Yesterday we said that the marijuana for which PJ Hairston was arrested was no big deal and we stand by that. It's a plant. It may have some interesting qualities, but it grows in the dirt. Outlawing plants is really kind of pointless and we have far too many young people in prison for buying, selling or smoking plants.
However, a 9mm handgun and a somewhat mysterious rental agreement for a GMC Yukon, which is not a cheap rental, is interesting, to say the least.
The gun was tossed from the car, but DPD spokesperson Kammie Michael (you may remember her name from the Duke lacrosse investigation) didn't say which side of the car the gun was picked up from.
If form holds, some State students will have this solved by midnight.
Update: well not quite, but as StateFansNation points out, you have to be 21 to rent a car in North Carolina. At 20, and without a license to boot, Hairston doesn't qualify. So who rented it?
And a minor but interesting point: according to a tweet by Channel 11's Derek Rowles, the police seized the gun, ammunition, the rental agreement and...plastic baggies. All of which tends to suggest that someone in the car may have been selling rather than buying. When we first heard the report, we assumed they had gone to Durham to buy; it didn't occur to us that they might actually be selling.
Marijuana laws are some of the stupidest laws this country has, and we have a lot of stupid laws. So does the NCAA (okay, rules as opposed to laws). A personal opinion on the law really doesn't matter; the law is the law, and if you break it, you take your chances.
Smoking pot as a college athlete is a poor decision and, however stupidly, illegal. Hairston could easily survive that. If drug dealing is alleged, however, he may have a serious problem on his hands. The law of course; selling is considered a worse offense than consuming.
His real problem would be with the university. Given everything that's gone on, and the remarkable damage done to the "Carolina Way" by the football program, keeping a drug dealer on the team is a political impossibility. Not to mention Coach Roy Williams' own precedent with JamesOn Curry, who lost his scholly when he was caught doing the same thing in high school. If you can't forgive a high schooler, it's a lot harder to forgive a 20-year-old - particularly in the current climate.
- Police detail arrest of UNC basketball player P.J. Hairston
- Gun, marijuana found at scene of Hairston's arrest
- Police found loaded gun outside of PJ Hairston's vehicle
- UNC's top scorer PJ Hairston charged with possession of marijuana
- North Carolina's PJ Hairston arrested on charges of marijuana possession
- Tar Heels' Hairston charged with marijuana possession