Possession Of Bong Water Could Get Minnesota Woman 30 Years In Prison
The marijuana's legal ... the bong water is another story.
There are a lot of problems with our criminal justice system in this country. One of those problems, at the root of so many others, is that no one with any power ever seems to take the time to ask Does this make any goddamn sense?
Case in point! Jessica Beske is currently facing up to 30 years in prison … for possession of bong water in Minnesota. Bong water. Like, the actual water from a bong. Not marijuana, not methamphetamine, not any actual controlled substance, bong water. Thirty years, in prison, for bong water.
Marijuana, by the way, is entirely legal in Minnesota. Also, as of last year, drug paraphernalia, even drug paraphernalia with drug residue in it, is legal in Minnesota. Apparently it’s just the bong water, in particular, that is a problem.
Here’s what happened, as per the Minnesota Reformer:
On May 8, the 43-year-old Fargo resident was pulled over for speeding on Highway 59 in Polk County, Minnesota, according to charging documents. Deputies smelled marijuana and searched the car, where they allege they found a bong, a glass jar containing a “crystal substance” and some items of paraphernalia, including pipes.
The residue on the paraphernalia tested positive for methamphetamine, as did the water in the bong and the substance in the glass jar. Deputies further reported that the bong water weighed 8 ounces and, somewhat confusingly, that the crystal substance weighed 13.2 grams “in total with the packaging.”
But 13 grams is a considerable amount of meth, you are saying, because you were not aware until this sentence that the 13.2 grams was almost entirely the glass jar in which the meth was held, the meth residue being so small as to be unmeasurable.
So, basically, there were not enough actual drugs to charge Beske with anything serious, so the cops charged her with the weight of the bong water and the glass jar as if they were all made of straight crystal meth. This takes Beske from the threshold for personal use, which carries a much lower sentence, to the threshold for “distribution,” a felony that could lead to those 30 years in prison and a $1,000,000 fine.
Authorities also seized Beske’s car and $2,400 in cash that she had won at the casino (and for which she had shown the deputies the receipt), permanently, thanks to another state law that allows the police to take and keep any vehicle involved in “intended for distribution or sale” — which, by the way, is a whole ass scam in and of itself.
Would you like to know why this is? It is because, in 2009, a Minnesota State Trooper told the state supreme court that users sometimes save bong water “for future use … either drinking it or shooting it in the veins.”
The court decided 4-3 in favor of categorizing bong water as a “mixture” — defined as a “a preparation, compound, mixture, or substance containing a controlled substance, regardless of purity.” Regardless of purity? Like, what is this? Homeopathy?
Now, this sounds bizarre to me, but I have next-to-no knowledge about meth, so I looked it up and this, according to some meth users on Quora, is actually a thing people do sometimes. Though not often and it’s not exactly recommended.
That being said, we are talking about distribution here. In the history of the world, has anyone ever stood on a street corner selling meth bong water? Again, not a meth expert here, but that seems unwieldy at best. If you’re going to charge someone with “distribution” levels of meth, then you should be able to prove that anyone, in the history of the world, has distributed it in that matter.
The other reason this has happened is because the prosecuting attorney is a complete jackass.
Scott Buhler, the assistant county attorney prosecuting Beske’s case, said, “I will not comment on any pending cases. The criminal complaint filed in Ms. Beske’s case speaks for itself.” He added that his office “simply enforces the laws of this state as written.”
Buhler gained statewide attention in 2014 when the Star Tribune reported he was one of the few attorneys in the state charging people for violating an archaic law requiring them to pay taxes on illicit drugs.
“I simply charge it a lot because it leaves all options available regarding plea bargaining and sentencing,” he said at the time. Lawmakers tried, but ultimately failed, to repeal that tax during this legislative session.
That philosophy may explain why he’s throwing the book at Beske. In addition to first-degree possession, he charged her with a violation of the illicit drug tax law, which carries the potential for seven years in prison and a $14,000 fine. She was also charged with refusing a drug test at the time of her arrest.
So now we’re going to keep a woman in prison for, ostensibly, 37 years because of an empty bong in her car and a glass with an unmeasurably small amount of meth in it. Sure! Seems very reasonable. That’s almost the rest of her life. Is that how little this guy thinks of human life? If so, that’s pretty sick.
There’s an old saying: Just because you can do something doesn’t mean you should.
Beske admits that she has a drug problem, which she said started while she was trying to leave an abusive ex.
“The only thing I’m guilty of is using substances to lessen my mental suffering caused by a sick and abusive predator,” she told the Minnesota Reformer. “Addicts—women especially—are made to feel like public enemy number one, when in fact most of us have been victims of serious crime that will never be prosecuted.”
On the semi-bright-side, in the only other instance I can find of someone in Minnesota being arrested on this charge, the case ended up getting tossed … though this was after he served seven months in prison.
Sending Beske to prison for 37 years is not going to help her, it’s not going to make the world a better place, it’s not going to discourage anyone from doing meth or selling bottles of bong water on the street. It will also likely cost a hell of a lot more than sending her to rehab will.
One of these options is a reasonable option that will potentially save a life, the other is not just a stupid one, but a cruel and unusual one that could take away almost the whole rest of a woman’s life. Can’t we please, for the love of God, be less stupid?
PREVIOUSLY:
Police seem fairly miffed about recent changes in drug laws. It used to be so easy to make arrests based on drug charges. Also quite easy to drop some marijuana on the floor to help things along a bit. For decades, traffic enforcement based law enforcement was the basis of much of policing. Stop people for anything and everything car related from tail-lights to not signaling a turn within the required distance. Then search in the hope of finding drugs. So much easier than hunting down burglars or investigating actual crimes. I think they're at a loss for how to do their jobs now.
This is an absolute travesty. Put this poor woman in court-appointed rehab, give her the money and car back, and consider it a win for society.
And, it goes without saying, but if we're prosecuting on bong water then my living room carpet is in sooooo much trouble.