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CaliLobo
Guest
It’s just marijuana, who cares??? Marijuana is being gradually decriminalized.
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CaliLobo
Guest
May I add that the Catholic Church seems to tolerate moderation with alcohol, and that marijuana is arguably safer and less addictive.
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EasterJoy
Guest
Even if you beat the charge–and the police like to make drug arrests–arrests are a nasty nuisance and lawyers are expensive. When there is injustice at stake, that is one thing, but otherwise it is usually wiser to play it by the book and keep on the right side of the law. The son would probably have a lawyer provided for him if he gets in hot water over this, but he does not need a drug arrest. The parents will not even pass the means test for a state-appointed attorney, and if they get a drug arrest they could be kicked off of parish work and who knows what else. Like it or not, that is the way it is! Not even their bishop can change that.
Tell him to get rid of the pot or you’ll get rid of him as a renter. No lawyers needed. Then tell him he’s just gotten one more chance than any other landlord would give him and also one more than you’d give any other renter, save him. If he wants to make his parent/landlord out to be the bad guy, too bad, but this needs to be it and really it.
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Allegra
Guest
Just tell your son to get rid of the plants or you will. You have the right and obligation to manage illegal plants growing on your property, especially if they are visible from outside the yard.
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EasterJoy
Guest
Moderation? With alcohol use, that means not getting drunk. When is marijuana used for anything but to get stoned?
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Allegra
Guest
That’s true. Some people do argue that. Doctors and addiction specialists are not usually among their number. Either way, the plants are currently illegal and there is no reason a landlord should feel obligated to have it on their property.
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EasterJoy
Guest
It depends on the jurisdiction. The last time I checked, though, about 1 in 6 people in federal prison were there on marijuana charges. When Frontline did a story on it (which was way back when, in 1997), there were even 15 states where a person could theoretically get a life sentence for a non-violent marijuana offense! pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/dope/interviews/schlosser.html
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CaliLobo
Guest
Yeah, and that is horse dung. Why are we cruelly sending people to prison just for weed? Portugal has decriminalized all drugs because it realizes that addiction is a medical problem; it has worked for them.
The laws are gradually changing.
Studies show that marijuana is not addictive, and does not have a gateway drug effect.
Legalizing marijuana will also help defund the drug trade in Mexico.
It also helps treat numerous medical conditions, and aids creativity. Scriabin piano sonatas make perfect sense when you’re stoned, especially his fourth in F-sharp
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Xantippe
Guest
“Yeah, and that is horse dung. Why are we cruelly sending people to prison just for weed? Portugal has decriminalized all drugs because it realizes that addiction is a medical problem; it has worked for them. The laws are gradually changing.”
Yeah, the laws may be gradually changing, but somebody’s going to be the last person to suffer under those laws, and the OP would prefer that it not be him. Totally innocent parties not infrequently have their property confiscated or suffer other serious penalties. You cannot be too careful in keeping on the right side of our US drug laws, as the matter currently stands.
This is the world that we live in. It’s unfortunate, but that’s how it is. It is very selfish of the OP’s son to put him in this situation, knowing how draconian the penalties are.
Yeah, the laws may be gradually changing, but somebody’s going to be the last person to suffer under those laws, and the OP would prefer that it not be him. Totally innocent parties not infrequently have their property confiscated or suffer other serious penalties. You cannot be too careful in keeping on the right side of our US drug laws, as the matter currently stands.
This is the world that we live in. It’s unfortunate, but that’s how it is. It is very selfish of the OP’s son to put him in this situation, knowing how draconian the penalties are.
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Father_of_10
Guest
What the OP has to be concerned about is civil forfeiture.
If they continue to allow marijuana to be grown on their land it can be seized in civil forfeiture. If somehow the government can tie the OP’s home and cars to this they can seize them also. That would include cars, bank accounts, jewelry, firearms and real estate.
The level of evidence required for civil forfeiture is not the same as for a crime. Civil forfeiture only requires a preponderance of evidence and not reasonable doubt. The supreme court has found that this is not considered double jeopardy (being tried for the same crime twice). Government agencies (state and federal) specifically look for this as is it an integral part of financing their departments. Basically it boils down to having to prove your innocence to the court, versus the government needing to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that you are guilty. This can cost many thousands of dollars to get resolved, if at all.
If this were my adult child and he was endangering the welfare of my family’s home and future, I would bounce him out on the street. He is taking advantage of his parents kind nature and it could be to their ruin. There are many families looking to rent now due to the high rate of foreclosures. Most of these families would never even think of growing pot on your lawn and would be grateful to find a good rental and fair landlord. Time for junior to grow up.
If they continue to allow marijuana to be grown on their land it can be seized in civil forfeiture. If somehow the government can tie the OP’s home and cars to this they can seize them also. That would include cars, bank accounts, jewelry, firearms and real estate.
The level of evidence required for civil forfeiture is not the same as for a crime. Civil forfeiture only requires a preponderance of evidence and not reasonable doubt. The supreme court has found that this is not considered double jeopardy (being tried for the same crime twice). Government agencies (state and federal) specifically look for this as is it an integral part of financing their departments. Basically it boils down to having to prove your innocence to the court, versus the government needing to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that you are guilty. This can cost many thousands of dollars to get resolved, if at all.
If this were my adult child and he was endangering the welfare of my family’s home and future, I would bounce him out on the street. He is taking advantage of his parents kind nature and it could be to their ruin. There are many families looking to rent now due to the high rate of foreclosures. Most of these families would never even think of growing pot on your lawn and would be grateful to find a good rental and fair landlord. Time for junior to grow up.
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LongingSoul
Guest
You are lucky to dodge a bullet if you smoke marijuana without any problems. My 21yo son became addicted to marijuana about 2 years ago and fell for the lie. He truly didn’t accept that weed was his problem until he was taken to the psychiatric hospital on suicide watch and was at rock bottom. Over time with counselling and medication, he came out of the mindless blur of the substance and re-entered life again, back to his great job of IT apprentice and his happy go lucky self. Forward a little bit… he thinks he’ll just go back to smoking socially since all his friends were still into it. Gradually we saw him decline and I suspected the return of the ‘sheep in wolfs clothing’ weed to our lives. We finally cornered him and he broke into tears admitting he was addicted to the bloody moronic stuff again. Thankfully, he has taken up our offer to do counselling and outpatient treatment again and we see the life returning to him and his old self reappearing. Please God, he figures it out this time. The stuff is just lies and deception materialised. There is nothing good about it at all and people that use it are ignorant, mindless fools. I have a significant number of family members with alcohol problems and given the choice, I’d want alcoholism over marijuana addiction any day. Weird but true.
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EasterJoy
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“Wow is wow backwards” is deep and makes perfect sense when you’re stoned, but my point has nothing to do with that. The OP is obviously not a pot user and has no interest in commmitting civil disobedience in order to change the pot laws! They just want their son to quit using their property to grow his pot. They would like to avoid unnecessary drama with him, but as parents they realize that sometimes it is better to take on a low-level conflict at the right time than to let a problem keep growing. They know that there are times when it is better to be the “bad guy” with him themselves than to wait until someone in an official role steps in and really puts him in a world of hurt. Whether or not they would vote to loosen pot laws hardly comes into it.Yeah, and that is horse dung. Why are we cruelly sending people to prison just for weed? Portugal has decriminalized all drugs because it realizes that addiction is a medical problem; it has worked for them.
The laws are gradually changing.
Studies show that marijuana is not addictive, and does not have a gateway drug effect.
Legalizing marijuana will also help defund the drug trade in Mexico.
It also helps treat numerous medical conditions, and aids creativity. Scriabin piano sonatas make perfect sense when you’re stoned, especially his fourth in F-sharp
The point was that while there are few laws that govern what they can and can’t do with their son in their own home, there are laws that differ from one jurisdiction to another concerning their duties, boundaries, and liability as landlords who have become aware that their tenant is growing pot. Until those laws are changed, violating them without reason is asking for headache and expense.
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Xantippe
Guest
I have to wonder–if pot isn’t addictive, why is it that potheads can’t seem to live without it?
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jway86
Guest
Would you evict your son for making home brew? Growing a couple of cannabis plants is no different from making home brew except that cannabis is significantly less harmful and less addictive than alcohol.
The real issue here isn’t a health or moral issue but the fact that the government has chosen to make this plant illegal. That’s the issue you should be addressing.
It’s fundamentally unjust for the government to put your son in legal jeopardy for growing a plant that can help him consume less alcohol! Your son has taken steps to reduce his alcohol consumption and to reduce the harm that alcohol can cause cause him, it is now your duty to fight for his right to do so. Write to your legislators, join a marijuana law reform group, bring the issue up in public meetings. People should NOT be arrested for wanting to choose a far safer alternative to alcohol.
The real issue here isn’t a health or moral issue but the fact that the government has chosen to make this plant illegal. That’s the issue you should be addressing.
It’s fundamentally unjust for the government to put your son in legal jeopardy for growing a plant that can help him consume less alcohol! Your son has taken steps to reduce his alcohol consumption and to reduce the harm that alcohol can cause cause him, it is now your duty to fight for his right to do so. Write to your legislators, join a marijuana law reform group, bring the issue up in public meetings. People should NOT be arrested for wanting to choose a far safer alternative to alcohol.
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jway86
Guest
You just called the President of the United States of America an ignorant, mindless fool.
Alcohol causes liver disease, heart disease, brain damage, violence, cancer, and kills 80,000 people/year in the U.S. Marijuana, on the other hand, does none of these things.
We could prevent a lot of the harm that alcohol causes by giving people the right to choose marijuana instead of alcohol. And btw, marijuana is only about as addictive as coffee. A lot of alcoholics right now can only wish that they were “addicted” to marijuana instead of alcohol.
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Xantippe
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jway86 said:
“Would you evict your son for making home brew?”
I would, if the penalties for making home brew included confiscation of all family property and possible imprisonment for me as well as him, not to mention the horrific expense and disruption of mounting a legal defense.
The fact that people are willing to risk this kind of outcome for themselves and people they love demonstrates fairly clearly, I think, that pot addles their brains.
“You just called the President of the United States of America an ignorant, mindless fool.”
And your point would be?
“Alcohol causes liver disease, heart disease, brain damage, violence, cancer, and kills 80,000 people/year in the U.S. Marijuana, on the other hand, does none of these things.”
I was just looking at this recent news story: “A study in mice from the University of Maryland School of Medicine reveals that regular use of marijuana during adolescence could damage brain function, potentially increasing the risk for schizophrenia and other psychiatric problems.”
medicalnewstoday.com/articles/263936.php
If pot is harmless, why are the mental changes that regular pot use causes so obvious to non-users and so invisible to users?
“Would you evict your son for making home brew?”
I would, if the penalties for making home brew included confiscation of all family property and possible imprisonment for me as well as him, not to mention the horrific expense and disruption of mounting a legal defense.
The fact that people are willing to risk this kind of outcome for themselves and people they love demonstrates fairly clearly, I think, that pot addles their brains.
“You just called the President of the United States of America an ignorant, mindless fool.”
And your point would be?
“Alcohol causes liver disease, heart disease, brain damage, violence, cancer, and kills 80,000 people/year in the U.S. Marijuana, on the other hand, does none of these things.”
I was just looking at this recent news story: “A study in mice from the University of Maryland School of Medicine reveals that regular use of marijuana during adolescence could damage brain function, potentially increasing the risk for schizophrenia and other psychiatric problems.”
medicalnewstoday.com/articles/263936.php
If pot is harmless, why are the mental changes that regular pot use causes so obvious to non-users and so invisible to users?
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jway86
Guest
It’s funny you should say that because these mental changes aren’t apparent in our Commander in Chief. Are you sure that they’re something more than just imaginary?
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EasterJoy
Guest
Sorry, but I have had too many friends tell me that when they weren’t using pot, they got A’s, when they started using, they got C’s, and then when they quit again, they went back to getting A’s. This personal impression is backed up by studies of student grades as a function of marijuana use. Whatever else it does, marijuana is never going to do for productivity what coffee does. Based on the testimony of users, it seems to me to be one of the most reliable cures for ambition known. I can’t tell you how many bright people have written down their “revelations” while being stoned and later reported that the result was the biggest pile of circular garbage they’d ever read. IOW:* Pot use gives people the impression that they have a deeper understanding of complex questions, but it is entirely illusory*. Cognitive impairment is documented, and lasts longer than the cognitive impairment from alcohol use. I would certainly never hire anybody who was a regular pot user. Heaven forbid someone use pot and then drive a car.
The amount of tar and carbon monoxide inhaled when smoking marijuana is, depending on who measures it, as high or higher than with tobacco use. Long term marijuana use impairs lung function. Youth who use marijuana regularly are more likely to have engaged in violent behavior in the last year, not less, so marijuana’s reputation as a “mellowing” drug are not actually deserved.
My father used alcohol every day except Advent and Lent for decades, and neither I nor anyone else has ever seen him drunk. I do not know a single marijuana user who does not use pot with the specific goal of reaching cognitive impairment. As President Obama once put it, he inhaled because “that was the point.” That alone makes marijuana different than coffee and alcohol: that is, no one uses pot to enjoy the flavor, no one would ever throw marijuana into a recipe and then cook away the active ingredient because only the flavor was wanted. That is why I think that people who use pot are fooling themselves if they think they are a bit different than people who use alcohol only as a vehicle to get themselves to some target level of drunkenness.
Could there be people who might benefit from using the active ingredient in marijuana as a pain or nausea reliever? It’s possible. That’s a medical question on a topic of political importance, so getting a real answer would be difficult–and really outside scope of this thread, besides.
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EasterJoy
Guest
Are you saying that nobody in the US thinks Obama is going to work stoned?
(Sorry, I couldn’t resist that one…)
None of this has a thing to do with the OP’s problem. I think it is counter-productive to lock people up for pot use, but what difference does that make? Until marijuana is made legal, a landlord had better make sure he/she knows his responsibilities in the event he/she becomes aware that a tenant is growing marijuana on his/her rental property, just as they’d need to know the rules if they became aware that their tenant had a still or was cooking meth. Landlords don’t write the laws, but they are often responsible to law enforcement. The OP had better learn what his/her responsibilities are in the jurisdiction of the rental property in question. The fact that the tenant is a relative only makes this more important, not less.
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EasterJoy
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Yes, I’d evict a tenant for having an illegal distillery or fermenting operation, even if it were my son or daughter. I’d make them move out if they failed to get permission from the homeowner’s association before painting the house purple, or if the lease said they couldn’t have a pet and they tried to turn the house into an animal rescue operation.
Of course I would, and not because I hate puppies or homemade beer. (This makes me a hard-hearted evil landlord type person, I’m sure.) I also have no reason to believe that anyone chooses marijuana as an alternative to alcohol, either. That’s made-up nonsense…who ever does that? That’s like saying if you give people chocolate it will help them give up bacon. It doesn’t even make sense.
It’s like that famous John Lennon song, Imagine. Some people think it is the greatest song ever written, but it’s about as deep as the nudists who think humanity wasn’t violent or selfish before clothing was invented. Imagine all you like, but the concept of heaven and hell became apparent from the way people behave, and not the other way around.
*Imagine there is no heaven
It’s easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people
Living for today
Imagine there’s no countries
It isn’t hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion, too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace
You, you may say I’m a dreamer
But I’m not the only one
I hope someday you will join us
And the world will be as one
Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world…*
Call me a cynic, but if you inject even a drop of reality in your veins before you read those lyrics–everyone is living for today, but somehow there is no hunger? No killing or greed in sight, because there is no law enforcement?–you realize that they are just as “deep” as most thoughts that marijuana use produces.
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