I seriously doubt potheads go to jail often. Pot DEALERS are the people you are getting all weapy-eyed for
Lots of dope smokers have gone to jail in the past. Over time, the threshold and sentencing guidelines have increased the threshold where the quantities seized were taken as evidence of “intent to distribute,” but in the 80’s in California, I read about people with little baggies of weed getting sentenced to 6 months all the time.
Well, this statement should be examined a little bit given the way drug laws are written and enforced. For example, when it comes to pot, if you're busted in possession of a certain amount, you're considered to have "intent to distribute;" whether or not you've actually distributed, or further, profited from it, is not material. That's why you often see dual charges of "possession" along with "intent to distribute."
In the common vernacular a person who has "intent to distribute" may indeed be a pot dealer, but in the eyes of the law, a "distributor" is anyone who possesses in excess of a certain amount, real-world intent be damned. So while you can claim "only pot dealers go to jail," the reality is that pot dealer = intent to distribute = anyone caught with an excess of a fixed amount.