In recent weeks we have been paying close attention to the story of Matt Qualls, a man from Alabama who was arrested in a police raid just 4 days after he made a statement to the local media about how the county sheriff was pocketing money from the food fund for the town’s jail.
Qualls was arrested at a friend’s house while they were making cannabis butter. The police say that a neighbor called in an anonymous tip, and the timing was merely a coincidence, but police also carried out searches at multiple other addresses that were connected to Qualls, which seems excessive in a case that would otherwise be trivial.
Even though there was just a small amount of cannabis found at the scene, the Etowah County Sheriff’s office wanted to charge him with trafficking, since the weight of the butter was over 2 pounds, even though most of that weight came from the butter, not the cannabis.
Phil Sims, deputy commander of the Etowah County Drug Enforcement Unit, told AL.com that the department was bringing additional charges against Qualls, and was considering the mound of butter to be 1,042 grams or just under 2.3 pounds of cannabis. “Once that marijuana was mixed with the butter then the whole butter becomes marijuana, and that’s what we weighed,” Sims said.
News of Qualls arrest spread fast, and quickly spread through Reddit and alternative news sites like The Mind Unleashed. When the story went viral, readers around the world began emailing and calling the sheriff’s office demanding the young man’s release. Just a few days later they dropped the most serious charges against him, and sentenced him to drug court, a more severe form of probation.
The trafficking charges, which were ultimately thrown out, carried a mandatory minimum sentence of three years in prison. Some people have even been given life sentences for marijuana trafficking in the state of Alabama. “Matthew Qualls was released from the Etowah County Detention Center on Friday. The Etowah County Sheriff’s Office does not have information concerning any court actions concerning Mr. Qualls. You will need to contact the Etowah County District Attorney’s Office or his attorney,”
Natalie Barton, a spokeswoman for the Etowah County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement. Qualls’ attorney, Sam Bone told AL.com that “If Mr. Qualls successfully completes the drug court program, his charges will be dismissed. In addition, if his charges are dismissed, he will be eligible to apply for an expungement of the entire criminal record of arrest and the criminal charges.”
There is still an ongoing lawsuit against dozens of Sheriffs throughout the state of Alabama, relating to the theft of funds from prison food budgets.
The Southern Center for Human Rights and the Alabama Appleseed Center for Law and Justice have been investigating this issue and were forced to file a lawsuit to gain access to the financial records of prisons and police departments throughout the state. The organizations sued 49 Alabama county sheriffs over their “refusal to produce public records showing whether, and if so by how much, they have personally profited from funds allocated for feeding people in their jails,” according to a statement they released last month.
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY:
My name is John Vibes and I am an author and researcher who organizes a number of large events including the Free Your Mind Conference. I write for numerous alternative media websites, including The Free Thought Project @tftproject and The Mind Unleashed. In addition to my first book, Alchemy of the Timeless Renaissance, I have also co-authored three books with Derrick Broze @dbroze : The Conscious Resistance: Reflections on Anarchy and Spirituality, Finding Freedom in an Age of Confusion and Manifesto of the Free Humans
I just won a 3-year-long battle with cancer, and will be working to help others through my experience, if you wish to contribute to my medical bills, consider subscribing to my podcast on Patreon.
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yes for independant journalism!
I'm quite concerned about law enforcement getting in car access to personal, social media information.
I can imagine all kinds of flagging and sorting stuff that could go down within certain jurisdictions. Singling out undesirables and under the color of law. Targeting of any arbitrary demographic. Sheriff Arpaio, I'm looking at you.
I would love to see us get a handle on law enforcement – federal, state, and local. And we have to before Big Corporate & the Oligarchs get the inside dope on Torch & Pitchfork Futures.
Some great news! Have a #jeffsesh for him ready!!!
Love the snarky use of that fascist's moniker on strains. Happy dabbing. ;-)
See that mason jar? It was full of sugar wax about two months ago 😳
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Nice information
Feliz noche amigo @johnvibes, excelente post muy interesante te felicito,exitos saludos
Enjoyed @johnvibes, this is just more of the same. The very idea of a government only breeds corruption as it allows those hungry for power to grow and expand their control over others
Nice
great post, although this is a predictable reaction from the authorities nowadays. It is a shame that this doesn't work in the uk. Apathy is killing the UK. We have a Child-abuse victim named Melanie Shaw who has been imprisoned on kidnapp charges for the last 2 years. It happened after she had accused high level politicians of abusing her and others at the infamous Beechwood carehome in Nottingham(My Town) Melanie is accused of stopping a male paramedic from leaving her house (Kidnap) They keep moving her all over the UK and often make changes to her name so she can't be traced. It really start to stink when the UK gov hold an "independant" inquiry about the abuse at Beechwood and 13 other homes in the midlands.
I'm posting all the live feeds to this inquiry but I do try to warn people that this is the mafia putting themselves on trial. Pantomime.
Rant over... Thanks for the interesting post and a peak into your life. Doth my cap to you mate.
I am resteeming this artical and will up vote anyone who does the same . It is amazing that we live in a world this corrupt here in the USA. Shame on the police 🚔!
If I owe some one an upvote please let me know. This is a cause worthy of telling people about.
World 🌎 of Dave
I like how his ears match his shirt.
Thanks @johnvibes for sharing this with us,it is just so worrisome how corruption has become the order of the day.Some people want to be influential without going through the right way,I think they need some orientation and be invited to steemit to see how young people work so hard using their creative minds aiming to become the real influential people in the world.
until drugs are legal we all risk being set up by the man if we speak out publicly against police corruption. They plant shit on their enemies and add volume with inert substances to increase charges on minor drug charges.
you are just a nice writter. Have some information and good story. like your post. Happy steeming.
Remind me to stay away from Alabama. My god, that's a ridiculous minimum sentence for nothing more than a plant that grows out of the ground. Although, its nice to here they dropped the more serious charges.
Though, there's better places to live where they wont throw the book at you over stupid things like pot. I grew up in California, and pot possession was often met with a small fine, even for trafficking.
Things like Marijuana have always been considered an acceptable thing there, and many law enforcement agencies often would refuse to arrest people for it.
Respect for the Rule of Law across America is at all-time lows. That is why I added the Action Step #3 - GET FAMILY, FRIENDS, AND THOSE YOU KNOW WHO HAVE TAKEN AN OATH TO DEFEND THE CONSTITUTION TO ACTUALLY ENFORCE IT in Part 5 of my Restoring the Lost Republic series.
I strongly believe that this issue is at the core of the nation's ills, along with a rotten central banking system of course.
Thank you for sharing!
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Thank you very much for useful contribution
Someone once said that the most grievous of thing in this world is to watch evil permeates in every facets of our society and the righteous ones are kept watching. Thumbs up to all the "righteous" ones that made justice to be served in this case.
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hi
Government accountability needs to be the new theme of the US as trust in our institutions is falling to extremely dangerous lows. Most law enforcement personnel are good people... but they tolerate the bad ones and look the other way when illegal activity takes place. The bad ones need to be punished to the fullest extent of the law on a grand stage to signal a change in culture.
Your post had been curated by the @buildawhale & @upmyvote team and mentioned here:
https://steemit.com/curation/@buildawhale/buildawhale-curation-digest-03-15-18
Keep up the good work and original content, everyone appreciates it!