North Dakota Lady Charged with First-Level Legal Ownership for Bong Water

40-three-year-old Jessica Beske from Fargo, North Dakota was once pulled over through native police whilst touring via Minnesota. Now she faces jail time for possessing bong water and different hashish paraphernalia.

In line with a document from the Minnesota Informer, Beske was once pulled over for dashing on Might 8. When officials approached her automobile, they smelled hashish and searched her automobile. Whilst they didn’t to find any hashish merchandise, they did discover a bong (with bong water), in addition to a pitcher jar with a “crystal substance” within, and an undefined collection of pipes.

A residue take a look at published that the bong water, the paraphernalia, and the glass jar all contained strains of methamphetamine. Moreover, the bong weighted 8 oz., however the jar allegedly weighed 13.2 oz. “in general with the packaging.” In line with Beske, the jar was once the “packaging” and there wasn’t sufficient of what was once within for regulation enforcement to weigh by itself, so it needed to be weighed along side the jar. She additionally claims that she had no medication on her on the time of the incident.

On the other hand, Beske has now been charged with first-degree criminal ownership in particular as a result of the bong water. State regulation equates 8 oz. of bong water with 8 oz. of methamphetamine. 

Minnesota-based drug reform activist, Kurtis Hanna, informed the Minnesota Informer that prosecuting Beske is an abuse of the regulation’s intent. “The legislative intent in the back of the weight-based thresholds is to approximate whether or not an individual is an finish consumer or a broker,” Hanna stated. “The truth that some county prosecutors are subverting that transparent intent and are charging finish customers as regardless that they’re wholesalers, ruining their lives within the procedure, is shameful.”

Legislation enforcement additionally proceeded to take hold of her automobile, and $2,400 in money (which was once verified as on line casino winnings from the evening prior to the incident). State regulation permits police to completely forfeit any cars used to move medication which can be “meant for distribution or sale,” in addition to the money which police declare are “the proceeds of a managed substance offense.”

In an interview, Beske defined her frustration on the state of affairs. “It’s in opposition to not unusual sense. It’s in opposition to everyone’s not unusual sense,” she stated.

In Might 2023, Gov. Tim Walz signed a invoice into regulation that decriminalized drug paraphernalia, which in particular states that the regulation applies even though there’s leftover drug residue provide.

The end result of a 2009 Excellent Court docket case, State vs. Peck, dominated that water in a pipe may well be regarded as a “drug combination.” A sworn statement from a Minnesota State Patrol officer said that bong water may also be stored “for long term use…both consuming it or capturing it within the veins.” Out of a complete of 7 courtroom justices, best 3 argued in opposition to the incorrect information relating to bong water. “Treating bong water as a mix in a position to maintaining a first-degree criminal controlled-substance price does now not meet the needs, goals, or goals of the legislature when it established the weight-based gadget. Bong water isn’t advertised or bought through sellers, huge or small, neither is it bought through customers. It isn’t even ordinarily ate up,” the justices wrote. “Bong water is most often discarded when the smoker is done with intake of the smoke filtered during the bong water. An individual isn’t extra unhealthy, or more likely to wreak extra havoc, in response to the volume of bong water that individual possesses.”

In 2010, legislators within the Senate and Space handed a invoice to make bong water from the definition of a “combination” if it contained lower than 4 oz.. On the other hand, former Gov. Tim Pawlenty vetoed the invoice, claiming that he did so on behalf of regulation enforcement. Every other invoice was once offered in 2011, which in the end resulted in the overall four-ounce rule when it was once signed through former Gov. Mark Dayton. Hanna commented at the passage of that regulation, which stays present these days. “There doesn’t appear to be any excellent reason 4 oz. is fine, however 5 isn’t,” Hanna stated.

Minnesota Informer bought a commentary from assistant county lawyer Scott Buhler about the latest fees in opposition to Beske. “I can now not touch upon any pending circumstances. The felony grievance filed in Ms. Beske’s case speaks for itself,” he stated, and concluded that the crew “merely enforces the regulations of this state as written.”

Buhler was once additionally accountable for forcing folks to pay taxes on unlawful medication in 2014. “I merely price it so much as it leaves all choices to be had relating to plea bargaining and sentencing,” Buhler stated 10 years in the past. Beske’s fees come with a first-degree criminal ownership, which may end up in a $1 million advantageous and as much as 30 years in jail. Moreover, she could also be being charged with violating that exact same unlawful drug tax regulation, which may end up in a $14,000 advantageous and as much as seven years in jail, and a price for refusing a drug take a look at when she was once arrested.

Those fees are pointless when taking into consideration that legislators agree that over criminalizing medication hasn’t ever been really useful. A document referred to as the “Drug Coverage State of the Proof,” which was once revealed in February 2024, which explored clinical proof on present drug coverage in Minnesota. “Arresting folks for drug use does now not deter long term use, crime recidivism, arrest, or incarceration,” the document authors said. “Whilst the principle intent of imprisoning folks is deterrence, there is not any proof that it’s efficient. Research display that imprisonment does now not have an effect on charges of drug use or arrest. Significantly, on the other hand, unlock from jail is undoubtedly related to heightened overdose possibility.”

Beske stated in a commentary that she suffers from substance abuse issues that stemmed from an abusive ex. “The one factor I’m to blame of is the usage of elements to reduce my psychological struggling led to through a ill and abusive predator,” stated Beske. “Addicts—girls particularly—are made to really feel like public enemy primary, when actually maximum people had been sufferers of significant crime that can by no means be prosecuted.”

She added that he she had been to be sentenced to 30 years in jail, it will make her lifestyles worse and pressure her again into drug abuse. “That’s why folks use medication most commonly, is to manage,” Beske stated.