Looking at the sentence - 26 years in the big house - you’d think Lawrence County, Alabama, police had nabbed Osama. It would take a mind working on a very different level to consider the sentence being for four sales of pot to an undercover narc at an area high school. Total street value: $350 (U.S.).

Prosecutors on the case of 19-year-old Webster Alexander said they wanted to make an impression on the other students. “Certainly, it makes a point,” said Lawrence County D.A. Ed Osborn. “A very big point.”

The point made is seen a bit differently by the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws. NORML is a bit confused as to how the courts can justify locking a guy up for a quarter-century on his first offence, and at an upcoming hearing will help Alexander argue that the sentence is “over-punitive, too expensive to the tax-payer and of no deterrent value.” :

» Scott Saxon