6 ms·

Missouri Police Search for Marijuana in a Stage 4 Cancer Patient's Hospital Room

67 points by kyleblarson 8y ago

alexandernst 8y ago
I understand that there are laws, but come on, how fuck* retarded can you be to not allow a dying man smoke some marijuana? I mean, what could you possibly get from that situation by not allowing him to? It's not like he's doing harm to anybody.
- bjt2n3904 8y ago
  ... Hold on. Let's just. Smoking in a hospital?
  - alexandernst 8y ago
    I'm sure this thing would have happened in the exact same way even if the guy was in his home.
  - cm2012 8y ago
    It was in pill form.
    - bonestamp2 8y ago
      ... and he didn't even bring them in the hospital either. That said, hospitals are all about pain control and patient comfort so it should be acceptable for him to bring them in even though he didn't. Of course, the hospital can't bill his insurance for pain killers that he provides himself so they're not really about pain control and comfort, they're mostly about profit control.
- bch 8y ago
  > allow a dying man smoke some marijuana FTA: > Sousley tells them that all he has are pills containing THC
- jfk13 8y ago
  But whose right is it to decide when someone is exempt from the law? If people disagree with the law, they should campaign for it to be changed. (And indeed, a change is in the works in Missouri, apparently. But as of now, possession of marijuana is illegal.) A society where people feel they can pick and choose which laws to respect and which to ignore is a worrying proposition, IMO. The law as a whole may be far from perfect, but it's better than anarchy.
  - gumby 8y ago
    The legal system is not a set of axioms. Police need to prioritize what they enforce all the time. AlsopPart of the purpose of juries is to try to prevent miscarriage of justice. We are humans, not robots.
  - threatofrain 8y ago
    Any immigrant knows -- the law is never what people say. It's always what happens and what's happening, and that's true in every nation since civilization.
  - stallmanite 8y ago
    So you would have been morally justified to return escaped slaves back in the day? The moral thing to do would be to just focus on getting the law changed?
    - alexandernst 8y ago
      Not even sure how you got from "let a dying men take some marijuana" to "return slaves" ...
      - stallmanite 8y ago
        Seems really straightforward to me. You implied that following the law whilst attempting to change it is always the moral thing to do. I provided a simple counterexample. I’m not equating the degree of immorality.
  - 8y ago
alphabettsy 8y ago
The whole incident is shameful especially the hospital staff that called the police. We talk about police being brave and courageous, but I wish these officers had the courage to say this is wrong and I don’t want to be part of it.
- johnnyfaehell 8y ago
  Who talks about US police being brave? Normally I hear the oppisite.
  - johndevor 8y ago
    The right side of the political spectrum talks about them being brave all the time.
  - gumby 8y ago
    I’m pretty attuned to reports of police abuse/corruption/overreach BUT It’s a pretty crappy job: stop a car and you could be shot/run over; you tend to see people in extremis and encounter a lot of, well, let’s say “jerks”. Naturally it doesn’t encourage a lot of people to take the job. I have a friend who became a cop a few years ago and she has definitely become very very cynical which she had not been at all before. None of which defends this heartless search; I’m just providing a contextual response to your comment.
    - gotocake 8y ago
      On the other hand in 2018 144 out of 850,000 sworn officers were killed. Roofers, farmers, and groundskeepers have higher fatality rates and cause a lot less harm in their daily work. As for encountering jerks, try nursing, and again their daily routine doesn’t involve quite as much violation of the rights of others. The truth is that cops are far far more likely to kill someone than be killed by them.
      - gumby 8y ago
        I don't deny your conclusion (much less the facts). But it's a scary job typically around a bunch of scary people (it's not Andy Griffith). Also there's the psychological factor that (people tend to believe that) you'll fall off the roof through your own error, which you'll be smart enough to make, while when you walk up to the stopped car the person could pull out a gun unrelated to what you do beyond walking up to talk. The stress comes from belief, not statistics. I think the oppositional model and recent (last 30 years) glorification of militarism has caused grievous damage to the functioning of civil policing. Non of which excuses police abuse -- and in fact AFAICT encourages it.
jniedrauer 8y ago
Warning: Link is not HTTPS. Even if you manually change it, it downgrades. Kind of shocking that a website would downgrade connections in 2019.
- bonestamp2 8y ago
  Agreed, and the reason is probably equally as bad... I mean, it's probably because they use cross-domain requests for advertising and/or tracking and one of those isn't HTTP so they don't want warnings/errors from some requests not being HTTPS.
itchyjunk 8y ago
Maybe not consenting to it would be better. I understand he probably thought it was better to just let them search and get it over with. But forcing the cops to get a warrant would have been better, imho. Of course, I am not the one in hospital fighting for my life. On the other hand, the cops have to do their job. Till it's legalized, part of that job is to search for illegal substance. But maybe refusing a search would have made the choice easier for them as well. They decide not to pursue a warrant. I heard that it's `treaties` that USA has with other countries that complicates legalizing medical cannabis at federal level. I am not sure about all the reasons though.
- aaomidi 8y ago
  They had "reasonable doubt." He basically couldn't do anything about it or he'd be arrested.
  - Canada 8y ago
    I think you mean "probable cause"
- johnisgood 8y ago
  I hope it will become decriminalized/legal everywhere so people would not be able to justify this lack of decency with "they were mindlessly attempting to enforce stupid laws". Funny thing is that it was only a few months away from being legal. Sigh...
root_axis 8y ago
Well, he wasn't shot, assaulted, arrested or even issued a citation. You can't really ask for a better outcome.
xparco 8y ago
Such an uncivilized society
LyndsySimon 8y ago
I have no specific knowledge of this case, but I live about two hours south of where it occurred so I'm somewhat familiar with the culture of the area. It strikes me as highly likely - especially given the fact that there was one bag that was searched by a single officer alone in the room with the patient - that there was in fact marijuana in their possession, and that the officers overlooked it. If they're called by the hospital, they respond. Most of the police officers I know^† would be likely to judge a situation like this with compassion, not necessarily a black-and-white view of the law. Either refusing to search the room or acknowledging the existence of a controlled substance and refusing to act would put their career at risk; going through the motions of the search and "missing" it would give plausible deniability. †: I'm no fan of cops in general, and certainly no "police apologist". I'm an Ancap, and both distrustful and resentful of police. I'm also a human being, though, and judge others based on their individual actions. I know a number of officers, some of which I consider fairly close friends. I don't agree with their choices, but am intellectually honest enough to recognize that they do in fact have a large positive impact on the world around them, and do what they do out of a sense of honor and duty to their fellow Man.

67 points by kyleblarson 8y ago

I understand that there are laws, but come on, how fuck* retarded can you be to not allow a dying man smoke some marijuana? I mean, what could you possibly get from that situation by not allowing him to? It's not like he's doing harm to anybody.

bjt2n3904 8y ago
... Hold on. Let's just. Smoking in a hospital?
- alexandernst 8y ago
  I'm sure this thing would have happened in the exact same way even if the guy was in his home.
- cm2012 8y ago
  It was in pill form.
  - bonestamp2 8y ago
    ... and he didn't even bring them in the hospital either. That said, hospitals are all about pain control and patient comfort so it should be acceptable for him to bring them in even though he didn't. Of course, the hospital can't bill his insurance for pain killers that he provides himself so they're not really about pain control and comfort, they're mostly about profit control.
bch 8y ago
> allow a dying man smoke some marijuana FTA: > Sousley tells them that all he has are pills containing THC
jfk13 8y ago
But whose right is it to decide when someone is exempt from the law? If people disagree with the law, they should campaign for it to be changed. (And indeed, a change is in the works in Missouri, apparently. But as of now, possession of marijuana is illegal.) A society where people feel they can pick and choose which laws to respect and which to ignore is a worrying proposition, IMO. The law as a whole may be far from perfect, but it's better than anarchy.
- gumby 8y ago
  The legal system is not a set of axioms. Police need to prioritize what they enforce all the time. AlsopPart of the purpose of juries is to try to prevent miscarriage of justice. We are humans, not robots.
- threatofrain 8y ago
  Any immigrant knows -- the law is never what people say. It's always what happens and what's happening, and that's true in every nation since civilization.
- stallmanite 8y ago
  So you would have been morally justified to return escaped slaves back in the day? The moral thing to do would be to just focus on getting the law changed?
  - alexandernst 8y ago
    Not even sure how you got from "let a dying men take some marijuana" to "return slaves" ...
    - stallmanite 8y ago
      Seems really straightforward to me. You implied that following the law whilst attempting to change it is always the moral thing to do. I provided a simple counterexample. I’m not equating the degree of immorality.
- 8y ago

alphabettsy 8y ago

The whole incident is shameful especially the hospital staff that called the police. We talk about police being brave and courageous, but I wish these officers had the courage to say this is wrong and I don’t want to be part of it.

johnnyfaehell 8y ago
Who talks about US police being brave? Normally I hear the oppisite.
- johndevor 8y ago
  The right side of the political spectrum talks about them being brave all the time.
- gumby 8y ago
  I’m pretty attuned to reports of police abuse/corruption/overreach BUT It’s a pretty crappy job: stop a car and you could be shot/run over; you tend to see people in extremis and encounter a lot of, well, let’s say “jerks”. Naturally it doesn’t encourage a lot of people to take the job. I have a friend who became a cop a few years ago and she has definitely become very very cynical which she had not been at all before. None of which defends this heartless search; I’m just providing a contextual response to your comment.
  - gotocake 8y ago
    On the other hand in 2018 144 out of 850,000 sworn officers were killed. Roofers, farmers, and groundskeepers have higher fatality rates and cause a lot less harm in their daily work. As for encountering jerks, try nursing, and again their daily routine doesn’t involve quite as much violation of the rights of others. The truth is that cops are far far more likely to kill someone than be killed by them.
    - gumby 8y ago
      I don't deny your conclusion (much less the facts). But it's a scary job typically around a bunch of scary people (it's not Andy Griffith). Also there's the psychological factor that (people tend to believe that) you'll fall off the roof through your own error, which you'll be smart enough to make, while when you walk up to the stopped car the person could pull out a gun unrelated to what you do beyond walking up to talk. The stress comes from belief, not statistics. I think the oppositional model and recent (last 30 years) glorification of militarism has caused grievous damage to the functioning of civil policing. Non of which excuses police abuse -- and in fact AFAICT encourages it.

jniedrauer 8y ago

Warning: Link is not HTTPS. Even if you manually change it, it downgrades. Kind of shocking that a website would downgrade connections in 2019.

bonestamp2 8y ago
Agreed, and the reason is probably equally as bad... I mean, it's probably because they use cross-domain requests for advertising and/or tracking and one of those isn't HTTP so they don't want warnings/errors from some requests not being HTTPS.

itchyjunk 8y ago

Maybe not consenting to it would be better. I understand he probably thought it was better to just let them search and get it over with. But forcing the cops to get a warrant would have been better, imho. Of course, I am not the one in hospital fighting for my life. On the other hand, the cops have to do their job. Till it's legalized, part of that job is to search for illegal substance. But maybe refusing a search would have made the choice easier for them as well. They decide not to pursue a warrant. I heard that it's `treaties` that USA has with other countries that complicates legalizing medical cannabis at federal level. I am not sure about all the reasons though.

aaomidi 8y ago
They had "reasonable doubt." He basically couldn't do anything about it or he'd be arrested.
- Canada 8y ago
  I think you mean "probable cause"
johnisgood 8y ago
I hope it will become decriminalized/legal everywhere so people would not be able to justify this lack of decency with "they were mindlessly attempting to enforce stupid laws". Funny thing is that it was only a few months away from being legal. Sigh...

root_axis 8y ago

Well, he wasn't shot, assaulted, arrested or even issued a citation. You can't really ask for a better outcome.

xparco 8y ago

Such an uncivilized society

LyndsySimon 8y ago

I have no specific knowledge of this case, but I live about two hours south of where it occurred so I'm somewhat familiar with the culture of the area. It strikes me as highly likely - especially given the fact that there was one bag that was searched by a single officer alone in the room with the patient - that there was in fact marijuana in their possession, and that the officers overlooked it. If they're called by the hospital, they respond. Most of the police officers I know^† would be likely to judge a situation like this with compassion, not necessarily a black-and-white view of the law. Either refusing to search the room or acknowledging the existence of a controlled substance and refusing to act would put their career at risk; going through the motions of the search and "missing" it would give plausible deniability. †: I'm no fan of cops in general, and certainly no "police apologist". I'm an Ancap, and both distrustful and resentful of police. I'm also a human being, though, and judge others based on their individual actions. I know a number of officers, some of which I consider fairly close friends. I don't agree with their choices, but am intellectually honest enough to recognize that they do in fact have a large positive impact on the world around them, and do what they do out of a sense of honor and duty to their fellow Man.