Drug Law Reform: Perils of the Afflicted

ALABAMA COURTROOM-A Caucasian female living in a major city in the south is arrested late one night for unknowingly selling a gram of methamphetamine to an undercover officer. This isn't her first rodeo, however, due to the fact that she had been picked up a few times before on possession charges. Every time, she had been court ordered into an alternative sentencing program which demanded frequent urine samples on a random basis, as well as her compliance with rehabilitative treatment. Her name is Jane.

For whatever reason, be it her unwillingness to comply with the court-ordered abstinence from her DOC (drug of choice), or non-compliance with the treatment programs orders, Jane failed to meet the courts' demands. Warrants were issued for her arrest and her probation was revoked.

It's a common circumstance in every city in America. Court dockets around the globe, in fact, are filled with drug-related offenses, and every elected authority sitting on the proverbial throne issues the appropriate payment for the addict's sin.

If the charged could afford the same defense that O.J. monetarily secured, there would be gloves which did not fit in her case, also. Of course, the "glove" her costly defense attorney should herald would indeed be one that outsized her hands so much that she would not even have to model them with outstretched hands before the jury box.

First, Jane resides in a country which vigorously protects its citizens' right to freedom of speech. Somehow over the years, this constitutional right (intended to allow the free flow of political thought from the press) now guarantees the freedom of almost any type of artistic expression. She is the citizen of a country which protects a musician's "constitutional right" to publish songs that urge the listener to obtain, sell, and use illicit drugs - even as a way of life.