Aide loses job over pot charge from 26 years ago

Absolute corruption in the failed War on Drugs corrupts absolutely - and fosters a new McCarthyism.

The Michael Phelps flap is absurd enough, but when the new McCarthyism that Phelps has suffered hits average citizens over decades-old incidents, it becomes even more of an outrage.

New background check laws in Ohio have cost 2 employees of the Cincinnati school system their jobs. I understand the purpose of strengthened background checks - but I draw the line when the laws are used to go after someone who got caught with a gram of weed 30 years ago.

One of the fired employees is a longtime maintenance worker who has now been dismissed after 30 years over a felonious assault conviction from the '70s. The other is a 54-year-old teacher's aide who was fired after 22 years because it turned out that she purchased $5 worth of marijuana back in 1983.

Fired over a $5 pot charge from 26 years ago? And that charge wasn't even a felony!

What's next? Firing teachers over old parking tickets?

When I read about the firing, I knew right away there were grounds for a lawsuit, because the new law was being enforced ex post facto. Retroactive enforcement is barred by both the U.S. Constitution and the Ohio Constitution.

Sure enough, both the fired teacher's aide and the maintenance worker are suing for that very reason.

While folks lose jobs over decades-old marijuana buys, Dick Cheney roams the streets freely. Make one slip-up when you're 15, and your life is destroyed forever, but hardened criminals who hold powerful government positions go free.

(Source: http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20090206/NEWS0107/302060016)