Colorado Pot Sales to Begin on January 1; Priest Abuse Cover-Up Conviction Reversed; How Do Icebreakers Get Stuck
FLORES: Welcome back. We are looking at some of the top legal issues making headlines this week. With criminal defense Attorney Holly Hughes and clinical physiologist Dr. Jeff Gardere and we will start with marijuana. Colorado is the first state to legalize recreational pot in just a few days people in Colorado will be legally allowed to smoke, buy and grow pot. Holly, let me start with you. Because I'm thinking, OK. So Colorado is a state in the United States. Anyone visiting Colorado, are these laws going to apply and how once you cross state lines? To me, there are just so many complications.</s>HUGHES: Right. You can consume it while you are in Colorado. You can buy it while you are in Colorado. You may not take it across state lines. Because obviously, like you are saying, Colorado is the only state in that locale that has legalized it. So, there are some restrictions here. You have to be 21. You can't smoke it out in public or where you can be seen in public. So, you can't stand on a hotel balcony and light a reefer. You know, you can get arrested for that. So, there are some restrictions still in place. But yes visitors, you know, if you're looking to took up and enjoy yourself, head on down to the Rocky Mountain State. Is that what they call it? Right? Colorado, Rocky Mountain high.</s>FLORES: A whole other high there.</s>HUGHES: Yes, gives the song new meaning, doesn't it?</s>FLORES: Interesting. Now, Jeff, help us understand this. So, will more people be inclined to try marijuana simply because it is legal?</s>GARDERE: Well, I think that certainly if there is a curiosity and we see it with very young people for example, that it will be much easier to get. But let's let the cat out of the bag here. OK? And Holly will tell you this herself. But there are professional people, I'm not saying Holly is one of them but there are professional people for example.</s>HUGHES: Thank you, Jeff.</s>FLORES: She is mighty happy today by the way.</s>GARDERE: Absolutely. I don't know -- but we won't go there today. But you know, there are professional people out there who have one job doing something and then another job selling marijuana on the side. Those people never get busted. It is something that's so low level. And so I think what you'll going to see is that, I don't know if there is going to be a tremendous amount of increase in the use especially for people who are older. Because it is already easy for them to get, even though it is illegal in many, many states.</s>FLORES: Now, I'm intrigued by the employment law and work.</s>HUGHES: Right.</s>FLORES: Will people be able to be high?</s>HUGHES: Absolutely not. And in fact, you can even be fired if you're coming to work high. And employer can still fire you in the state of Colorado because once again, you are talking about a restricted area. So, when you go to your employers, there are certain rules we all have to follow, right? I mean, we can't come in here brandishing a gun, just because we're at work. We can't come in here and toke up, Dr. Jeff, because we're at work. You know? I'm a criminal defense attorney, of course I know this -- OK? And I used to prosecute. But the other thing that it's going to do for the criminal justice system in Colorado is going free up a lot. Because now you won't see a lot of the state resources and the prosecutors happen to deal with what a really very low-level crimes because it is no longer a crime.</s>FLORES: What about people who are in jail for crimes --</s>HUGHES: In the law, what we call grandfather, and you're not going to get grandfathered in. There is no going back in time. There's no ex post facto. So if you are already in for it, you are in for it. Because at the time that you committed the offense, it was illegal. So nobody is going home if they are already serving attentions.</s>FLORES: And now Jeff, one of the other things that I'm really curios about is the impact on kids. Their perception about marijuana. The kids that are growing up now, and for them, it is legal.</s>GARDERE: Yes, OK. So, this is where my real concern is. Because we do know that now marijuana is almost matching alcohol as one of the most abused substances out there for very young people. So, now the message is that yes it is legal. And I'm not going to get into the politics of it. I'm simply playing shrink here. OK? But now kids have a perception that OK, because it is legal, now I can go ahead and do this as much as I'm doing alcohol. So, I think we're going to see increased use in young people and there's not going to be the stigma for them to use it. Our only hope is that they don't use it to the point of where they now use it as a gateway to other much more serious drugs.</s>FLORES: Now, let's move on to our next topic. An appeals court in Pennsylvania has overturned the conventions of Catholic Monsignor William Lynn. He was in prison for covering up sexual abuse committed by a priest he supervised. Now, this was a landmark case with a lot at stake. Holly, let me start with you. The, I guess, this overturn -- they're overturning of this case--</s>HUGHES: Right.</s>FLORES: -- the implication of this.</s>HUGHES: Right. What the court held when they wrote this opinion -- this was a three-judge panel that sat and heard this case, went through everything, wrote the opinion, and what they said was the monsignor was convicted under a law at the time that he was not part of, like we talked about, that protective class. In the law, you have to be part of it. The way that the child endangerment and child welfare law was constructed in Pennsylvania at the time, which you had to be a parent or a caregiver, somebody who was personally responsible for the care. He was an employer. He was a supervisor of the priest who admitted, and let's remember that Avery was the priest who admitted to some of the sex acts, pled guilty to them, and then they went after his boss, Monsignor Lynn. And the court said, at the time, he wasn't included in that law. So, no, even though what he did was morally reprehensible, it was not illegal under the law.</s>FLORES: And, Jack, what does the ruling say to the victims in this case?</s>GARDERE: Well, I think what we've seen here is that, Holly, again is correct that this is a situation where this was not included in the law. I think the law, of course, will be reviewed and will be much more inclusive. I think in some ways, it is a slap in the face to those young people, or people now who are much older, who were abused when they were younger. So that is a major issue. But I think the important issue is that this thing did go to trial. They did grandfather it in. They did put Monsignor Lynn behind bars. It's been overturned. But all of the wheels have been set that they are going after all of these individuals who try to shelter these people in positions of power, these priests and so on. They are not going to let them do that and get away with it again. So what these young people need to understand is that you're not going to get away with these actions. You've got -- got off on this one, Monsignor Lynn, but -- I believe that no other person is going to get away with this again under this law. It's going to be tightened up.</s>FLORES: Jeff, Holly, thank you so much for the fascinating conversation. We appreciate the time.</s>GARDERE: Thank you.</s>HUGHES: Thanks.</s>FLORES: Now back to one of our top stories this hour. Antarctica, where a Russian ship with 74 people on board, is stuck in the ice. It is understandable how most ships would get stuck. But ice breakers? How does that happen? CNN's Carl Azuz has the answer.</s>CARL AZUZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): You'd think that because this is a glacial environment sea ice would move at a glacial pace. Not the case. Wraps of ice move quickly rushed over the sea by wind. They can expand and grow thicker, rise and fall with the waves beneath them, and blizzard conditions common to Antarctica even in summer, don't help. You might remember this scene from Minnesota where wind blew ice ashore from Mille Lacs Lake, climbing and cracking into doors and windows. Think of this same principle in a massive frigid sea and you can see how a Russian research vessel en route to the Antarctic got trapped, how Ernest Shackleton in the "Endurance" were surrounded and how that ship was eventually crushed. Even animals used to these conditions like the trapped whales dramatized in last year's movie "Big Miracle" are vulnerable.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did you see that?</s>AZUZ: So what does it take to get through the ice and rescue whales, cruise ships or anything else that gets stranded? Wait. Sea ice as thick as 10 feet can be broken and the sloping holes of some icebreakers are designed to actually wedge up on top of the ice so the heavy ship can crush down on it. The bows are also designed to then move the cracked ice to the side, plowing a path that other ships can follow, a crusty road to open water out of a frozen maze. Carl Azuz, CNN.</s>FLORES: Most of you believe the current Congress is the worst in your lifetime. And not only does it seem like Democrats and Republicans are at each other's throats, the Republican leadership has been sounding frustrated by its own members. So can Congress gets its act together in 2014? More about that next.</s>MAJ. THOMAS ZAWISZA, STUTTGART, GERMANY: Hi, I'm Major Thomas Zawisza here at U.S. Africa Command headquarters in Stuttgart, Germany. I'd like to say happy holidays and merry Christmas and a happy new year to Dad and Mary, and all my family answers friend in Toledo, Ohio. Love you, guys, and miss you very much. Have a blessed new year.