! Do people on palliative care and chronic pain diagnosed patients (who bloody well need it) suffer indefinitely now? First rule of clinical excellence is always supposed to be, treat pain before anything else when arriving at a trauma or need to investigate a patient further.

BAFFLED GENUINELY ????
 
Shortec Stublue!! said:
I really can’t comprehend how the powers that be have come to the conclusion they have. As you say it is solving nothing by dramatically reducing prescription amounts that seem to reach every corner of every state, person and medical professional without individual assessment.

We often moan about the NHS here for lack of services and mega waiting times etc, but not this never this!!!! Do people on palliative care and chronic pain diagnosed patients (who bloody well need it) suffer indefinitely now? First rule of clinical excellence is always supposed to be, treat pain before anything else when arriving at a trauma or need to investigate a patient further.

BAFFLED GENUINELY ????
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I thought that the same thing was going on in England, and that England had always been one of those countries that was very difficult to get opiates for pain in, even before the US started cracking down on scripts.

Unfortunately other countries blindly follow what America does a lot of times. But we have seen other countries finally walk away from America's failed drug war strategy, and look who still has the worst drug problem in the world - america.

Not the countries with legal, 1$ per gram heroin. Not the coutnries with over the counter morphine at the pharmacy. not the countries letting people leagally shoot up pharma heroin. Not the countries with misery beyond imagination where dope seems like a good idea.
Only in america, home of the drug war do we have to biggest drug problem of all. Which came first the war or the out of control drug use? I think it was the war and the out of control use was an effect of beginning the war. It seems counterinuitive but I think thats the consensus among experts also.
 
I'll share a little anecdote that I find hopeful when it comes to drug policy law and reform in the USA

I vividly remember a conversation I had with a friend while on probation for a (marijuana-related) drug possession charge, my first and (thankfully only) serious interaction with the criminal justice system. It was about marijuana and the prospects of marijuana legalization. We both agreed at that time that marijuana legalization would never happen in our lifetimes...our logic back then was, show me the country where it's legal? Pretty much nowhere except for limited examples like the Netherlands, where it was tolerated but still kind of existing in a weird grey market limbo

That was back in 2010, less than a decade ago. Look at the situation now. A wave of state-level legalization in the USA, plus legalization in Canada and Uruguay. IMO we're on the verge of very exciting developments in the world of drug policy reform and harm reduction. Marijuana legalization is only the beginning of it...the cannabis legalization movement has implications far beyond cannabis, as I believe we saw with the psilocybin decriminalization vote in Denver not long ago.
 
Not at all @LucidSDreamr, although our available Opioids are not shouted from the rooftops by general practitioners usually, with the exception of codeine, Chronic pain and diagnosed conditions are treated adequately on the whole.

If it has arrived here, nobody told my Dr yet, as I've Just picked up my OC and Oxy Ir script. With a NHS specialist backing you up the gp generally does as he’s told.

From what I have read, some of your vast states did get carried away unsupervised on some delicious Purdue 80’s, lulled into a false sense of security until boom no more “refills” but all in all the powers that be have fucked things up with lies and greed I suspect!!
 
LucidSDreamr said:
I thought that the same thing was going on in England, and that England had always been one of those countries that was very difficult to get opiates for pain in, even before the US started cracking down on scripts.
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Nope. This is true in some European countries (I've read Greece is like this for example) but not the UK. If you have a history of chronic pain you will get opiates. They won't usually be as strong as the ones you get in the US, but you can get codeine, DHC, tramadol, oral morphine, oxy, and bupe all from your GP without having to even see a pain specialist.

Recently I went to my GP and asked for some painkillers and just a nice fat bottle of DHC 120mg time release pills scripted to me. If I wanted I could keep this script going and probably increase it to a stronger opiate but instead I'm about to ask for a taper because I don't think opiates do me good long-term and I got access to really good weed right now for pain relief.

If in the future circumstances changed though and I really needed painkillers, I could go back to my GP and ask for some and get that same script back. It's not at all difficult.

If anything now that the US have started with the knee-jerk reaction of reducing scripts even for those who need them, it's probably easier to get an opiate script here in the UK than in the US.

It's only just recently the regulations were changed here so you can no longer just go to an online pharmacy (a proper legal regulated one), fill out a form, and get scripted opiates privately just like that without your GP even knowing. That little loophole existed for years. You could get 200 pills a month easy.
 
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