55 years in prison for selling marijuana, murderers serve less time than that Options

[illumineering]

The article quoted is obviously biased and dishonest when emphasizes at the beginning that he had no criminal record. The writer tries to point out immediately that it is unjust. However, I infer that he was convicted of 3 counts of the crime and two of those counts involved firearms. The subtitle of this thread is "murderers serve less time than that". Well a triple murderer would definately serve more time than that, and there's no way (if he's the upstanding citizen almost everyone here believes he is) he's going to do the whole 55 years.

MR#1 Selling drugs doesn't hurt anyone.
Now why did he have the gun? To bless someone? Do the math.

MR#2 Other crimes have softer penalties.
So they should have harsher penalties. If paroled murderers murder more they shouldn't have been paroled in the first place. Just because you advocate drug use/distribution/etc doesn't mean that this is too harsh a penalty.

PS Justin, I don't think I earned that $10, but I'm pretty sure your argument is shot now.

Why is the article biased? The lack of a prior conviction/criminal record was a fact brought out during the trial.

My question is whether the length of the sentence is appropriate for the crime. Relative to sentencing guidelines for other crimes, yes, I do believe the amount of time is unjust.

No one is debating the criminal nature of illegal drug sales. The debate is over the length of the sentence. Read the my posts. No math is necessary. No one is advocating anything you are suggesting. You are grossly exaggerating the intent of the thread. You're right about not earning the $10.00. You didn't dismantle any argument.

[SideStraddleHop]

Why does anyone have a gun? Well, for at least a couple legitimate reasons:

1. Self-defense
   
2. Sport

If we start making assumptions as to why a person has a gun, and thus punish him for that, where does it end? Do we punish anyone who has a gun because we assume he might be using a weapon for an illegitimate reason? No, we only punish people who actually use a weapon for an illegitimate purpose.

I agree with an individual right to keep and bear arms, but illegally carrying (not just brandishing or firing) a weapon during the commission of another crime should make the penalties stiffer. We are not "assuming" he was using the weapon for "illegitimate purposes". He was in possession of a firearm(you cannot reasonably believe he spent the time and money required for a concealed carry permit) in the course of commiting a crime.