Minnesota Prosecutor Wants Woman to Do 30 Years for Meth-Tainted Bongwater [FEATURE]

What ought to have been a quotation for drug paraphernalia will get become an outrageous try and lock a hapless drug consumer up for many years. 

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Minnesota has joined the protection of a Fargo, North Dakota, lady who faces as much as 30 years and a $1 million positive in jail for the possession of bongwater with traces of methamphetamine in it. The absurd state of affairs arose as a result of a hardline Minnesota prosecutor took benefit of a longstanding loophole in state legislation permitting for such a merciless and typical prosecution.

The case is that of Jessica Beske, who was detained at a visitors cease in rural Polk County in Could. Sheriff’s deputies smelled marijuana after which searched her automobile,  discovering drug paraphernalia and methamphetamine residue, in addition to a glass bong that contained eight ounces of water with meth residue in it. 

The legislature decriminalized the possession of drug paraphernalia final 12 months, and Beske ought to have confronted not more than a quotation for possession of drug paraphernalia. However by an oversight, lawmakers uncared for to handle a 2009 state Supreme Court docket case, State vs. Peck, the place a narrowly break up court docket held that water in a bong may very well be thought-about a “drug combination” for sentencing functions. That call got here after testimony from a State Patrol officer who claimed bizarrely that dopers would hold bongwater “for future use… both ingesting it or taking pictures it within the veins.”

Three of the court docket’s seven justices dissented. “Bongwater is often discarded when the smoker is completed with consumption of the smoke filtered by the bong water,” they wrote. “An individual just isn’t extra harmful, or more likely to wreak extra havoc, based mostly on the quantity of bong water that individual possesses.”

After the state turned the topic of widespread ridicule with that call, the legislature finally handed a invoice that mentioned lower than 4 ounces of bong water was exempt from the authorized definition of a “drug combination.”

It’s an arbitrary line.

“There doesn’t appear to be any good cause why ounces is okay, however 5 just isn’t,” mentioned Kurtis Hanna, a longtime Minnesota drug reform advocate. 

However as a result of Beske’s bongwater exceeded the four-ounce restrict, Polk County Assistant Lawyer Scott Buhler was in a position to contemplate it a “drug combination” and deal with the eight ounces of bongwater as if it have been eight ounces of methamphetamine, charging Beske with a high-level felony with a decades-long sentence. 

It’s a apply that isn’t unknown however continues to be exceedingly uncommon amongst state prosecutors. When the Minnesota Reformer reached out to Robert Small, government director of the Minnesota County Lawyer’s Affiliation, he was incredulous that anybody was charging such circumstances. 

“The legislative intent behind the weight-based thresholds is to approximate whether or not an individual is an finish consumer or a seller,” mentioned Hanna. “The truth that some county prosecutors are subverting that clear intent and are charging finish customers as if they’re wholesalers, ruining their lives within the course of, is shameful.”

However prosecutor Buhler is one thing of a particular case. Not solely is he charging Beske with felony drug possession, he has additionally charged her with violating the state’s archaic illicit drug tax legislation, including one other seven years and a $14,000 positive to her doable sentence. And he added one other cost for refusing a drug check on the time of her arrest. 

In truth, Buhler gained statewide notoriety again in 2014 as one of many few prosecutors within the state who truly charged folks underneath that drug tax statute. 

“I merely cost it lots as a result of it leaves all choices accessible relating to plea bargaining and sentencing,” he instructed the Minneapolis Star Tribune on the time.

Now, the ACLU of Minnesota has stepped in. The group introduced this month that it’ll signify Beske.

“We’re fairly broadly keen on ensuring Minnesotans aren’t criminalized for issues like dependancy,” mentioned lawyer Alicia Granse, who’s engaged on the case. “Will we need to be spending a lot of our assets on bong water?”

Granske additionally famous the drug tax cost and questioned whether or not such harsh costs actually contribute to public security. 

“They’re going onerous up there,” Granse mentioned. “I don’t know if that’s what we actually need to be spending our cash on, or our time. “It appears like this prosecutor just isn’t prepared to surrender, however neither am I.” 

For Beske, the expertise has been a nightmare. She mentioned she used medication to deal with an abusive relationship and now she lives with much more despair.

“The one factor I’m responsible of is utilizing substances to minimize my psychological struggling brought on by a sick and abusive predator,” she mentioned. “Addicts — girls particularly — are made to really feel like public enemy primary, when actually most of us have been victims of significant crime that can by no means be prosecuted.

As for her prosecution and doable jail time: “It’s simply gonna make my life worse and make me need to use medication extra,” she mentioned. “That’s why folks use medication principally, is to manage.”

The state legislature final 12 months commissioned a drug coverage report commissioned by the Legislature whose conclusion was that “arresting folks for drug use doesn’t deter future use, crime recidivism, arrest, or incarceration,” and that “imprisonment doesn’t affect charges of drug use or arrest.” 

Perhaps somebody ought to inform the great burghers of Polk County.