Posted on 02/09/2007 5:47:22 PM PST by ccmay
He looks like a good cop. He's got the 'stache, the short-cropped hair, the pushed-out chest and the shiny badge. He sounds like a good cop too; drawled and official. He's got a TV reporter's microphone in his face and a brick of marijuana in his hand, and he's answering questions—not in the "I just accidentally Tasered an old lady" kind of way, but with a grin of accomplishment. The total bust was in the neighborhood of 275 pounds.
This is the old Barry Cooper. Top cop. Total prick. He claims more than 300 felony drug arrests during his eight years as an officer in Gladewater, Big Sandy and Odessa, and a former supervisor says he was damn good at his job, even if he doesn't agree with Cooper's latest get-rich idea.
The video cuts to a decade later, a few months ago. "That was me, Barry Cooper," he says, "top narcotics officer." His hair is longer. That 'stache is now a full-on goatee. The top cop has become a dude. "I'm going to show you places that I never found marijuana hidden." He talks with his hands, like a mellowed-out P.T. Barnum. "I'm going to teach you exactly how narcotic-detector dogs are trained, and I'm going to answer that age-old question: Do coffee grounds really work?"
It's quite the pitch: Former drug warrior sees the light, goes to the dark side and makes a video, Never Get Busted Again, with shady tips on how to fool the fuzz. Stoners rejoice. The new beginning of the end of prohibition is near.
"The drug war is a failed policy, and the legal side effects on the families are worse than the drugs," Cooper says. "I was so wrong in the things I did back then. I ruined lives."
(Excerpt) Read more at dallasobserver.com ...
I don't know of any drug programs that can legitimatel claim a high success rate. Most druggies are recidivists--whether because the allure is too much to resist or because their personalities/physiology are not geared to resist.
I've got some family members whose folks have spent thousands on clinics and programs and more thousands on defense attorneys without abating the problem.
Others just decided to quit and did without any program or treatment.
LOL!
Think the success rate is about 2 in 30.
First you have to WANT to be clean. The choice is clear though, quit, die, or jail.
Jack
So your solution, which is the status quo, is perfectly logical and sufficiently complex. However, my idea, which is to decriminalize and offer treatment is simplistic and built on general knowledge. The fact that it would approach the same costs for incarceration may be true. However, you would remove the rest of the criminal element that goes along with the huge artificial profits built into drug dealing and you lower the price to a point where people (desperate addicts) aren't killing for crack money. You are simply more intelligent than me. I give up.
As PJ O'Rourke points out, marijuana makes you extremely sensitive to the world around you, and what could be worse in the modern world we live in?
I do not think change for the sake of change is warranted, and I believe it's prudent to use the old carpenter's rule...measure twice, cut once.
Any answer is going to be less than perfect. I think we have to satisfy ourselves that it's less imperfect than what we have now.
Our current policy is a flock of unintentional consequences. Believe it or not, it can get worse.
You are entirely correct. What's more...consider that if you have tax dollars involved, you're going to have government bureaucracy and civil servants involved. The possibilities are mind-boggling. It's a veritable ocean of unintended consequences.
They wouldn't be driving Corvettes if they couldn't "legally" steal them from guys selling a vegetable that grows everywhere in the world.
Actually there is another option to quit, die or jail.
I know a lot of my contemporaries in their 60s who still do drugs as a social thing in moderation and are still productive, healthy and happy.
They are the ones who didn't abuse to the point of recklessness in their youth and there are millions like them.
Of course, they are still liable to going to jail--to "protect them from themselves"--which seems almost comical after all these years
Right, where else will they get the money for their swat training, machine guns, armoured vehicles, sat phones, overtime, lawyers to battle lawsuits etc?
Average wage for police in San Diego according to the chief of police I heard on kogo claimed it to be $100k plus with overtime and swat qualifications. Talk show host said they should get raises lol.
John
You are correct, I was thinking of terms of an addict, forgetting that there ARE millions of recreational users who have no problems with addiction. And of course, if a person doesn't want to quit, they won't,education would help to let them know about assistance programs such as AA and NA.
Jack
Neither the Republicans or Democrats have any real desire to secure the border - the occasional election hype rhetoric notwithstanding.
They derive too much money by keeping it porous.
The WOD is a self-perpetuating industry.
"Right, where else will they get the money for their swat training, machine guns, armoured vehicles, sat phones, overtime, lawyers to battle lawsuits etc?"
But But they need all those things to keep the peace. After all our violent crime rate is something like 17th of the top industrialized countries. If they weren't abusing the citizens like that we might be 18th!
Should I add a sarc tag?
Strawman, strawman, don't you realise what a fire hazard you are presenting here?
Not to mention how many times your strawmen have been set free by the simple truths that you drug warriors refuse to see... that rape, robbery and murder are considered "malum in se," that is, because they have real VICTIMS, they are evil acts, in and of themselves. Drug possession and use are "malum prohibitum," that is, they are only "evil" because some power-hungry government pervert SAYS they are. (At a guess, one of those would be you. Am I right?) The actual CRIME associated with drugs comes from the drug LAWS, that is, without the laws prohibiting the recreational use of unapproved drugs, there would be a level of drug related crime approaching about zero. Of course, there would be no Grand Theft (asset forfeiture) for the WODDIES to profit from and no more payola to judges, supervisorial cops and legislators from the dealers, so those folks would have to find REAL work for a change. Prisons would then have more room for REAL criminals...those murderers and rapists you seem to like so much... and we, the people, might once more be secure in our persons, papers and property, not to mention our wallets, when we no longer have to fund all you jackbooted thugs to the tune of BILLIONS per year, not including your bribe monies.
"What about the argument that Marijuana is a 'gateway' drug that leads kids to harder stuff?"
That argument is a correlation argument. For example, "Ninety percent of heroin addicts have a marijuana history. Therefore, it is safe to say that marijuana is a 'gateway' to heroin addiction."
Sounds acceptable, at first hearing? Only if you are a deck crewman on a carrier during launch time.
Here's another version of that first argument, " Nearly 100% of heroin addicts have a milk history."
Still think that correlation argument sounds acceptable?
Maybe I didn't make my sarcasm clear in the rest of that post. I agree with you.
But that will NEVER happen. Education is pretty much already mandatory in primary and secondary schools. That ain't doing squat. All that will happen is the same that's happening now which is court-ordered education and treatment except on a much grander scale.
A scale that will put the number of IRS employees (100,000) to shame.
this guy sounds like Ramsey Clark.....when its convenient, he'll switch sides.....
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