By Phil Riske | Managing Editor
Let us know if you’re aware of someone during prohibition being sent to prison for taking one sip of whisky. The government finally came to its senses, and prohibition went down the drain of other idiotic, would-be moral laws.
The war on marijuana, thank goodness, is winding down as states are puffing out their own chests against federal positions on controlled substances and legalizing its use or,
at least, marginalizing penalties for use.
Meanwhile, along comes the case of James Kidd, an injured Gulf War veteran with no prior felony record. He was convicted of drug trafficking in a controlled substance in 2009 for selling a single pill and sentenced to 10 years in prison.
Give me a minute, I need to take an aspirin.
Kid’s sentence was probated on the condition he leave Kentucky for five years, but when came home to visit his ailing mother in 2012, a circuit judge revoked his probation and ordered him to serve the 10 years, the maximum permitted by law.
I need to take an ibuprofen.
The Kentucky Supreme Court is to arguments tomorrow on whether Kidd should have been sent to prison or whether Circuit Judge Thomas Jones should have imposed lesser sanctions, such as electronic monitoring.
— as spelled out in the state’s groundbreaking 2011 sentencing reform law designed to reduce incarceration and steer tax dollars into drug treatment.
I’ve taken a third pain med as I prepare to report the following:
Kentucky Assistant Attorney General James Shackelford says in a court brief for the hearing Kidd willingly violated the only special condition of his probation — stay out of Kentucky — even though he did to visit his sister who was dying of cancer.
With permission, Kidd earlier had come home to visit his dying mother.
I agree with one of Kidd’s lawyers, who said, “Kentucky is spending nearly a half-billion dollars on prisons per year. This is a perfect case for a graduated sanction as opposed to revocation and imprisonment.”
I hope I can get off these pills after the Kentucky Supreme Court rules on the case.
