Daniel's Drug Drama IMO

It all started in March of this year, when news that Daniel Choi of DMTN was involved in a marijuana scandal broke out. Of course, he wasn't acting alone, and there were five more persons involved in the investigations.  Daniel denied using the drugs; instead, he distributed them as a middle man. His company released a statement saying:

"Daniel immaturely and thoughtlessly believed that as long as he did not smoke himself, it wasn't a big crime, and that's what led to this incident."

Read more: http://www.allkpop.com/article/2013/03/dmtns-daniel-admits-to-selling-marijuana#ixzz2ec4lKCP9 

Later, when he went to court, Daniel admitted to actually smoking the marijuana.  Apparently, the source of the drugs initially supplied them to Daniel for Daniel's personal use, and then later Daniel introduced and distributed the mary jane to the other four people involved. His punishment?  We're not quite sure of that yet. What we do know is that the prosecution is demanding that he serve one year in prison as well as pay a hefty fine.  His lawyers are begging for leniency, claiming that Daniel's American background should be taken into consideration.

Here's my opinion.  First, I'm proud of Daniel for admitting his wrongdoing.  It had to take a lot for him to come out and admit that he not only used the drugs, but also distributed them.  There was another celebrity involved in this case, Bianca from "Global Talk Show - Chat with Beauties", but she fled the country and hasn't returned to this day.  He could have taken the same route, but he stuck it out.

Now that I've spoken to his integrity, I'll talk to the stupidity of his decision.  In the US, marijuana is illegal for recreational use, according to federal law.  Daniel was born and raised in California, where it was only just recently legalized for medicinal purposes. I don't care what anyone says, including him, he knew what he was doing was wrong.  Even though I'm not a US citizen or resident, I know people who get caught with marijuana end up serving some kind of sentence.  (This is common knowledge to me because a lot of drug traffickers use the Bahamas as a pit stop).  He can say he thought it wasn't as serious a crime as it really is, but the fact that most developed countries have not legalized the drug says more to me.

I honestly do hope that Daniel has learned from this experience.  I'm not quite sure whether I want him to serve the sentence or not.  The truth is, his career, which was just starting  to blossom after three long years, is pretty much shot down now.  And while I do believe he should be punished, the extent of his punishment is up for debate.  After all, this dude probably won't be allowed on broadcast for years to come.  He was a drug dealer...in South Korea.  He'll probably have to find some other source of income, too.  His company may be able to pull some strings where he can do music shows though.  Either which way, it'll take a very long time for him to make up for the loss of his initial three years.  And a year in prison might just force him to leave the industry, and maybe even the country, for good.   I think the fine and a lot of community service would serve better.  At least then, maybe he'd be able to work in a different company as a trainer or manager or something.

I also hope that this serves as a message to everyone watching. Even though you may be in  a position to push limits when it comes to the law, you shouldn't play around.  If it bites you, it'll leave a scar.  Ask Daniel, he knows.