Country music star Willie Nelson, 73, Tony Sizemore, 59, of St. Cloud, Florida; Bobbie Nelson, 75, of Briarcliff, Texas; Gates Moore, 54, of Austin, Texas; and David Anderson, 50, of Dallas were issued misdemeanor citations for possession of illegal mushrooms and marijuana after a Monday morning traffic stop in Louisiana.

State police said the citations were issued after a commercial vehicle inspection of Mr. Nelson’s tour bus in which police found 1 1/2 pounds of marijuana and a little more than three ounces of illegal mushrooms.

State police spokesman Willie Williams said there were enough drugs to merit felony charges of distribution, but all five said the drugs, which were not packaged for resale, were for their own personal use.

According to a news release, “When the door was opened and the trooper began to speak to the driver, he smelled the strong odor of marijuana.” All 5 suspects were released after the citations were issued.

24 ounces is a lot of pot! Many people are hauled in on trafficking charges for holding a mere 24 grams — and no law enforcement officer would believe that more than a joint’s worth of weed was merely “head stash.”

I have to wonder if the same misdemeanor charges would have been applied had the average age of the suspects been 22 instead of 62, or if one of them was not a celebrity, or if their skins were a little darker…

And we all know the answer to that one, whether we want to admit as much or not. Sure, we like to think that our laws are applied fairly and equally without consideration for age, social status, or skin color.

But we nonetheless chuckle at the idea of a bunch of old geezer musicians toking on a pound and a half worth of reefers and the police letting them go with a wink and a nod while numerous others are serving mandatory minimum sentences for holding far less than 24 ounces of cannabis.

The trouble with laws that are intended to control human behavior instead of protecting and defending the rights of the people is that they cannot, as in all cases when we sinners attempt to judge the “sins” of our fellow sinners, ever be objectively applied.