Drugs are bad

So, this summer I am interning with a judge on the Loudoun County Circuit Court of Virginia. Yesterday I visited the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia - and man was it different. The building and courtrooms were much more imposing - and I saw several sentencing.

The thing that really hit home was seeing people sent off for 87 and 124 months on drug charges, with their families sitting in court crying, watching them get hauled off. What hit me were the stringent drug laws, which are totally backwards for the most part. Why should people arrested for simple possession - no intent to distribute - be sent to jail for ten years? That is not the way I want my tax money spent. But seeing these people - they were in deep. They earned being arrested, and they earned incarceration.

It's crazy to think that the same thing they are spending ten years in jail for, tons of people do all the time on a "recreational" basis. It's playing with fire. Everyone that does drugs is doing the same thing that these guys do - but they are going to jail for 124 months.

I don't want to go to jail.

But if you do drugs, be informed.