☛ TS Pot grower sentenced to 10 years
EUREKA -- A father and son were sentenced Monday in federal court for growing marijuana in the Six Rivers National Forest.
Jose Magana received a 120-month sentence after pleading guilty to manufacturing a controlled substance while his father, Jose Miranda, received a 57-month sentence.
Jose Magana and Jose Miranda were arrested on July 4, 2007, by law enforcement officers from the U.S. Forest Service, Trinity County Sheriff's Department and California Department of Fish and Game. Officers entered the marijuana garden located near Zenia and found the two suspects armed with rifles working in the marijuana garden, according to a release from forest officials.
Magana and Miranda were arrested on charges including the growing of 14,232 marijuana plants and conspiracy to manufacture marijuana...
The operative words being "in federal court."
where these guys even citizens of the USA? the article states that the guys were LIVING in the national forest.
ReplyDeleteas long as the price stays high, the cops seem content.....sweep it under the rug...... wouldnt want to hurt our best industry....
why is it that housing, fuel, stocks, and commodities are losing value while pot is GAINING value?
Last I heard pot was down, a glut on the market dontcha know?
ReplyDeleteThe sentences seem draconian given no evidence of violence. Just about every pot grower I know has guns which will show up in arrests. Sending a message to the Mexican-American community to stay away from Humboldt County? Did these guys have any priors or suspected of drug cartel ties? I can give several examples of much lighter sentences given much bigger growing operations to non-Mexican-American growers.
ReplyDeleteAnyone who thinks putting people away in prison for years for just growing pot needs to spend a year in prison themselves to see what they are inflicting on probably very naive individuals.
If there were no priors then ten years seems cruel and unusual punishment.
ReplyDeleteI tend to agree, Stephen - putting people in prison for smoking pot, for a lid in their glove box, for growing a few plants - shouldn't happen.
ReplyDeleteBut, when it comes to these large scale pot grows, it's much more complicated. You could go to jail for tax evasion alone, should they be treated differently? You would be heavily fined for any environmental degradation, could even be jailed. Should they be treated any differently?
When we go into National Parks, we are told not to PICK any flowers. leaves, or anything, not to walk off the trails - yet here they go in with full scale growing operations and garbage and diesel and automatic weapons... PLUS the selling for a profit, illegally, no taxes, no business license, should all that be forgiven just because they are growing pot?
And then how do you make that equitable with what would happen to you for even a minor transgression?
You can get in trouble for not wearing your seatbelt or for talking on your cellphone... have we come to the point where only otherwise law abiding agreeable citizens get punished, and criminals get to skate?
It's not as simple as saying people shouldn't be in prison for pot. There's more to it.
Rose, you forget I have reason for my opinion of not wanting to see naive young men being hauled off to prison for growing pot, not without proof of real criminality, and I'm talking violence not just keeping guns around, something I told you most every pot grower I know does with young men, sons of many locals, having a decided tendency to get into show off weaponry which comes back and haunts them when caught by the law.
ReplyDeleteThe sentences are way too harsh unless someone was shot at, or some other extenuating circumstances indicating violent intent which I am afraid covers most the majority of pot growers determined not to let thieves steal their pot. The whole thing's a terrible example of how a majority can inflict their will on a minority and get away it even to the point of ruining young men's lives to satisfy what? A lust for revenge against pot using and the money it brings in BECAUSE the majority makes it illegal and therefore a very valuable product because so many people want it?
It's a sick system and must be stopped and I for one am going to protest this sentencing unless the cops or court produces more evidence of anything more than singling out Mexican-Americans for harsher treatment.
Will stiff penalties eradicate marijuana gardens in National Forests? To what extent do stiff penalties curtail this activity? The link to the Times Standard article didn't mention diesel, trash or automatic weapons. It did mention rifles. It didn't state what those rifles were for. It was an illegal garden but conspiracy to manufacture seems like legal piling on. Good thing they weren't caught transporting while talking on their cellphones and not wearing their seat belts. There might have been a fine tacked onto their prison time.
ReplyDeleteI know, Stephen. And I started to say I agree entirely, but as I thought about it, it's not that simple.
ReplyDeleteI can SAY no one should go to jail for growing a little pot, maybe even for selling it, it seems so harmless.
But, then I think, wait a minute. What happens to OTHER otherwise law abiding citizens?
It's not like we would go to jail for picking a daisy or a trillium in the National Park, but we are led to believe we could. We are held to the rule, by our own honor, and fear of doing something "wrong" - yet these guys go in and desecrate that very ground... that's one point.
The penalties for tax evasion apply to all normal people - so again, this isn't JUST growing pot, it is also evading those laws, it is evading the business license laws, the zoning laws, and on and on, all things that OTHER PEOPLE would go to jail for or be fined for, and could definitely be arrested for.
So, like I said, though I am sympathetic, it is not that simple.
But if you're going to let them off just because its just pot, then you're not being fair to all the others.
It is impossible to buy a business license for your illegal marijuana garden. How would you collect sales taxes for the state when the state requires a business license that they won't issue for an illegal marijuana garden. I know we are going round and round here. I think the penalty handed down was too strong. Confiscation and a fine would have been sufficient.
ReplyDeletehow about deportation?
ReplyDeleteMaybe. But, it is not clear. Where are they from?
ReplyDelete