When Bong Water Really Stinks – Drug War Stories (Ep. 2) with Alex Kreit

Speakers
Alex Kreit,

Release Date
September 11, 2014

Topic

Criminal Justice
Description

Don’t spill the bong water; especially if it’s filled with methamphetamine. Right now cops can use the weight of bong water when attempting to sentence drug users. Discover your rights, or lack thereof, with Professor Alex Kreit, as he exposes America’s strangest drug loophole.

Here’s a post about the Minnesota decision:

http://www.talkleft.com/story/2009/10/22/20276/383/courtdecisions/MN-Supreme-Court-Bong-Water-is-Class-1-Drug-Offense
Minnesota did finally pass a compromise amendment which (somewhat strangely) says bongwater does not count toward drug weight, so long as there is less than 4 ounces of water.  (If there’s more than 4 ounces, it can still count.)  The language of what was passed is here:
https://www.revisor.mn.gov/bin/bldbill.php?bill=H0479.0.html&session=ls87
On a related note, LSD weight includes the carrier medium for purposes of federal mandatory minimums.  In other words, a person’s sentence is based on the weight of the blotter paper (or, if the LSD is in a glass of orange juice, of the juice.)  The US Supreme Court case on that issue is here:
http://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/90-5744.ZS.html

A lot of the drug laws; tbe state and federal, both. The sentences are based on the weight of what you’ve got. So, there was a case from Minnesota, this woman was arrested, a methamphetamine user, an addict. And they found, not actually methamphetamine, but they found a bong with some methamphetamine residue. And the bong water had trace amounts of methamphetamine in it. The government argued that the weight of the bong water should count against her. The idea there is that if you’ve got heroin or cocaine, maybe it’s cut with something.  So we’re just gonna take the whole weight and apply that when we sentence you. Well, the government said, we’re gonna do it for the methamphetamine bong water. So, they went for, they tried to prosecute her for this. And she argued, ‘no,’ the law shouldn’t allow for this. The Minnesota State Supreme Court, incredibly, said that she could be prosecuted based on the bong water with the trace amounts of methamphetamine, and the entire weight could be used against her for sentencing.

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