USA - Salvia Divinorum Prosecution:Bismarck, north Dakota (Kenneth Rau)

[Kenneth Rau]

My name is Kenneth Rau, defendant in apparently the first Salvia Divinorum prosecution. I am seeking assistance of any kind. I am in need of legal assistance and knowledgeable witnesses. I am soon be posting videos and posting the links on my yahoo profile, warondivinesage

It will take me a few days so be patient.

I have attached the legislative history of this disgraceful legislation to illustrate the intellectual laziness of these legislators and the arbitrary and capricious nature of the legislation. The only rationale for the prohibition is that "We want to stop this before it becomes a big fad and someone will hurt." What better way to keep someone from getting hurtthan sending them to prison for 20 years.

The North Dakota legislative History contained three web pages which in no way support what they did:

http://sagewisdom.org/usersguide.html

http://www.erowid.org/plants/salvia/salvia_law.shtml

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salvia_divinorum (this article has been edited from the copy included in the legislative history)

The letter at the end is not part of the legislative history but from a great Senator here in North Dakota and an all around great person. Just another piece of evidence contradicting the scheduling Salvia Divinorum on Schedule as a substance having no medical use.

[Alfa]

Hi Kenneth Rau,

Could you please give us as much details as possible about your case?
Any documents would be welcome.

Kenneth Rau Facing Years in Prison for Salvia Divinorum Possession(North Dakota)

[Panthers007]

Kenneth:

Please speak to your attorney before posting anything relating to your case. It might be a good idea to keep your mouth tightly shut. Or maybe not. You are posting in an international media source. So please proceed with extreme caution. Send your attorney the URL to this site and have her/him review same.

A Friend.

URL: http://www.drugs-forum.com/forum/index.php

[AKDirtyHeaven]

you know if you ask me the fact that youve got to live in North Dakotas punishment enough! Kidding of course but come on isnt salvia not any kind of threat? I thought the main thing was to focus on drugs that are an actual problem like say crank?? I mean dont even tell me that its not a problem in North Dakota. Sounds like they are picking on you because you are in a minority and I am glad you are speaking out. No reason you should get pushed around. I think even most cops would be mad over this because the prisons are to crammed as it is and they got to let real violent criminals walk the streets so they can get you a bed to lay on. Totally sick

[RaverHippie]

Wow, the legislative history was appalling to read. That they would ban something off rumors and hearsay and wikipedia articles, never looking at user testimony or even wondering about subjective accounts.

I wish that was grounds enough to repeal the act, that it was founded on poor decision making...

[Lobsang]

What really upsets me in this is that we know there are products on the market right now that are very dangerous and the DEA or the FDA will not touch them. Like Red Dawn. But then they go and prosecute a person for something as trivial amd safe as salvia. You know the person who basically helped Native American Church members from prosecution for peyote was Andy Weil MD. Maybe Dr Weil could be helpful in theis case. At least to disabuse the court of the notion that the substance is dangerous and to show that you were using it for mind expansion and not as a drug dealer..

[Panthers007]

Mind-expansion? North Dakota? Now, Lob, try to say them in the same sentence relating to one another. North Dakota is Hicksville. Makes Muskogee look like a bastion of socialism. I've been there (both) and it's appallingly boring and uptight. Regards it being punishment to live there - the people who do, willingly, like it that way. Might be why it has the lowest population density of any state in the lower 48.

For anyone born too late to get my reference to Muskogee:

http://deenotes.homestead.com/okie.html

[Lobsang]

Originally Posted by Panthers007

Mind-expansion? North Dakota? Now, Lob, try to say them in the same sentence relating to one another. North Dakota is Hicksville. Makes Muskogee look like a bastion of socialism. I've been there (both) and it's appallingly boring and uptight. Regards it being punishment to live there - the people who do, willingly, like it that way. Might be why it has the lowest population density of any state in the lower 48.

For anyone born too late to get my reference to Muskogee:

http://deenotes.homestead.com/okie.html

Oh yeah...he he. I have been to North Dakota too. I remember in school there was this kid from North Dakota. I lived in a large apartment building and the students would hang out at night on the common balcony and drink beer. Well this North Dakota kid was quite strange. Andy thing we would say he would respond by telling us a story about "his Dad". Well anyway he comes up to my friend and I one night and we ask him what he is going to do that night. He says "I'm goin peepin". What that meant was he went to this hotel up on a hill and lurked around the first floor windows to watch people in their rooms at night. He had a high power camera.

After that the kid from North Dakota who was fixated on his Dad begged me to let him take pictures if I brought a girl home from the bar the students frequented. He had all kinds of photographic equiptment. Well finally I confronted him about his fixation with his Dad and asked him if he ever liked to do anything besides talk about his Dad. He told me that I looked like his Dad and he would like to kiss me on the lips. I respectfully declined. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wlUcUfHkdYk

Why did I tell this? Well evry time North Dakota is mentioned it comes to mind. Word association I guess.

[Salvinorin A]

Isn't this what that one movie Inherit the Wind was all about?

The scopes case.....people argued over the justice of the law....but what it really came down to was the crime. The law, though unjust, existed, and the law was broken.

In swim's opinion, the law banning salvia is very very unjust, but Kenneth Rau did in fact break the law, couldn't the judge simply reject anything irrelevant to this?

SWIM doesn't know much about the legal system, can judges overrule these laws? and what happens to the law if this happens? (except the supreme court, swim knows what happens when they make a decision). Appeal?

Sal-A

BTW....my heart's with you, Kenneth.

[bman1]

Best of luck Kenneth Rau.
Swib feels for you and wishes swib could offer some better sort of help besides just wishing you luck. Swib knows Salvia and knows it should not be a crime. Hopefully you will win your battle against the "war on drugs". Swib fears they are trying to make an “example” of you and hopes they do not get away with this. Swib is glad to here the intent to sell charge has been dropped and wishes everything will turn out well. You have people all over the world hoping and praying your trial has a successful outcome.
Can someone here explain this for swib? If he is facing 5 years in prison, is 5 years not a federal sentencing? Swim thought anything over 11 months and 29 days is a felony. If found guilty, would one go to a county jail for 5 years? If not how can they put someone in a federal prison? In a federal prison would one not have to commit a felony? Can a state make a plant a felony with there not being any federal law against said plant? If so, how can they use federal funding? Do federal prisons not get much of their money from this funding? Does federal funding not come from other states? If it does come from other states why do the others have to help pay for a person to be in a federal prison for something legal in their state?

[Lou1024]

What really gets swim is the initial psilocybin charges for amanita muscaria.... Shouldn't even be an issue to begin with.

Good luck to you Kenneth.

[moda00]

I know this was posted awhile back but I just wanted to jump in and wish you well Kenneth, it kills me that this is what our society deems a worthwhile law and prosecution. Please get a good lawyer on board, perhaps contact as many experts as you can- physicians, salvia researchers? depending upon what you and your lawyer decide to be a relevant defense, and do let us know how things go.
---------
edit: Wow.. after a bit of reading on your situation, I cannot believe they were trying to go for distribution, although it states the charges were reduced to possession? It seems every single drug case in which more than a single dose of anything is found (which is not likely) is considered "intent to distribute." I mean, if it were in those little individual baggies that is one thing, or if they find evidence of arranging transactions, but since when is a large quantity automatically intent to distribute? I mean, fuck, if we buy a 12-pack of paper towel rolls or a bulk jar of peanut butter, is the assumption automatically that we are distributing it? lol, people buy all sorts of things in bulk so save money. Plus, if something is rare or takes some effort to procure someone (at least most the someones swim knows) are likely to just buy a bunch- better too much than not enough and if a company or individual only sells something in certain increments then that is what you are going to buy. This irritates me over and over. I would think if they were going for distribution charges one could fight it based on that- that one did not have the intentions or means of distributing, one wouldn't have to contest that one possessed the drug. But now with the possession, I suppose it changes possible defense strategies.. either way, this is important as the first salvia prosecution so I really hope for both your sake and for the sake of legal precedent that this can be fought successfully..

[Alekseev]

Originally Posted by bman1

Best of luck Kenneth Rau.

Can someone here explain this for swib? If he is facing 5 years in prison, is 5 years not a federal sentencing? Swim thought anything over 11 months and 29 days is a felony. If found guilty, would one go to a county jail for 5 years? If not how can they put someone in a federal prison? In a federal prison would one not have to commit a felony? Can a state make a plant a felony with there not being any federal law against said plant? If so, how can they use federal funding? Do federal prisons not get much of their money from this funding? Does federal funding not come from other states? If it does come from other states why do the others have to help pay for a person to be in a federal prison for something legal in their state?

A 5-year sentence does not mean a federal prison. For that amount of time, it would be state prison as the offense in question is not a federal crime.

Federal offense = Federal Prison
State offense less than one year = (usually) County Jail
State offense more than one year = (usually) State Prison

Not all states follow a two-tier system with felonies being offenses punishable by more than one year in prison and misdemeanors being punishable by less than one year in county jail. Some states, such as Pennsylvania, have a three-tier system where there are three degrees of misdemeanors and three degrees of felonies. Under this, a sentence range would generally go as follows:

Felony 1: More than 10 years prison, max. life or death
Felony 2: No more than 10 years prison
Felony 3: No more than 7 years prison

Misd. 1: No more than 5 years
Misd. 2: No more than 2 years
Misd. 3: No more than 1 year(s)

Summary Offense is not more than 90 days jail.

Salvia may not be a federal controlled substance making possession, sale, manufacture and cultivation crimes, but states may make laws as well. It has always been this way since the creation of the states. Anyway, a state may, therefore, regulate its own commerce and therefore make laws to do so. Same with criminal offences, so long as they do not violate previous decisions or rights.

Hope this helps...even though its been months since anyone posted here.

Alekseev

Reputation Comments on this post:

thanks for the answer