Hi class-
Please read the following article and decide whether or not you would consider Tracey's behavior deviant. http://www.spokesmanreview.com/local/story.asp?ID=171054
Sara
Marijuana patient won't be sent to jail
Gene Johnson
Associated Press
January 26, 2007
SEATTLE – A medical marijuana patient who lost her case before the state Supreme Court last fall was sentenced Thursday to 60 days home confinement, after her lawyers argued that she was too sick to spend any time in jail.
Sharon Tracy, 53, said she was "overjoyed" with the sentence handed down by Skamania County Superior Court Judge E. Thompson Reynolds. She also must perform 30 days of community service and pay $3,000 to help cover the cost of her appeal.
"He could have gone ahead and let me go, but it's the best I could have gotten in a bad situation," Tracy said.
Tracy, of Hayward, Calif., was arrested in 2003 when a detective found her with about 40 grams of marijuana and four pot plants in 2003.
At the time, Tracy had been splitting her time between California and Skamania County, on the Columbia River in southwestern Washington. She suffers from coronary artery disease, congestive heart failure, diabetes and migraines, and has undergone reconstructive surgeries to repair a ruptured colon and a congenital left hip deformity. She turned to marijuana to reduce her usage of addictive painkillers such as Vicodin.
Though she presented a Skamania County sheriff's detective with a valid California medical marijuana card, the judge barred her from presenting a "compassionate use" defense under Washington's medical marijuana initiative, on the theory that the doctor who gave her the card was not licensed to practice medicine in Washington.
She was convicted of felony possession of marijuana as well as manufacturing marijuana, and she appealed. Last November, the state Supreme Court upheld her convictions in a 6-3 decision.
Prosecutor Peter Banks asked the judge to reimpose her original sentence, 60 days in jail plus 30 days of community service, but later in the hearing said he would not object to having her serve the time at the home of a friend, with electronic monitoring.
A few dozen supporters, some of them medical marijuana patients themselves, attended the hearing, said her lawyers, David Schultz and Douglas Hiatt. During the hearing they passed a hat and collected more than $500 to help pay the costs of the electronic monitoring, Hiatt said.
Hiatt and Schultz maintained that Tracy should have received no jail time or home confinement because she believed she was complying with the state's medical marijuana law. They noted that three of the Supreme Court justices agreed with her.
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23 comments:
I dont think or feel this was deviant behavior. The woman was obviously ill and was using it for pain. I think there are a lot of worse things in the world than growing 2 pot plants and smoking some weed. Its a waste of tax money and I think her trial was unfair. I think in the long run that the pain pills would have been worse for her. It is not like she was growing a forest and selling huge amounts on the street.
I don't think that Tracy has deviant behavior. She is smoking and growing pot because she is sick. It's not going to hurt anyone. I think it would be deviant if she were to be selling the pot. In the long run it was just a waste of time and money to put her on trial when she had the medical okay to smoke.
-Natalie
I don't think this was deviant behavior at all. She was very ill and need the weed in order to improve her health and by getting the marijuana card she believed that she was in accordance with the law. In the long run the pain killers would have caused more harm to her then the weed. There are so many drug dealers in our society that the time wasted on people like Tracy should be spent catching the real violaters of the law that are disrupting communities everywhere.
-Caitlin
This doesn't seem like deviant behavior to me. This lady has so many things wrong with her, the court should have cut her some slack. If Medicinal Marijuana is legal in her state then she should have been able to smoke it. There are a lot worse things people are doing out there compared to those who smoke pot. Maybe our law enforcers should focus more on them.
Jenna
I do not feel that Tracy's behavior should be considered to be deviant. Tracy has many health issues and suffers much pain from each problem. However, even though she had proof to prove she was valid in ingesting the marijuana, she still faced charges. The real people whom the law enforcers should be concerned about, are the marijuana dealers whom serve hundreds of people and create crime within the business of dealing.
-Kaleigh
There are so many other drugs that she could have used to ease her pain and I think she was being somewhat responsible by choosing to use marijuana instead of Vicodin because she was afraid of its addictive properties. I don't know why people make such a huge deal about marijuana; yes it is illegal but it is not addictive substance, perhaps mentally but not physically. So no I do not think what she did was deviant behavior.
I do not think that there was anything wrong with her behavior, she needed marijuana and had doctor approval. I think the fact that she was growing it herself doesn't matter because she wasn't selling it or anything so it doesn't do anybody any harm. If you look at the norm most people are not growing marijuana and therefore she was being deviant, but this is a case were deviance is not bad, doing no harm to anyone, not even herself since it was for medicinal purposes.
I do not think that her behavior was deviant in any way. She was doing what she thought was best for her situation at the time and she was afraid of the consequences of taking an addictive painkiller. She was also given permission by doctors to use marijuana for her medical condition and she was not harming anybody.
I do not feel like Tracy's behavior was deviant. Vicodin would be much more harmful & addicting. There was no sign that she was selling the marijuana, therefore, no one was being harmed by her actions. There are worse crimes being committed on a day to day basis and more attention should be focused on those harmful behaviors.
Danielle
I do not believe that this woman's behavior was deviant. After reading all of the illnesses and pain she must have been going through, I feel that her use of marijuana was definitely validated. From what the article says, they didn't have any proof that she was abusing the drug and they also didn't have any proof that she was selling it to other people. This act did not cause problems to anyone else and I do believe that she was using it as a way to get through the pain of all she was diagnosed with.
This article leaves me on the fence on Deviance. Tracy has a strong argument. The article stated that she was using marijuana for medicinal purposes in California, but she was living between Cali and Washington. Even though it was prescribed to her in Cali, Oregon and Washington all have laws allowing the use of medicinal marijuana since 1996.
On the other aspect of it, i think 40 grams is a little excessive. That is over an ounce of weed. The 4 plants she had, was probably illegal, because you cant grow it yourself in the state of Washington. California and Oregon have decriminalized possession laws, but Washington doesn't.
I beleive tracy was deviant in her actions to use marijuana. I say this because marijuana despite its meaningful and beneficial uses is still illegal. She tried to bend the rules because she thought in her opinion that her benefits superceeded the drawbacks. the benefits being non-addiction to harmful drugs, affordability, and medically beneificial... The drawbacks being vastly that it is illegal like mzemrak said, taking advantage of the law by growing her own and having 40 grams of it, and possibly abusing it. It is a touchy situation, but just because she has extensive medical conditins, does not mean she is above the law.
I don't believe that this would be consider a devient behavior. Tracy was useing the marijuana in the medical sence and had a doctor's approve to use it for her medical reason. She might have not know that taking the substance to her other home was illegal and I feel that that might have been something to consider. I do feel that the amount that she was found with might of been a little much but if she was going away from her home for a while she'd need to have enough. Basically, the only way that I feel that this behavior would be devient is if she was found to be selling it.
Michelle
It is a deviant act because it is against the law. I know that she had a medical card allowing her to have marijuana in CA. But, she was arrested in WA and had a ridiculous amount. She had 40 grams and was growing four plants. I wouldn't say that it was a deviant act if she only had a reasonable amount from a pharmacy and wasn't growing plants, but the amount that she possessed leads me to believe that there are other reasons for her possession, not just medical purposes. Also, with a medical card to possess marijuana allows the person to only get it from a pharmacists, and only certain amounts.
I feel this should be considered deviant. We discussed in class context and situation, and I feel this is a good example. In the context of California she had a medical card that allows her to have medical marijuana. Yet, she didn't have it for her other home Washington. I think that it is a deviant act then because she is committing a crime. If she was sick enough then she would probably have a doctor in Washington that could give her same the medical card that would work in her second home.
Although this may seem like a waste of resources to prosecute it is still a crime. She seemed to have an excessive amount of marijuana that seems to go beyond the bounds of what you are allowed for medical marijuana.
I thing Marijuana should be legalized. I have heared of a lot less accidents occuring because of weed than from drunk drivers. I thing in the context that we have been dicussing in class She was deviating from the norm how ever if i was on the jury i would have allowed he to get away with the charge. First off she was doing it for good reason and she had a valid perscription. Secondly she was growing her own Marijuana so she wasn't even partipating in the illeagal trade. I think she was justifiably deviant.
Although I'm kind of on the fence with this one, I don't think you could completely consider Tracy's actions as deviant. In her defense she did have a medical card allowing her the use of marijuana.There was no evidence leading to her selling either, so there was no wrong done there. I think it was in her better interest to stop the pain pills and use marijuana, even if she did have an excessive amount.
I do not think that Tracy's behavior is deviant at all. Based on the numerous medical problems she has, she is obviously in pain. I think that her smoking marijuana instead of taking highly addictive pills is much better for her. She also is not selling the marijuana so i don't see the harm in it. She had a medical card that allows her the possession of marijuana for medical purposes. I don't think she should have had any home confinement or any discipline at all!
-Jessica
This shouldn't be considered criminal behavior. As the others have said, she was successfully using it for a medical purpose.
The only thing working against her is that she had almost an ounce and a half on her, plus the growing plants. I think her sentence is lenient enough to satisfy her supporters.
If they were to ever legalize it (not just decriminalize), they should leave let the free market decide how it is consumed and at what price. Competition would improve quality, decrease price, and large corporations would even be able to mass produce if a public demand warranted it. Also, a portion of crime associated with the underground drug scene would be cut out of the scenario.
I wouldn't consider Tracy's behavior as a deviant action. because her use of marijuana is for a medical purpose,so, there isn't a wrong doing in there. In my opinion, weed isn't very addictive comparing to the pain killers. Therefore, putting her on trail seems non-sense to me because she is using marijuana for a medical reason.
-shirwac
I'm not sure if this behavior was completely deviant. I agree that having 40 plus grams of marijuana is deviant when it's being used for medical purposes, but the reason she was using it wasn't deviant. I agree with Tracy's lawyers that the court should have taken into account her situation. So, overall I guess I wouldn't consider her behavior deviant.
-mike
Technically, Tracy's behavior is considered deviant because the bottom line is, she is growing an illegal drug in her home. Then again, homosexuality is deviant, having a funny haircut is deviant, even wearing a certain type of attire is considered deviant. The type of deviance Tracy is involved in is unharmful and should not be illegal. She had a valid liscense as well as an acceptable cause. Tracy should not have been deemed guilty regardless of whether her act is considered deviant or not.
While Tracy's behavior may be viewed as deviant on a general level by society and according to state and federal laws I personally don't believe she was in the wrong. Tracy obviously has numerous medical conditions, has attempted various surgeries to correct them and still seems to suffer from an extreme amount of pain. In my opinion using marijuana medically to ease her suffering (as opposed to highly addictive pain medicine)seems to be a rational choice. Additionally, if Tracy really believed she was following the law as her lawyers attest it greatly reduces her fault in this situation.
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