Dothan man gets 20 years for trafficking marijuana
Circuit Court Judge Ed Jackson handed down a 20-year sentence Tuesday for a Dothan man who pleaded guilty to trafficking marijuana.
Dothan police investigators arrested Alexander Leroy, 31, of Cherry Hill Road, on July 2, 2007, and charged him with felony trafficking marijuana. Leroy was released from the Houston County Jail the next day after he posted a $50,000 bond.
Leroy pleaded guilty to the charge on May 13, 2009. He faced 10 to 99 years or life in prison for the class A felony.
“A large amount of drugs like that ... it doesn’t send a good message to the community,” Jackson said at the end of the hearing. “That’s a large amount.”
Assistant District Attorney Arthur Medley asked Rashada Leroy, Alexander Leroy’s sister, if she knew about the more than 1,200 grams of marijuana involved in the case.
Rashada Leroy said she didn’t know anything about the drugs or the evidence in the case.
“I think he’s regretful,” she said. “I think everybody deserves a second chance. I think he needs to take responsibility for his actions, but I don’t think he needs to go to jail.”
According to court records, Alexander Leroy was represented by John Peacock and Emory Mauldin, who had three witnesses testify for the defense.
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Reader Reactions
I totally agree with the first comment…they pretty much took the words right out of my mouth on allot of what they said… You mean to tell me that the laws are so screwed up in this country that a person can get 20 years for pot, but the cocaine dealer basically gets a slap on the wrist for a kilo!! seriously?... Cocaine is waaay more deadly than pot, anyone with common sense would know that, and if the so called law makers can’t see, that then, we obviously have an even bigger problem. Not that I condone the sale of illegal drugs, I don’t feel sorry for the man who got more time he made his choice & now has to deal with the consequences. It just seems to me like the law is making it look like drug dealers would be better off selling cocaine, it’ll get you less time I guess….that’s America for you huh.
Two things bother me about this story. First, the reporter’s 5th and 6th paragraphs seem ok, when read separately. But when read concurrently, they make no sense.
Second, and far more importantly, how is it that this guy got 20 years for dealing pot when another guy, who is featured in a similar article, got only 12 years for trying to sell over a pound of cocaine? I would like someone to explain how pot became more of a menace to our society than cocaine? It seems that, yet again, we are faced with a legal system which just can’t seem to get it right. There is no way you can say that selling pot is a more serious offense that selling cocaine. Pot does not kill people. People don’t usually rob, and often kill, over pot. Cocaine has always been, and will always be, a more dangerous drug that causes far more damage to bodies, families, and communities.
Furthermore, when are we going to wake up and realize this method of dissuading drug use isn’t ever going to work? These guys will be in prison this time next month, and I’ll guarantee that before they get their shower shoes someone will have already taken over in supplying their customers. That’s because as long as there are people who want to take put such substances into their bodies, we will have people who will do whatever it takes to supply it for them. There has to be some common sense applied to this issue.
Why don’t we have a serious debate in this country about this? Prohibition has never worked in this country. It made the mob more powerful when we tried to prohibit alcohol, and now we have helped create a narco-state on our southern border by trying to prohibit drug use. How much success have we had at this anyway? How many child molesters, rapists, and murderers have gotten an early release from prison to make room for guys like these?
Wake up America, you can’t force people to live the way you do in every respect. You can’t make everyone Christian, you can’t make them vote all the same, and you can’t force someone to go through this world without any vices.
What happened to personal freedoms and personal responsibility? Do those terms only apply when we are talking about growing tax burdens and “entitlement” programs?
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