At the forefront of cannabis legal defense, Steven F. Groce is a seasoned marijuana lawyer in Missouri. Whether you are facing charges for drug intoxication, cannabis possession, or cultivation, our firm is dedicated to providing you with effective legal representation.
Get in touch with us when you need a defense attorney. You can count on us to protect your rights.
STEVEN F. GROCE, ATTY. DEFENSE OF MARIJUANA CASES
Advocate for Legalization
STEVEN GROCE, LIFE MEMBER ATTORNEY FOR NORML (Click on NORML, for listing on NORML.ORG, National Organization for Reform of Marijuana Laws). Cannabis/Marijuana Lawyer/Attorney, Springfield, Missouri, Greene County, Missouri, Christian County, and all cities and counties in the State of Missouri. Cannabis Marijuana Defense Attorney Missouri. Alcohol and Drug Intoxication Defense Lawyer Missouri.
Not only does our firm defend marijuana cases, including possession, distribution, and cultivation, we actively support all efforts for legalization.
In regard to living life at your best and to the fullest, nothing beats having a fit body, soul, and a clear mind. I start this page with this statement because it should be clear and understood by all that I do not advocate the use of drugs of any kind — whether it is alcohol, prescription drugs, or non-prescription drugs — to try to achieve satisfaction or happiness in life. I also do not advocate breaking the law, regardless of how insane the laws may seem.
With that said, laws are sometimes just plain wrong. Remember the prohibition? The 18th Amendment? As to the laws regarding marijuana, if you believe that these laws are unfounded, a violation of your personal rights, completely draconian in application and penalties, or just plain wrong, then it is up to you — as it is to all of us — to take a stand, make yourself heard, and do whatever you can to see the laws changed.
Happiness and Health with Moderation
While I advocate as a marijuana lawyer that happiness is best derived from fulfilling activities, spiritual growth, physical fitness, and relationships with family, friends, and community, marijuana — like alcohol — if used in moderation, can be enjoyed without harm and without interfering in other areas of life.
Current research indicates that the use of marijuana may even be beneficial for the body. Among other things, cannabis (marijuana) is being successfully used for pain relief and for the treatment of cancer. Marijuana is currently being used for more medical purposes than perhaps any other drug. Recreational use of marijuana is also sweeping the country, and regardless of whether one’s use is medical or recreational, it should be a matter of individual rights and freedom.
Call for Personal Choice
In regard to the use of Cannabis, it is my own view, as a marijuana lawyer, that there should be no reason that any citizen of the United States, or anywhere else in the world, should not be able to make a personal choice. Personal choice requires legalization and a society and a government that respects the individual rights and liberties of its citizens.
We have been taught to think of ourselves and our country as the Great Free World or The Land of the Free, yet other countries and societies have sometimes shown far more tolerance and respect for the freedom of their citizens. In this regard, one only needs to look at the Netherlands.
The coffee shops, which have existed all over Amsterdam for many years, prove that respect for Individual Rights WORKS, not just for the individual but also for society. Also, people are finally learning that marijuana has existed and been used for thousands of years by various people all over the world.
Understanding and Action
If you thought that marijuana was something discovered in the sixties, think again. During a recent archaeological find in China, in the Gobi desert (as reported in CNN International edition 2-14-2009), archaeologists found approximately 2 pounds of what they described as very potent cannabis, stashed within a Gushi Shaman’s tomb, dated to a time approximately 2,700 years ago.
Perhaps it was a time of more freedom in the area we now call China, before it later became a country controlled by a communist regime, which it remains today. In the United States, we have a great country. It’s just that our current leaders have lost sight of the ideals (meaning Individual Rights and Liberties) that formed the fundamental building blocks, or the very foundation, upon which our Great Country was built.
However, even for the founding fathers, as the saying goes, Freedom Is Never Free. That’s why the foundation of this country required a revolution. Therefore, if you believe in something, then do your part and at least make yourself heard. If you or someone you know gets in legal trouble for exercising your rights and freedoms, call Missouri cannabis defense attorney Steven Groce.
The case for legalization of marijuana, including possession, cultivation, and sales, goes to the very heart of the absolute insanity of the government’s war on drugs. First, let’s recall the country that we live in and the most basic desires for Freedom and Liberty that our Founding Fathers believed in and desired so strongly that it prompted the American Revolution that created this great country, the country that we know of as the United States of America.
Without their beliefs and their sacrifice, we would not have the freedoms, liberties, rights, and protections that our ancestors, our military forces, and many of our fellow citizens have given their blood for so that the rest of us have and should continue to have, the right to make choices for ourselves, to be individuals, to live our lives in harmony with others, but also to live, and believe, … and THINK, as each of us deems appropriate.
The Government: Making Something Illegal
In regard to marijuana, a combination of unfounded fears (remember the movie Reefer Madness?) and a total lack of respect (to put it mildly) for individual rights by the misguided leaders of our country at the time, as well as money, and the political interests swayed by money, resulted in making marijuana illegal. One might reasonably wonder what the government’s excuse is for continuing to keep marijuana illegal today.
I would suggest that the lack of respect by our government for individual rights and liberties not only still exists but has actually worsened. Many in government seem to have forgotten that the Constitution of the United States and the Bill of Rights are still supposed to be the supreme law of the land.
One only needs to watch the evening news to see how our rights are being trampled. The Fourth Amendment is seriously under attack. The government is listening to our phone calls, monitoring the contents of our texts, recording every number that a person calls or receives, and has access to every internet search you have ever made, and even your messaging on Facebook.
With our cell phones, our locations are even being tracked, often without a warrant and certainly without prior notice, just because the government can. Our government is using our wonderful smartphones as if it had a right to turn them into ankle bracelets, again, often without a warrant, without probable cause, and without any prior offense ever having been committed.
Even the First Amendment has been under attack. Both individuals and groups have been “targeted” by the full force of the government just because they have expressed disagreement with the policies of our current leaders. This should be of serious concern to every citizen. Our rights, freedoms, liberties, and even privacy were hard-won, but they can be very easily lost if we do not remain both vigilant and active to protect them.
Misguided fears regarding marijuana are also still on the horizon. However, I would also argue that there are other reasons which many people have never considered to be factors. Consider MONEY for one and JOBS (government jobs) for the other. Keeping marijuana illegal has literally created tens of thousands of law enforcement jobs. To get an idea of the amount of money involved in the war on drugs, see the Drug War Clock link at the end of this page.
While this link depicts the money spent fighting the Government’s War on all Drugs, a huge percentage is being used by the government to still wage its war against marijuana. Who pays the bill? The taxpayer does, and as with so many things, by virtue of the perpetual government money printing press, the taxpayers are made to do it on credit. One of the results is the ever-increasing budget deficit.
One could probably make a reasonable argument that if marijuana were legalized across the country under all the state laws and also under federal law, it would probably put a lot of federal and state employees out of work.
One must ask, however, whether the possible loss of jobs is a legitimate reason to keep something illegal. I would argue that it is definitely not and that to continue to wage this war of Prohibition, which has so many adverse effects upon the people, just to maintain law enforcement jobs is morally wrong.
While I have respect for our city, state, and federal employees, some of whom do very necessary work, I believe that this has certainly been a factor in the attitude of the various law enforcement agencies to continue their otherwise illogical opposition to legalization. Ending the enforcement and prosecution of BAD laws would not only save our country billions of taxpayer dollars, but it would also put an end to ruining the lives of otherwise good people for exercising liberties and freedoms that our government never had the right to take from the people in the beginning.
The 18th Amendment, Prohibition of Alcohol: What did it accomplish? Crime!
The illegality created the crime, and it is that simple. It created the mobs, the Al Capones, the underground black market, etc. When alcohol was made legal again, and prohibition ended with the 21st Amendment, the problems caused by prohibition also ended.
In another light or perspective, perhaps we should consider equality and the right to exist, not only for other human beings but also for all other living things on this planet. Common sense should tell us that no one, and no government, should have the right to make it illegal for anything that grows naturally on this earth and has existed longer than mankind itself to be illegal to possess, to grow, allow to grow, or to even exist! What right do we have to legislate the very existence of any other life form, plant, animal, or other?
Something Very Much Worth Remembering:
In regard to Ending the Prohibition of Alcohol, which started with the 18th Amendment, it was later repealed by the 21st Amendment. It only happened thanks to the citizens of our country (which means your grandmothers and grandfathers or great-grandparents), who were willing to take a stand AND DEMAND A CHANGE IN THE LAW. IT IS TIME FOR WE, THE PEOPLE, TO DO THIS AGAIN.
IT IS ALSO WORTH NOTING THAT THE 18TH Amendment, Prohibition, WAS only one of two amendments or operative provisions of the Constitution that prohibited private conduct. The other is the 13th Amendment, which finally abolished slavery.
At that time in history, as was pointed out by Harvard Law School Professor Laurence Tribe: “There are two ways, and only two ways, in which an ordinary private citizen … can violate the United States Constitution. One is to enslave someone, a suitably hellish act. The other is to bring a bottle of beer, wine, or bourbon into a State in violation of its beverage control laws, an act that might have been thought juvenile, and perhaps even lawless, but unconstitutional?”
I believe that if we had wanted a government that acted in such a way, then perhaps none of us would mind living under the rules, censorship, lack of privacy, due process, etc., of a country like Communist China. We are closer to that reality than you, the reader, may think. Fortunately, the 13th Amendment abolished slavery. The 21st Amendment abolished prohibition.
This is truly something to think about. The 21st Amendment was only made possible by the demands, protests, and actions of our grandmothers and grandfathers, or great-grandparents. If it was not for them, you, the reader, would most likely still be subject to Criminal prosecution and even incarceration just for having a beer or a glass of wine. IT IS TIME FOR CHANGE ONCE AGAIN!
President Abraham Lincoln
Prohibition will work great injury to the cause of temperance. It is a species of intemperance within itself, for it goes beyond the bounds of reason in that it attempts to control a man’s appetite by legislation, and makes a crime out of things that are not crimes. A prohibition law strikes a blow at the very principles upon which our government was founded.
– Abraham Lincoln
Jefferson on ProhibitionEinstein on Prohibition
THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES: is the Supreme law of the land. All those in political office and in the military have sworn to uphold the Constitution, as have most citizens of our great country.
Therefore, we must ask: What have we, as citizens and public officials, allowed to happen? Not everyone is afraid to speak out or stand up for what they believe in, or for that matter, to actually support the Constitution of the United States, the supreme law and statement of our rights and liberty that we have all sworn to uphold.
People vs. John Sinclaire
Consider the case of PEOPLE VS. JOHN SINCLAIRE, 387 Michigan Reports, page 91 This was a 1972 case when the United States Constitution had the respect that it was due. Justice Thomas G. Kavanagh of the Michigan Supreme Court, a fine judge indeed, clarified the real meaning of the Constitution and our liberties within the words of his decision:
“As I understand our constitutional concept of government, an individual is free to do whatever he pleases, so long as he does not interfere with the rights of his neighbor or of society, and no government–state or Federal–has been ceded the authority to interfere with that freedom. As has been said:
`The sole end for which mankind are warranted, individually or collectively, in interfering with the liberty of action of any of these number, is self-protection. That the only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilized community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others. His own good, either physical or moral, is not a sufficient warrant.’ J.S. Mill, On Liberty, Chapter 1.
…’Big Brother’ cannot, in the name of Public health, dictate to anyone what he can eat or drink or smoke in the privacy of his own home.”
People vs. Eric Lorentzen
See also the Judge’s same reasoning in PEOPLE VS. ERIC LORENTZEN, 387 Michigan Reports, page 167, where Justice Kavanagh voted to strike down the laws regarding the sale of drugs.
“The right to possess and use something, however, has little meaning unless one also has the right to acquire it, and hence proscription of sale cannot be reconciled with a right to possess and use.
It may be that some legitimate public interest may be served by the regulation of traffic in marijuana, but a statute that absolutely forbids the sale of marijuana is as offensive to the right to privacy and the pursuit of happiness as a statute that forbids its possession and use.”
TAKE A STAND AND TELL THE ESTABLISHMENT AND THE LAWMAKERS HOW YOU FEEL. THE FOLLOWING IS A LIST OF INDIVIDUALS, LAWMAKERS, LEGISLATORS, AND AGENCIES THAT NEED TO HEAR YOUR OPINION. DON’T SEND AN EMAIL, AS IT WILL LIKELY BE DELETED. WRITE A LETTER AND USE A STAMP.
The White House 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW Washington, DC 20500 (Please include your e-mail address when writing)
Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt 207 W. High St., Jefferson City, MO 65101
Office of Governor Mike Parson P.O. Box 720 Jefferson City, MO 65102
Office of U.S. Senator Josh Hawley
Office of U.S. Senator Roy Blunt 260 Russell Senate Office Building Washington, DC 20510
Jay Ashcroft Missouri Secretary of State 201 West Capitol Ave, Room 306C Jefferson City, MO 65101
Springfield Mayor: Busch Municipal Building, 4th Floor 840 Boonville Avenue Springfield, MO 65802
Doug Burlison
Congressman Billy Long 1541 Longworth HOB Washington, DC 20515 or: 3232 E. Ridgeview Street Springfield, MO 65804
Springfield, MO City Attorney Busch Municipal Building, 5th Floor 840 Boonville Avenue Springfield, MO 65802
Dan Patterson Greene County Prosecuting Attorney 1010 Boonville Springfield, MO 65802
Springfield Municipal Court Prosecutor 625 N. Benton Springfield, MO 65806
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For representation from an experienced marijuana lawyer, contact Steven F. Groce. Engage with the Missouri Marijuana Law and Reform Facebook Community Page, where you can share your views and connect with others fighting for change.
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