Because of the recent news about the Stanford rape I have started thinking about what certain state governments and the federal government really think about punishments and what crimes are deemed worse than others. For those who don’t know a former swimmer at Stanford has been arrested and sentenced for sexual assault of an unconscious girl at a party in January of 2015. He was sentenced to 6 months and some probation because “a sentence any longer would affect his life to much”. And by the way he will probably be getting out after only three months for “good behavior”. The rapist said he was “shattered by party culture” and his father said he “shouldn’t lose his future for 20 minutes of action”. If this case was about something less serious than rape I would assume that response was a joke because it’s so ridiculous.

Now I figured I’d compare this case and cases like it to something that I hope everyone agrees isn’t as bad as rape, simple possession of marijuana.

I am on the side of legalizing recreational marijuana on a national scale. Now I understand not everyone has the same views, many people believe it should be legalized at least for medical purposes, many people don’t think it should be legal at all. That isn’t really the point because I really hope we can all agree that owning some marijuana is not worse than rape! Right?

I go to Oklahoma State University so i figured I would look closely at the laws in Oklahoma. Let's go ahead and start with the fact that in Oklahoma “oral sex is not rape if the victim is unconscious from alcohol”. That was decided in a court case earlier this year where many people were surprised to find out that the laws in Oklahoma don’t criminalize oral sex if the victim is unconscious, which is one of the dumbest things I’ve ever heard. So the state government of Oklahoma thinks there is no problem if you enter an unconscious person but the first time someone is caught with any amount of marijuana in the state they face up to a year in jail. Amount doesn’t matter. If that same person is caught a second time they face between two and ten years depending on the amount and how the judge at their hearing is feeling that day.

So now we know you’re going to get less punishment in Oklahoma if you force yourself on an unconscious person than you will if you posses a small amount of marijuana. I don’t care what you actually think of marijuana, but hopefully you think bad enough of rape to make this completely insane.

So the thought process that has so blatantly been proven recently is that Oklahoma government and law enforcement believe rape is not as bad as having a small amount of marijuana. I’m not even talking about an amount that could be considered enough to have intent to sell, just simple possession is worse than rape to the Oklahoma government.

I very truly hope that no one out there is actually dumb enough to believe this sentiment. But apparently some lawmakers are.

Some states are a different situation. Marijuana has become legal now in Washington, Oregon, Colorado, Alaska and the District of Columbia. And many states have much stricter punishments and a wider range of what is considered rape. The country is beginning to change but states like Oklahoma and many others are still following the idea that somehow rape, especially on college campuses, really isn’t that bad.

Look at one of the reasons given for why the Stanford rapist's sentence is so minimal, the judge said “a prison sentence would have a severe impact on him”, if that doesn’t outrage you then I don’t know what will.

But really? Raping somebody and getting a sentence longer than six months would have a “severe impact”. Shouldn’t your life be severely impacted if you rape someone? Is that not just? By raping someone their life has been ruined, so shouldn’t the rapists be too?

If you don’t deserve to have your life ruined for raping someone (which you definitely do), then you really don’t deserve to have your life ruined for a small amount of pot. A lot of people have spent a lot of time in jail for a small amount of marijuana. In a world where a rapist gets a six month prison sentence isn’t it ridiculous that any non violent crime would carry any sentence at all? It’s not just rape either but domestic violence too.