Court Opinion

ID: 9484540
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 09:56:36.356336+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:50:18.519387
License: Public Domain

OAKES, Senior Circuit Judge,
concurring.
While I concur in the majority’s carefully reasoned opinion, I do so only because as a visiting judge in this circuit I consider myself bound by this court’s prior decisions. These include United States v. Taylor, 985 F.2d 3, 9 (1st Cir.1993) (equation of young marijuana plants to kilograms of marijuana rational) and United States v. McMahon, 935 F.2d 397, 401 (1st Cir.1991) (same). Were I sitting where I would be free to consider the question solely on its merits, I would conclude that the equation for sentencing purposes of three-inch marijuana plants with at best marginal root structures to kilograms of *603marijuana is arbitrary, irrational and a violation of due process.