Posted on 09/03/2002 7:41:56 AM PDT by JediGirl
| Those listed below includes innocent victims of police raids. Remember: Some, though not all, of the below victims never engaged in a single drug activity, yet they were still murdered due to the "War on Drugs." Even those who did and do engage in drug use do not warrant death. It was (and is) a personal choice and it was (and is) individual's own bodies. John Adams -- Tennessee A 62-year-old black man was shot and killed by five white police officers in Lebanon, Tennessee after they burst through the front door of his home at 10:00 PM on a Wednesday night. It turned out their search warrant for drugs was erroneous: It should have been written for the house next door. David Aguilar -- Arizona David Aguilar, 44, retired from the military after 20 years and decided to live on his pension so he could be a "stay-at-home dad" to his five youngest children, aged 3 to 15, according to Beth Cascaddan, his neighbor in Three Points, Arizona. "He was extremely devoted to his children," Ms. Cascaddan told reporter Melissa Martinez of the daily Tucson Citizen. Aguilar also coached youth football and baseball. But on the early afternoon of Friday, January 10, David Aguilar sensed something wrong. There was a man sitting in a car parked alongside the road bordering Aguilar’s property. Aguilar confronted the man and an argument emerged. Seeing that the stranger was not going to move along, Aguilar went back to the house and returned with a gun. The children told neighbor Bonnie Moreno their father was simply trying to scare the man away. There is no indication David Aguilar ever fired. When the man in the car saw Aguilar returning, he drew his own gun and, at 2:45 that Friday afternoon, fired multiple times through his own windshield. David Aguilar died that evening in a Tucson hospital, of a single gunshot wound to the chest. The shooter was an undercover agent of the federal Drug Enforcement Administration. His name has never been released and he has not spent a single day in prison. Delbert Bonar -- Ohio Police in Belpre, Ohio, got a tip that Albert Bonar was growing and selling marijuana. So, on October 15, 1998, they raided the house where Albert lived, and shot to death his father, Delbert Bonar, 57, a janitor. Police did find a small amount of marijuana -- enough for personal consumption. Albert later admitted the marijuana was his. The police did not find any of the growing plants or large quantities of marijuana the informant allegedly told them about. The informant who gave the false information has not been named. Police told the press that they were just protecting themselves when they riddled the body of Delbert Bonar with bullets. But Carolyn Bonar, daughter-in-law of Delbert, says that all Delbert had in his hands was a water bottle. The elder Bonar was reaching for his telephone, an offense apparently punishable by death when there is a suspicion that marijuana may be on the premises. Delbert Bonar died instantly from 8 bullet wounds from police gunfire. In his 57 years, he had no criminal record and had never even been arrested. Vernia Brown -- New York On Thursday, March 17, 1988, at 10:45 p.m., in the Bronx, Vernia Brown was killed by stray bullets fired in a dispute over illegal drugs. The 19-year-old mother of one was not involved in the dispute, yet her death was a direct consequence of the "War on Drugs". Scott Bryant -- Wisconsin Age 29 at time of death when he was shot by police officer Robert Neuman of the Dodge County Sherrif's Department in Beaver Dam, WI, on April 28, 1995. Bryant was unarmed and did not resist in any way when police with a no-knock warrant charged through the door of his home. His seven-year-old son watched his father die while an ambulance took 35 minutes to arrive. Police later reported finding less than three grams of marijuana (enough for two or three cigarettes). Police claim it may have been an accidental shooting. An accident that has changed the lives of the Bryant family and many others in his state. Troy James Davis -- Texas Troy James Davis, 25, died December 15, 1999 at Columbia North Hills Hospital, about 15 minutes after being shot by North Richland Hills police officer Allen Hill. Police had gone to the Davis home to serve a search-and-arrest warrant in connection with an informant's tip that there were drugs in the house. After the shooting, Davis' mother, Barbara Davis, 49, was arrested in connection with the drug possession investigation. Police broke down the front door of the Davis home when they entered. Police have indicated that no drugs have been found on the home, using the “crime scene” as an excuse for their lack of evidence. One wonders why police broke into the home rather than knocking on the door. What kind of evidence did they have and how did they get it? Who was the informant? Barbara Davis has a defense fund set up on her behalf The Barbara Davis Defense Fund. Anna (Annie) Rae Dixon -- Texas Age 84 and bedridden when she was killed by police in a 1992 drug raid in East Texas. No drugs were found in the home. A 28 year-old officer said his automatic pistol accidentally discharged when he kicked open Mrs. Dixon's bedroom door. Earlier the evening of her death, an informant was given $30 to go into the Dixon home where he claimed he could buy drugs. He emerged with crack cocaine, but police did not search him either before or after the purchase. The informant reported that a few young women and children lived there, but he didn't report about the sick woman. Police got a search warrant and returned to the house just after 2:00 AM. They sprinted up the ramshackle porch and smashed the front door with a battering ram. As they swept in, the officer kicked in the door to Ms. Dixon's bedroom and fell, slamming his elbow against the door and firing the gun. The officer said he collapsed and "started throwing my guts up crying because I knew I had shot somebody that didn't have no reason to be shot." Steven Dons -- Oregon Dons, 37, "committed suicide" while in a medical facilty run by the State. He had been the victim of an unlawful raid by the Portland Oregon Police Department over the heinous crime of "maybe" having had marijuana in the house he was staying in. Dons was not a mild mannered customer. When the police kicked down his door without a warrant, he responed in a way appropriate for the situation. Using a rifle, he killed police officer Colleen Waibel and seriously wounded two other officers. The tragic results of a raid on a citizen who understood the Second and Fourth Amendments. Patrick Dorismond -- New York Juan Mendoza Fernandez -- Texas A 60-year-old man shot and killed by Irving, Texas police serving narcotics search and arrest warrants at his West Dallas home thought officers were burglars trying to force their way inside, members of his family said. He and his wife had been married about 36 years and had four children and 13 grandchildren. Curt Ferryman -- Florida The fatal shooting of unarmed drug dealer Curt Ferryman in a botched sting in Jacksonville was "negligent and unnecessary," but not flagrant enough to warrant criminal prosecution against the federal agent who shot the man, according to State Attorney Harry Shorstein. The August 14, 2000 raid of Ferryman was "poorly planned and poorly executed." Shorstein later admitted that "under Florida law, the killing of Curt Ferryman was excusable homicide." 30-year-old Christopher Sean Martin of the Drug Enforcement Administration accidentally shot Ferryman when the agent knocked on the window of a parked vehicle occupied by the 24-year-old Ferryman. Ramon Gallardo -- California Gallardo was shot 15 times by a SWAT team with a warrant for his son in Dinuba, California in 1997. Ralph Garrison -- New Mexico Ralph Garrison, 69, a video store owner, lived in downtown Albuquerque. In a lifetime of owning small businesses, he put away enough to buy a second house next door, which he rented out. Before sunrise on Monday, December 16, 1996, Ralph Garrison awakened to hear the sounds of someone breaking into his rental property next door. His tenants apparently were not at home. Garrison went outside to ask who these people were and what they were doing. The men -- dressed in black with no visible identifying marks, wearing black "balaclava" hoods which may have been pulled down to conceal their faces, shined lights in his eyes, brandished rifles and yelled at him to get back in his house. Ralph Garrison called 911. But 911 had already arrived. Police reported that police officer H. Neal Terry and county deputies James Monteith and Erik Little -- displaying no badges, dressed in unmarked dark SWAT gear, and possibly wearing their black hoods pulled down over their faces -- saw Garrison come to his back door with a gun in one hand and a cellular phone in the other. All three officers opened fire with their AR-15 assault rifles, discharging at least 12 rounds. Police Chief Joe Polisar and County Sheriff Joe Bowdich said they believe the officers shot Garrison in accordance with departmental policies. John P. Graham -- Wisconsin When Graham, 49, refused to get out of his truck and resisted during an on-site interrogation, he was handcuffed by Sauk-Prairie police officer John Mueller and ordered to remain face down on his driveway. Graham was then shot twice in the back of the head by Mueller with his police revolver. The incident occurred September 16, 1986. Willie Heard -- Kansas In the town of Osawatomie, Kansas (pop. 4,500), Willie Heard, a forty-six year-old man, was shot to death in his bedroom at 1:30 AM by police who had stormed into the home to execute a search warrant. Heard's sixteen year-old daughter claims that the officers failed to identify themselves other than to shout "freeze!" and "get down!" The police, after kicking in the front door, entered the bedroom and came upon Mr. Heard clutching his twenty-two caliber rifle. They shot. He died. The warrant said that the police were to search for crack cocaine and related items. None was found. A probe is underway by the Kansas Bureau of Investigation to determine whether police acted improperly in killing Mr. Heard. John Hirko -- Pennsylvania A masked ninja style 'drug task force' squad of police officers gunned down an unarmed drug suspect in his own home in Bethlehem in April, 1996, in what the coroner subsequently ruled a homicide. The cops also set fire to the house, incinerating the body, but claimed to have miraculously retrieved the drugs for which they had a search warrant. Raul Huartado -- Indiana Gary police officer James Ervin, 30, is accused of using his position as a nine-year veteran on the Gary Police Department to take part in racketeering, homicide, and illicit drug distribution from at least the summer of 1998 through August, 1999. Ervin killed or counseled the killing of Raul Huartado and Gil Nevarez on November 19, 1998, as part of a plot to extort more than 5 kilograms of cocaine from the victims. Joey Kessinger -- Tennessee A tangle between the police and the suspect occurred regarding the illegal sale of drugs in July, 2001. According to the medical examiner's report, Kessinger had two gunshot wounds to the left wrist and four gunshot wounds on the back of his body. Bruce Lavoie -- New Hampshire On August 3, 1989, Lavoie lay peacefully sleeping in the room he shared with his young son in the village of Hudson. At 5:00 AM he was awakened by a loud noise as his whole home was shaken violently. A battering ram had smashed his front door and a dark band of armed men rushed into his small apartment. Rising to defend his son, Lavoie was shot to death as his little boy watched helplessly. Officers found one cannabis cigarette butt. Ronald Loop -- New Jersey Age 25 at time of death on March 11, 1988 in Brick Township. Suspected of marijuana dealing, Loop had just picked up a Federal Express package that contained 10 pounds of marijuana. He was unarmed and was shot as he fled from police outside his home. Ismael Mena -- Colorado Kirk Massie -- Oklahoma Officers shot and killed an armed Sparks man hiding in his bathroom one Tuesday morning in mid-2001 as a search warrant was served at his home. Kirk Massie, 49, was armed with a double-barrel shotgun when agents entered his Lincoln County home at 7:50 AM to serve a warrant for methamphetamine. Massie operated a meth. lab in a bunker on the property. His life was taken because of it. Pedro Oregon Navarro -- Texas Acting on an informant's tip, members of the Houston Police Department gang taskforce stormed into an apartment last month they believed illegal drugs were being sold. When the man who lived there locked himself inside his bedroom, the officers kicked in the door and began firing. Thirty-three bullets later, 23 year-old Pedro Oregon Navarro was dead, shot a dozen times, including nine times in the back. But the investigation in the wake of the fatal shooting shows the officers had no warrant, the informant was not registered with the police as required by Department rules covering drug informants, police found no drugs in Mr. Oregon's apartment and a gun officers said Mr. Oregon had pointed at them never was fired. "They went knowingly and consciously in search of their own heroics and forgot to abide by the rules," says Tony Cantu, a hispanic activist in Houston. "The bottom line is they shot an innocent young man in the back after in illegal entry," Mr. Dovalina said. Gil Nevarez -- Indiana Gary, Indiana police officer James Ervin, 30, is accused of using his position as a nine-year veteran on the Gary Police Department to take part in racketeering, homicide and illicit drug distribution from at least the summer of 1998 through August 1999. Ervin killed or counseled the killing of Raul Huartado and Gil Nevarez on November 19, 1998, as part of a plot to extort more than 5 kilograms of cocaine from the victims. Mario Paz -- California A 69 year old grandfather died a brutal death at the hands of police looking for marijuana on August 9, 1999. No drugs were found. It was an hour before midnight when an El Monte police SWAT team, serving a search warrant as part of a broad-ranging narcotics investigation, undertook what it called the "high-risk entry" of a Compton home -- shooting the locks off the front and back doors. Their warrant, which named no one specifically in the Paz home, says police expected to find marijuana and cash belonging to a suspected member of a drug ring who had allegedly used the house as a mail drop. They found no drugs, but in the course of the search they shot a retired grandfather twice in the back -- killing him. The widow was hustled out of the house in nothing but panties, a towel, and plastic handcuffs. She and six others were later taken away and intensively interrogated, but no one was charged. Ten thousand dollars in cash was seized as evidence, along with a .22- caliber rifle and three pistols, according to investigators for the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department. The family said that the money was patriarch Mario Paz's life savings and that he kept firearms for protection in the high-crime neighborhood. Robert Lee Peters -- Florida Age 33 at time of death in St. Petersburg in July, 1994. Deputies did not identify themselves before breaking into the house as the family prepared to watch a movie. Friends and relatives say Peters may have mistaken them for burglars. Deputies did not know there were two children and his ailing stepfather (who had a heart attack after the shoot-out) in the house at the time of the no-knock raid. The police tried to smash through the front door with a battering ram. Peters fired a .357 magnum through the door and was struck three times by the SWAT team. Two pounds of marijuana were confiscated from his home. Records indicate that a confidential informant bought 7.3 grams of marijuana. An undercover detective purchased 27 grams. His brother George was charged and did not resist arrest. George said his brother wouldn't have resisted either, had he known they were deputies. "All they had to do," he said, "was knock on the door." Manuel Medina Ramirez -- California When Ramirez, a 63-year-old retired golf-course groundskeeper, was routed from his slumber at 2:00 AM by armed men breaking down the door of his modest Stockton home, he instinctively reached for his bedside pistol. Shooting into the darkness, he brought one of the men down; the others returned fire, and Ramirez was shot dead in front of his son and daughter, who had also been awakened. The armed men turned out to be a Stockton police anti-drug team who had obtained a warrant for the house after a friend of the Ramirez family was found with marijuana in his car and gave the police the Ramirez address as his own. The officers claim they had identified themselves, but the Ramirez daughter says her father spoke poor English and couldn't understand them. No drugs were found in the house. "These were very quiet people," said a neighbor. "I never saw anything going on that could indicate drugs at all." Donald Scott -- California Michael Swimmer -- Georgia While Swimmer stood naked by his own bed, drug warrior police burst through his front door and riddled his bedroom with machine gun fire. Swimmer was shot ten times and died a few hours later. The authorities all agreed killing Swimmer, who had no police record, was just fine because an unidentified informant said that he had 368 tablets of ecstasy. Rev. Accelyne Williams -- Massachusetts Retired Methodist minister Accelyne Williams was chased around his Boston apartment by members of a police team looking for drugs and guns when he collapsed and died of a heart attack at the age of 75. Acting on a tip by an informant, the police conducted a no-knock raid. No guns or drugs were found, as it was soon discovered they raided the wrong apartment. George Timothy Williams -- Idaho Officer Phillip Anderson, 23, and his partner, Cpl. James Moulson, 30, were killed in the shootout at the Eden home of George Timothy Williams the night of January 3, 2001 while attempting to serve a search warrant for illegal drugs at Williams' home. Williams, 47, a suspected drug dealer, was also killed during the fight. About four grams of marijuana were found in Williams' home after the raid. Rusty Windell -- Texas |
To: Dakmar
"...We DON'T have the constitutional right to do evil, period.
# 80 by Illbay
That's true, we don't have the right to do evil.
However, using drugs is not evil.
To: Conservative til I die
Truth be told, there is probably a lot more to these stories than what is printed above. Aguilar is just one case of stupidity; I'll be willing to bet there are other circumstances surrounding a few of the cases. It would be interesting to hear the other side of the story.
# 92 by stainlessbanner
We can see the truth every day on re-runs of "true-police" documentaries on television.
"Police" equipped in military gear, wearing masks over their heads, break down the doors of American citizens with no warning.
Should you turn down this rehab - you are history because they are not going to risk other employees lives so you can make yourself a liability. You are then subject to immediate random drug screens for up to 5 years in which your supervisor is called and told to send you for an immediate drug screen. (How embarrassing is that as you work your head off to get promotions?)
If you fail even one of these screens - you lose your job.
Oh, by the way, this applies to alcohol also. Gone are the days of drinks for lunch.
You are not paid to come in soused or drugged and do work for a company paying you a salary. So you just better plan any addiction (or entertainment) around your own time off work.
Seems that they are looking for people they can trust and depend on to get a job done.
Don't believe all that stuff on TV! Remember COPS is entertainment. Some of the LEOs put on a show for the camera.
Yes. They are called Alcohol and Drug Programs. I have worked with cases of alcohol addiction. One went so far as to be a lawyer who soiled his pants in his corporate office. Other employees contacted medical about it for help. This same case had a young 16 year old son who was trying to care for his addict dad. I can just imagine the hell that kid had to live through. Of course, this man was processed for total disability and would eventually either go through all his funds or on to welfare - unable to hold ANY JOB.
Quit with the cop out about alcohol or cigarettes. The fact that people have a drink does not justify drug use. Those choosing addictive, mind altering drugs are willfully accepting their own poison. The only problem is that no man is an island. These working partakers are the medical people treating us for illness, are the doctors performing surgery, the pilots flying us, or have one of the many other positions that perform services for me and my family.
Next time you schedule surgery - ask yourself - "is it safe to schedule this on a Monday when my surgeon may have taken cocaine all weekend?" Am I expected to pay that bum for risking my life?
To: JediGirl
"...When the Drug War succeeds in expunging drug traffic from America's prisons, which are totalitarian micro-societies where near-perfect control is thinkable, if not always achievable, they'll have the beginnings of an argument for their crusade. All they'll need to do then is persuade the rest of us that we want to be inmates in a prison."
# 94 by fporretto
That's the most visible crack in the story that "we're winning" the drug war.
All arguments that drugs can be controlled are proven wrong by the example of our prison system's failure to stop drugs inside the most tightly contained areas of our nation.
We can see the truth every day on re-runs of "true-police" documentaries on television.
To: exodus
Don't believe all that stuff on TV! Remember COPS is entertainment. Some of the LEOs put on a show for the camera.
# 244 by stainlessbanner
The "stuff on television" that I am talking about is very mild compared to what isn't put on camera.
As to "Some of the LEOs put on a show for the camera," notice that they are able to abuse citizens ON CAMERA. I don't care if the police are just having a little fun, nothing excuses that sort of tyranny.
"Cops" the show is entertainment AND a statement. It's not just a fun time thing, it lets us know that if we come to the attention of the police, we will be taken down hard.
I agree with your well stated points. I would not be for laws either BUT. As we have seen in this society all moral restraints have been removed. People continually seek ever lower and lower bars of respected behavior. Irresponsibility runs rampant more than ever in our culture.
This is similar to the Saddam situation. Are we to allow them to kill us before we act? Are we to pay for the costs of their drug habits and pick them up and carry them when they can't? Must we pay for all the safeguards required to insure that their entertainment does not harm us?
Your theory means that they break the law and pay the consequence. But what about the people hurt in that incidence. Is that fair to them? Was it fair for drunk drivers to be allowed over and over to have hit and run accidents and kill others so that they had their freedom? What about the freedom of those children killed by them?
Are we to allow the irresponsibility and ignorance of drug/alcohol addicts to harm us, our families, our safety? Are we willing to pay the true costs of their irresponsibility and disrespect of any besides their personal wants?
What would happen to a large oil company if the company allowed a cocaine partaking employee to be the wheelman on a oil tanker? What about the helicopter pilot picking up employees from that rig and carting them back to land? What about the drughead crewman pulling up cable that accidently hits another man pushing him overboard?
I can tell you what - lawsuits. The same if an employee is recommending stock purchases to a customer, a medical person administering medications. They are expected to be of sound mind and full capabilities or the company is at risk of lawsuits.
That is the reason they pay thousands per year for the drug screens, the rehab, the follow-up monitoring, the salaries. A single random drug screen costs a company $50 in addition to the personnel costs for all the paperwork and follow-up.
I am reminded of a sign I saw at Home Depot. "We require drug screens on new employees. Don't even bother to apply if you take drugs."
With your views, you probably already have.
To: SkyRat
# "...Quit with the cop out about alcohol or cigarettes. The fact that people have a drink does not justify drug use. Those choosing addictive, mind altering drugs are willfully accepting their own poison. The only problem is that no man is an island. These working partakers are the medical people treating us for illness, are the doctors performing surgery, the pilots flying us, or have one of the many other positions that perform services for me and my family..."
# 245 by ClancyJ
Only to a point, ClancyJ.
Your argument that people in contact with the public shouldn't be intoxicated has validity. In cases such as that, the employer is held responsible for the conduct of his employees, and has a responsibility to insure that his workers don't endanger the public.
However, being intoxicated on the job and using drugs of any kind in private are two completely different things.
When the effects of the drug wear off, the public is no longer in danger.
Socialists? I'm a socialist? So, any person not agreeing to free drug use is a socialist?
No, I would suppose you are one. You want the society to care for you so you can have no responsibility for yourself or your loved ones. You want the freedom to become an addict spending all your energy seeking the next fix. No work, no worry, no job to keep, no family to bother with - only seeking the next "relaxation", the next smoke, the next hit. Such luxury. Addiction is pure joy as long as you can keep the drugs flowing.
Funny, how sensitive those in the drug culture get when talking about taking away their weed, their hit. They get absolutely mad. You see, it has become more important to them than their jobs, their future, their children, their spouses. They are in bliss - although it is only a chemical thing - but bliss is bliss.
Please do go on, comrade, you were saying some very interesting and pertinent things about the peoples' oil platforms and insurance rates.
It is not naive. I have worked for years in a corporation medical department. I have seen the destruction caused by UNTREATED alcohol addiction. I have processed the total disability claims and worked with the physicians trying to help the families get their addicted one together long enough to see a doctor to get the paperwork done so they can get total disability. By the way - total disability is 50% salary for a period of two years - then review again. They either die or get well. When they qualify for total disability - few if none get well.
This also means they are terminated from employment. If they got well - they do not have a job.
I am sure there are many well off stock brokers smoking coke while advising me how to invest my money. I am sure there are many dentists that are abusers as they drill on my teeth. I am sure every facet of our society has been dragged into the drug culture. For what? A cheap thrill?
Is this the best they can get with their money - a chemical buzz? A high that falsely makes them think they are doing great work, they are creative, they are magnificent?
If this is the best - I would just as soon leave now. There is a lot more to life than a chemical buzz and I want to partake of all of it.
As I have said before - those in the drug culture protest too much. Why do they feel the need to convince others they are ok even though they can't make it through the week without a "fix".
Just be happy. Every doctor visit now finds us wondering if we are really in the hands of a man in control. Every time we have any work done, we will wonder about the "drug status" of this individual I am trusting with my children and family.
Government over intrusion is not.
Our nation, our society, was designed for a people who were moral. That morality derives from the same place as the rights, and our founders enumerated clearly where they felt that was, the Creator. The Constitution and the liberties enumerated in the Bill of Rights pre-suppose a moral people, capable of making the decisions and taking responsibility. But it was never meant to be a morality that was enforced at the point of a gun. Such a condition is not morality ... it is tyranny as sure as what the original colonists sought to escape from England and other places.
I believe (from my own travels and experiences throughoput this nation) that the moral base is still in place. I believe the people have to be free to choose issues and behaviors that do not infringe on or harm anyone else. I believe that society still has the power to keep it in check through its moral persuasion ... like Home Depot's policy.
It is those who are empowered by the over intrusion in government IMHO who try and keep that intrusion enthroned and it will lead to the death of this Republic, or ultimately civil strife as surely as a totally immoral or amoral society would. I am convinced that we are not totally immoral or amoral and that the liberty enumerated by the founders is still our best, our only hope.
As John Adams said,
"Our Constitution was designed for a religious and a moral people, it is wholly unsuited for the governing of any other"We have to still believe that we are mostly just that, and that people's vice's in their own privacy are less a threat to it than big government.
Again, do not get me wrong, I believe those vices are repugnant and that folks need to choose to overcome them and avoid them ... but I believe totalitariansim in any form is a medicine much worse than the ill. I believe society can handle the ill and device laws that harshly punish people when their vices get away and they harm others. If we were serious about that (whether with speed or alcohol) we would see the progress necessary IMHO.
As it laws are being established and agencies and powers enthroned that tread on all of our rights. It's just a matter of time.
Damn straight.
It was the rather collectivist premises in your #202 that caught you out -- talk of "our adults" and "society's needs". A definite "red" flag there.
No, I would suppose you are one. You want the society to care for you so you can have no responsibility for yourself or your loved ones.
Wrong, I want the society-cult to go away and find other scapegoats and bogeymen, preferably from within its own ranks and at its own expense.
You want the freedom to become an addict spending all your energy seeking the next fix.
That's exactly right. What's it to you?
Funny, how sensitive those in the drug culture get when talking about taking away their weed, their hit.
Well yeah, because it's simply not yours to take away. What on earth do you expect?
You are correct and it would appear there would be no problem. However, we have found otherwise. Why would a person be so dumb as to take drugs on the weekend before returning to the offshore oil rig? Of course, random drug screens will be performed to prevent accidents on the rig. What are the chances they will pass that screen? What if they slip up and their drug binge runs over into Sunday. It takes a bit of time for the drugs to leave their system. Would a normal self-sufficient hard working employee risk his job and benefits by playing this game?
No, but one taking drugs will. Drug use means giving up control of your body to a chemical. If someone is willing to allow a chemical to have control of their life, they are not in control enough to manage when they allow the drug to control.
You would think that people would not get caught on the screens. You would think after they went to rehab and were warned that if they failed one of the future tests, they were to be terminated, that they would be sure to "control" their recreation. But they don't.
We have seen the program work wonders and we have seen the failures. Attitude is the difference. One who tries to manipulate the system, to deny, to both have his cake and eat it too - fails. The one who is sincere, is trying, is compliant with the screening regulations will have a tough 3-5 years but can get control. However, some of them fall back after a few years.
Such a difference. Before the drug program - no treatment and employees progressed to the point of disability or total disability (alcohol abuse). Drug abusers did not stay long enough to progress to anything.
After the program, the employee chooses. He either continues his addiction and loses his job or he stays, complies with the rehab and 3-5 year follow-up and solves his addiction and keeps his job and progresses in it. I am glad to say this has been a lot better than seeing the total disability cases and the tragedy they involved.
From the outside, the drug scene does not seem that damaging or crippling. However, seeing what happens to lives shows us what is really going on. Any drug user will try and convince all others that he is intelligent, knows what he is doing, is not or will never be addicted. This is the drug talking or, in truth, the slave-master.
Well yes - thank you comrade. It is such a pity that people rail against the old oil companies and all the money they make, when they don't know what it takes to get that oil turned into gasoline for them.
Here we have all these oil rigs with all that liability and the millions of dollars to drill the thing and those stupid idiots think we are going to allow them to come in coked out of their mind and blow it up for us. Why we even had them responsible for a few deaths out there. Just how much do they think they are worth to the company anyway.
And, bringing drugs in and dealing on the coast? They better think twice. We're going to hire a company to go out there and test them as they return to the rig - we're going to send a team out to the well sites in the boonies. We're going to have a clinic at all of the refineries with strict random screening or they might blow up 100's of employees and destroy 10 years of building a dang refinery costing millions and millions of dollars with their "entertainment of choice".
If they don't like it, we hope they quit. Or, maybe we will just have to have another reorganization and get rid of that dangerous deadwood.
We're gettin' mighty tired of having to deal with those Saudis and all their harassment about oil and having to be sabotaged here on site by people we are paying good salaries and benefits. Those Americans ain't gonna pay much more for that oil - so somethin has got to be done and we know how to do it too. We're tough!!!!
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