Court Opinion

ID: 9570972
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 20:27:58.208662+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:25:17.128916
License: Public Domain

Bronson, J.
(concurring). The facts of the instant case can be briefly stated. On July 25, 1969, the defendant, John Sinclair, was found guilty by jury verdict of having illegally possessed two marijuana cigarettes in violation of MCLA § 335.153 (Stat Ann 1957 Rev § 18.1123). On July 28, 1969, Sinclair was sentenced by the trial judge to serve a term of 9-1/2 to 10 years in prison — a minimum term 95% of the statutory maximum.
Testimony adduced at trial established that the alleged offense occurred on December 22,1966, inside Sinclair’s residence. Two undercover police agents to whom Sinclair is alleged to have given, free of charge, the two marijuana cigarettes, after their frequent requests, had disguised their appearances and infiltrated the Wayne State University and Artists’ Workshop area. This infiltration began on October 18, 1966, and lasted through January 24, 1967. During this time period, the two police agents *485ingratiated themselves with Sinclair and others at the workshop by doing typing, sweeping the floors, helping put together and collate publications, and bringing food to Sunday communal dinners.
In addition to being charged with illegal possession, Sinclair was also originally charged with making an illegal sale of marijuana. The sale count was dismissed by the trial judge after he found that the conduct of the undercover police officers constituted an illegal entrapment.
John Sinclair is the avowed leader of an acknowledged radical political party. Sinclair’s lawyer argues that this Court would have to be naive if we were to believe that Sinclair was arrested and tried simply because he possessed two marijuana cigarettes. He argues that Sinclair’s past activities, unpopular beliefs, long hair, habitual vulgar language, and bizarre life style are the real reasons which led to his incarceration.
If several of the issues presented in this case were matters of first impression, I would dissent from the opinion of the majority. However, since I am bound by the decisions of our state Supreme Court, I must concur.
I recognize that a sentence within the statutory limits is like a Brahmin — untouchable by appellate courts. People v. Jones (1968), 11 Mich App 703. I lack the power to alter this sentence and the period of incarceration.
I write separately to speak about the present state of the law which makes possession of marijuana, regardless of quantity, a felony punishable by incarceration for a maximum period of 10 years imprisonment.1
*486Medical authorities are not in agreement on the long-term effects, if any, of the nse of marijuana on the human body. However, it is generally accepted that marijuana is not addictive as an opiate.2 Whatever the effect may be, as may be shown by future medical studies, it is now clear that the adverse effects of marijuana are not as disruptive as is thought by those who share the view that has thus far prevailed in the legislature.
The estimate of the number of people who have tried marijuana at least once numbers in the millions and touches all ages and social groupings.3 Such widespread disrespect for the law will quickly foster its own progeny. The present statute which extracts such severe punishment nurtures hostility between *487the police agencies and the citizenry. The problem is particularly acute with the youth of our state who are further alienated by what they perceive to be a hypocritical and arbitrary law.
If the “stepping stone” theory has been medically discredited, it is still legally viable inasmuch as one who transgresses the marijuana statute may go on to violate other and more serious laws.4 Law and order will prevail only so long as the public has respect for that concept and only so long as there is a rational relationship between the conduct forbidden and the alleged evil to be curbed. The era of prohibition has apparently taught us nothing about the society in which we live. As one writer cogently observed:
“In part because marijuana-users — unlike cheaters — do not rationalize their use of the drug as an aberrant event unrelated to their total personality, it becomes especially unhealthy for their society to declare them serious criminals. It is obvious that when any society criminalizes such a large percentage of its young people, it raises very serious social problems. We do not know whether those who violate such serious criminal laws will thereby become more likely to violate others. It may or may not be true that the second crime comes easier — though it is perhaps no coincidence that the Prohibition era and the present are two of the most lawless periods of our history. It is hard to see, however, how a realization that one has committed what is officially a very serious crime can fail to engender at least a somewhat more generalized lack of respect for both the law and the society that has so defined his action.”5
*488Today crime is society’s omnipresent malignancy. Almost all classifications of criminal activity increase annually.6 Our police are seriously overworked; prosecutors are too few; court dockets too crowded. Regardless of the highly commendable and vigorous action on the part of law enforcement officers, the battle is being lost. To me, it is incomprehensible why marijuana penalties are not reduced in order to free police manpower for law enforcement activities which will better control and curtail crimes of violence. Police officers should be utilized more effectively in stemming more acute criminal manifestations such as rapes, murders, robberies, muggings, extortions, thefts, and assaults. During these times of rising crime and limited law enforcement personnel, we can no longer afford the luxury of predicating our priorities upon marijuana laws which injure no innocent party, do no damage to property, and apparently do not denigrate the users themselves.
A law, bottomed on questionable medical evidence, violated with impunity by a large and growing segment of our population, permits only enforcement so selective that but a handful of the violators become known, apprehended, charged, tried and convicted, and only an infinitesimal percentage incarcerated, let alone for a minimum term of nine and one-half years.
I do not understand the psychic pyrotechnics of John Sinclair’s philosophy. Like many parents, I am uncomfortable with the thought that he may be an influence on our children. But one thing I do understand, as a citizen, a lawyer, and a judge, is *489that it is had business to imprison an individual so that his ideas cannot vigorously compete with those of others in the marketplace of men’s minds. Can it be that Howard Mumford Jones was pungently correct when he observed: “Persecution is the first law of society because it is always easier to suppress criticism than to meet it”.7
The courts of this state should not permit any citizen’s rights to be abridged by highly selective enforcement of a law commonly violated in order to curb unrelated activities. Such selective enforcement encourages unsavory enforcement techniques such as were manifested in the instant case, and which resulted in the trial court’s dimissal of the sale count against Sinclair. Such techniques are an affront to a system of government predicated upon the concept of equal justice.
I must, additionally, express my amazement that conduct engaged in by so many citizens still invokes such severe statutory criminal sanctions. A few years ago, in my position as Prosecuting Attorney for Oakland County, I appeared before a state legislative committee whose purpose was legislative reform. The topic under discussion was the escalation of drug abuse in our state. My views then, as now, were formulated upon my experience as a prosecutor and one who early recognized the myriad problems of growing drug abuse. At that time I urged that a more sound and realistic approach be taken to the problem. I renew that plea today.
I urge the legislative body to reconsider the present law which imposes such severe sanctions for activity which is indulged in by a growing percentage of our population. A new marijuana perspective is necessary. The time has come for responsible action *490to reform the present statute which has such a destructive effect upon our citizenry. I would hope that the legislature would re-evaluate the present law, the current medical data, and the objective which that body is attempting to attain. The guiding principle for reform should be one of making the punishment fit the crime. Coke said that “reason is the life of the law”. If this is so, then to me reason mandates reform of our marijuana statutes.
The law is not an end in itself but a means to an end. The end is a just and peaceful society. The law should serve man in society.

 The 10-year maximum sentence is applicable to the first offense only. A second offense is punishable by a maximum 20-year prison term, and subsequent convictions are subject to a 40-year maximum sentence. MCLA § 335.153 (Stat Ann 1957 Rev § 18.1123).

 For those acutely interested in the problem of the proper medical classification of marijuana, attention is directed to the recent hearings in the case of the People v. Eric Lorentzen, Oakland County Circuit Court Number CR 70-6119, held July 13-17, 1970. See, Task Force Report: Narcotics and Drug Abuse, Ch 8, pp 211-231 (U. S. Government Printing Office, 1967). Also see, generally, John Kaplan, Marijuana—The New Prohibition, Chapter III (The World Publishing Co., 1970) (hereinafter cited as “Kaplan”); Richard J. Bonnie and Charles H. Whitebread, II, “The Forbidden Fruit and the Tree of Knowledge: An Inquiry into the Legal History of American Marijuana Prohibition”, 56 Virginia L Rev 971 (1970) (hereinafter cited as “Bonnie and Whitebread”); Edward R. Bloomquist “Marijuana: Social Benefit or Social Detriment”, 106 California Medicine 346-352 (May, 1967); H.B.M. Murphy, “The Cannabis Habit: A Review of Recent Psychiatric Literature”, United Nations Bulletin on Narcotics, Vol. XV, 1963, pp 15-23; J. D. Reichard, “Some Myths About Marijuana”, 10 Fed Probation, Oct-Dec 1946, pp 15-23; Walter Bromberg, “Marijuana: A Psychiatric Study”, 113 Jour AMA 4 (1939).

 Kaplan, supra, fn 2, p 23; Statement of Stanley F. Yolles, Jr., before the Subcommittee to Investigate Juvenile Delinquency of the Committee in the Judiciary, U. S. Senate, on Control of Drug Abuse, September 17, 1969, p 3. A relatively recent study performed at Stanford University revealed that 69% of the student body had, at one time or another, used marijuana. Emily Garfield and Michael Boreing, “Marijuana Use on a Campus” (1969). Kaplan, supra, fn 6, p 23. “It is probably a conservative guess that one-third of the population of California between the ages of 16 and 29 has committed the serious crime of using marijuana and the figure seems to be rising yearly; and while in other areas the absolute number does not match that of California, the rate of increase is of similar magnitude.” Kaplan, supra, fn 24, pp 25, 26.

 Herbert L. Packer, The Limits of the Criminal Sanation 340-341 (Stanford University Press, 1968).

 Kaplan, supra, p 33.

 See, Crime m the United States — Uniform. Crime Reports—1969 (United States Government Printing Office). However, intellectual honesty mandates that these statistics be viewed with jaundiced eye. See, e.g., Sophia M. Robison, “A Critical View of the Uniform Crime Reports”, 64 Mich L Rev 1031 (1966).

 Howard Mumford Jones, Primer of Intellectual Freedom, Introduction, p xiv (Harvard University Press, 1949).