How sloppy is her fuckin’ grammar? Yeah, I’m sorry you got those numbers from the police too, sweetcheeks. How 'bout you run up to the local community college for a few remedial English courses before you try to pretend to be a news reporter again?
As for the price/weight discrepency, that’s easy enough to explain.
Ten million was seized from the car.
225 pounds actually made it all the way to the evidence locker back at HQ.
You think cops don’t know how to party?
The only substance on EARTH that would net kind of money is Californium at 100 dollars per gram, it may well be the most expensive substance known to man.
A pound is roughly 456g (which would equal $45,600)
$45,600 per pound x 225 pounds = $10,260,000 (YMMV)
How in the thundering blue fuck do they even believe they can make that shit up?
Actually it sounds like your friend was railroaded (which I suppose is your point) but for real drug busts, you don’t get to use the trash can the dope was hidden in as part of the bust. Your friend may have gone down on paraphenalia charges as WELL as the dope, which combined, could force jail time, but the weight of the container is meaningless.
I think I’ve found the perfect gift to put under Ms. Seitz’ tree this year.
I want a copy, too.
Heh, I partied with not-a-few cops in my young adulthood back in Chicago. They always had the best drugs, bar none. More than a few times growing up in the suburbs, some of my friends got busted for having a bit of weed on em, and it wasn’t just once the cop “confiscated” the pot and let the kids go, heh.
Yeah, if you want to see people smoking up, just head out behind cop college at Ahuntsic cegep.
Damnit, I command you to unscramble.
It’s not as funny-sounding as Naropa.
Heh heh heh. Nah-roh-pah!
Oh man, that’s some good shit.
Long ago there was a series in the UK called Spitting Image. Big latex puppets, current affairs satire. One memorable character was a thuggish police seargent and in one sketch where he was discussing a drugs raid and the street value of the haul a reporter asked how they knew it was worth so much?
“Because that’s what we got for it.”
Damn Canadians 
I love the Ahuntsic neighborhood. Mmm…Privilege chocolates…and some italian joint across the street that i cant remember the name of…mmm.
While this may be what your “friends” told you, it’s simply not true. Unless the officers, prosecutor, defense counsel, and judge all lied or ignored the statute and all the relevant case law, your “friends” are full of shit. The pipe is not considered in weighing the amount of cannabis. While it is true that the Chicago Police Department may determine a preliminary weight that includes packaging material (plastic baggies, cling wrap, etc.), the crime lab that actually weighs and tests the material, only weigh the substance itself. I simply can not believe that any judge would sentence a person to jail based on the weight of the pipe.
Well, neither could we.
Your friends got sentenced to jail time for having a small amount of marijuana in their pipe? I’ve never seen that happen in even the most strict county, let alone in Chicago where they’re considering giving just tickets for pot possession. And to have everybody: the police, the crime lab, the prosecutor, the defense counsel, and the judge do everything incorrectly is just too incredible to be believed. Hell, the penalties for having the pipe are more severe than those for having the amount of marijuana that could fit in the pipe. You sure you got the facts right?
Two friends (acquaintances, really) - one had a dugout (a one-hitter pipe that fit into a wooden box with another hollowed out area for cleaned weed) the other a large glass pipe in the shape of a dragon (about 16 inches long). The dugout was “full of weed” (it holds about an eighth of an ounce) the pipe had remnants from smoking and of course resin along it’s inner surface. They each got a year in prison. According to norml , an eighth (a little more than 3 grams) should have gotten a first time offender 6 months. So what am I missing? When I asked my friends about it, they both claimed it was because the dugout and the pipe were included in the weight. Now, my source is of course two stupid stoners who got caught smoking from a huge-ass dragon pipe while in their car, so who knows. But there was no other contraband found, and it was a first time offense for each of them.
But what’s the penalty for having a pipe? Perhaps that was it and the idiots were confused.
Sure there is, you just have to sell dime bags for $94.44 each.
Yipes, what state was this in?
The norml site you linked to lists the MAXIMUM penalty available. It would be impossible for your friends to be sentenced to a year in prison for 3 grams of marijuana. That’s a Class B misdemeanor. The possession of the pipes would be a class A misdemeanor, but that too would also be impossible to be sentenced to one year in the Department of Corrections. It would be punished by a maximum of 180 days in the county jail. I will say that I’ve never, ever, ever, ever seen, nor heard about, nor read about, nor can even believe, that a judge in Cook County would send a first time offender to prison for a year for having 3 grams of pot and a couple pipes. To do so, that judge, and everyone involved, including your friends, their attorney, the prosecutor, the police, the crime lab, and the appellate court would have to conspire to ignore the statutes and caselaw, to send your friends to prison. In the realm of possibility, I’d put that akin to monkey’s flying out of Mike Myer’s butt. I fear your friends are putting one over on you.
The State of Disillusionment, apparantly. (Chicago, IL). I completely and utterly believe you, Hamlet. IANAL, I was certainly not these boys’ lawyer, I have absolutely no knowledge of the laws other than what I can look up on the internet and have no first hand knowledge of how the court system works. If you say they’re lying, I have no need to pursue the issue. I’m not trying to convince you or anyone else. You asked for clarification and I gave you what few facts I have on hand about the matter. You’re obviously far more familiar with this type of thing than I am. As far as I’m concerned, we’re done here. Back to the OP, folks!
For an interesting read on the drug laws in this country, I recommend Reefer Madness, it is by the same author as Fast Food Nation and details some of the method used by all forms of law enforcment.
I have that book.
It is a good book.
Actually, their attorney could merely be incompetent/overworked/apathetic, not actively conspiratorial.
And, maybe I’ve just been hitting the chronic too hard, but the scenario you outlined does not sound at all beyond the realm of possibility. You have more experience in the area than I do, of course, and I have a tendency to automatically assume the worst possible motivations on behalf of the authorities when it comes to anything remotely touching the War on Some Drugs.