David Bridges
A person in Oklahoma Metropolis who used a faux Amazon van to move pot has been sentenced to 9 years in federal jail, in keeping with a press launch from the U.S. Division of Justice (DOJ). And it’s an incredible reminder that whereas huge industries have sprung as much as promote hashish for leisure use in almost half of U.S. states, folks can nonetheless get severe jail time in the event that they’re caught with weed within the different half.
Brandon Ye, 43, used a van made to seem like an Amazon supply automobile, selecting up vacuum-sealed packages of weed from licensed hashish rising services throughout Oklahoma, the place medical hashish is authorized however leisure use will not be. From there, Ye would transfer the packages to warehouses in Oklahoma earlier than they’d be transported out of state on the market, in keeping with the DOJ.
Ye helped ship about 28 tons of weed out of Oklahoma earlier than being arrested in December 2022, in keeping with the DOJ. Ye pleaded responsible to possessing pot with the intent to distribute the drug and to possessing a firearm whereas distributing the drug. Each of these issues are nonetheless unlawful below federal regulation, even though President Joe Biden is at the moment working to reclassify hashish from a Schedule I drug within the class of LSD and heroin to a Schedule III drug like ketamine.
Even after the DEA’s deliberate rescheduling, pot will nonetheless be thought-about a managed substance and it’s not clear how aggressively federal authorities will pursue interstate drug commerce just like the case that introduced Ye such a harsh sentence.
U.S. District Decide Scott L. Palk handed down Ye’s sentence on June 20, reportedly making an enormous deal of the “huge quantity of marijuana transported by Ye throughout his clandestine operation.” Notably, the DOJ by no means alleged that Ye dedicated any violent acts. He merely moved lots of weed round and carried a gun whereas doing it. Oklahoma gun legal guidelines enable for anybody over the age of 21 to hold a firearm with out a allow, so the one purpose Ye was charged with carrying a gun was as a result of reality he was additionally transporting hashish.
Right this moment, Individuals look again on the period of alcohol prohibition in the course of the Twenties and snigger at how ridiculous it was for federal authorities to criminalize shifting alcohol, regardless of how “huge” the quantity. Hopefully, folks of the long run will look again on 2024 with the identical perspective, given the truth that most Individuals already consider within the full decriminalization of weed.
Because it stands at the moment, simply 10% of Individuals consider weed shouldn’t be authorized in any manner, in keeping with Pew Analysis, with 59% saying it ought to be authorized for each medical and leisure use. However folks like Ye can nonetheless get locked up for almost a decade only for shifting pot round.
Daniel Mercer
Brandon Fletcher
