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from the sometimes-stereotypes-are-inaccurate dept.
AlterNet reports:
A 64-year-old man in Orlando was handcuffed, arrested, strip searched, and spent hours in jail after officers mistook the glaze from his doughnut for crystal meth.
The Orlando Sentinel reports that, after pulling Daniel Rushing over for failure to stop and speeding, Cpl. Shelby Riggs-Hopkins noticed "a rock like substance" on the floorboard of the car. "I recognized through my eleven years of training and experience as a law enforcement officer the substance to be some sort of narcotic", she wrote in her report.
The officers asked if they could search Rushing's vehicle and he agreed. [...] [Rushing said] "They tried to say it was crack cocaine at first, then they said, 'No, it's meth, crystal meth'."
[...] The officers conducted two roadside drug tests on the particles and both came back positive for an illegal substance. A state crime lab made further tests weeks later and cleared him. Rushing says he was locked up for about 10 hours before his release on $2,500 bond.
A cop who can't identify doughnut residue? What is the world coming to?
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(Score: 2) by DannyB on Friday July 29 2016, @07:35PM
I don't have a problem with you ingesting funny substances as long as it doesn't negatively affect anyone else. (and that includes alcohol, for example.)
I do have a problem with people having to commit crimes in order to get their next fix.
So there is a line to be drawn somewhere to protect society. I don't pretend to have the right solution. Lawmakers never understand nuanced solutions. They only understand that you kill an ant with a sledge hammer.
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(Score: 2) by jdavidb on Friday July 29 2016, @08:22PM
I don't have a problem with you ingesting funny substances as long as it doesn't negatively affect anyone else. (and that includes alcohol, for example.) I do have a problem with people having to commit crimes in order to get their next fix. So there is a line to be drawn somewhere to protect society.
You're right - we should legalize drugs so the costs will be decreased and people won't have to commit crimes in order to get their next fix.
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(Score: 2) by vux984 on Friday July 29 2016, @08:48PM
You're right - we should legalize drugs so the costs will be decreased and people won't have to commit crimes in order to get their next fix.
http://heroin.net/about/how-much-does-heroin-cost/ [heroin.net]
The average price for a fix is $15 bucks in Ohio; and a hardcore habit runs $150-200/day. So if heroine were 1/2 the price it is today due to legalization, heroine addicts would be able to get twice as much of it before they ran out of money. But then they'd still be out of money. How does that stop crime?
You think if it were 1/2 price the crimes would stop? Wouldn't they they still commit at least 1/2 as many crimes to raise 1/2 the money?
Is their a desire for a fixed quantity of H; so they just need enough cash for that much H?
Or will they just buy and consume as much H as they have cash to spend, regardless of the price of H?
Or would they just buy higher quality H?
(Score: 4, Insightful) by deimtee on Friday July 29 2016, @09:43PM
If it wasn't illegal, the average price for a heroin fix would be about 15 cents. not 15 dollars. It is probably cheaper than aspirin for actual relevant production costs.
Virtually all of that $15 price goes to law enforcement/courts/drug lord profits/etc.
Legalizing it would mean being able to have standards for purity and quality, which would have the benefit of reducing accidental overdoses. The first ambulance ride/emergency room treatment that you don't have would pay for all the local drugs for a month.
Of course another one of the reasons it won't be legalized is that it is an excellent pain reliever and self-dosing would cut into drug company profits.
There are just too many people making too much money off of its illegality.
If you cough while drinking cheap red wine it really cleans out your sinuses.
(Score: 2) by vux984 on Friday July 29 2016, @10:03PM
Of course another one of the reasons it won't be legalized is that it is an excellent pain reliever and self-dosing would cut into drug company profits.
Why? Its just another morphine derivative. Worst case they'd sell less morphine and codeine and more heroine. And like those; legalized heroine would be heavily regulated.
I don't disagree with you that we should legalize it, but i don't see how legalizing it would stop junkies from committing crimes for their next fix. It would eliminate violence and crime relating to smuggling, transportation, etc of an illegal substance. But junkies are still going to break car windows for a fix whether its legal or not.
I'm in favor of legalizing it; but if you want to deal with crime from junkies looking for their next fix, that's not enough -- you need free dosing clinics and then treatment programs to get them off it.
(Score: 3, Informative) by deimtee on Saturday July 30 2016, @04:17AM
You seem have this idea of junkies as evil crooks who like to commit crimes. This is wrong.
Many of them held down jobs until the sheer cost of their habit drove them into crime. There is no way outside of crime for most people to support a habit that costs two or three times the average income. Drop the cost of heroin to $1 per day for a hard core junkie, and he won't bother mugging people for his next fix.
In fact the whole obsession with getting the next dose would greatly reduce. With a steady, legal supply of high quality and known dosage he may even get himself cleaned up enough to participate in society again. At the very least, he stops stealing your stereo and knifing you in alleyways.
If you cough while drinking cheap red wine it really cleans out your sinuses.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by vux984 on Saturday July 30 2016, @09:10AM
You seem have this idea of junkies as evil crooks who like to commit crimes. This is wrong.
Not really; my sense of them is of people who simply value getting there next fix over pretty much everything else.
Many of them held down jobs until the sheer cost of their habit drove them into crime.
Again, my experience is that they just stop showing up for work; either they're passed out or chasing another fix. Disappearing for days at a time...
Drop the cost of heroin to $1 per day for a hard core junkie, and he won't bother mugging people for his next fix.
Fair enough. I don't see it getting that low though... not without subsidy programs.