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 ...
The same people who are spending billions and billions to fight the WOD now. Sending money and troops to Columbia, patrolling the skies and oceans, prisons, courts, police, and collateral damage are very expensive!!!
Isn't that redundant???
Not everywhere. Some places get filled up. No doubt that if you really want help and try for a few days you'll find it, but not as easily as you describe."
So, what programs did you go through?
That says nothing about putting it into my body.
Nice try.
L
So you could pass a law to force Jews to wear yellow stars on their clothing?
L
So you and your 'majority' could make going to a Baptist Church a Federal crime?
So you and your 'majority' could make petitioning my government for a redress of greivances a crime?
So you and your 'majority' could force me to quarter Federal troops in my home at my own expense?
So you and your 'majority' could make it legal to torture anyone you felt like torturing?
So you and your 'majority' could force me to testify against myself?
The only thing that's apparent here is that the majority of your 'majority' are idiots. And that includes the fool who pretends to be speaking for them right now.
L
Not too long and very interesting. Why do people have a problem with him making money off of the fight against the WOD? Most of the LEO's involved are making money off of it, judges, politicians, et. al.
Maybe capitalism will be an effective tool in regaining our lost liberties.
With choices come consequences...I know that drug addicts don't have a lot of money at their disposal. You weren't looking for treatment for addicts, you were looking for treatment for addicts at the expense of those who are not addicts...gumment paid. If I don't believe in subsidized treatment for drunks, why would I believe in subsidized treatment for crackheads?
What addicts do is either my business, or not...if it's not my business, it's not my problem. I have no interest in subsidizing a lifestyle I recognize as destructive. If an addict has the right to drink/smoke/shoot up/whatever, then they have the right to lay in the ditch until they feel better, or die.
You don't get it. You are already paying for it. You are paying for all of the people in jail for nonviolent drug offenses that carry mandatory minimum sentences (taking the place of guys like John Couey and other Pedophiles).
You are already subsidizing the lifestyle of those involved in the drug trade, not the addicts but the dealers at the higher levels. You are paying through the nose in taxes to support the govt's efforts to enforce the black market monopoly on the narcotics trade.
You pay also, and most expensively by having your individual liberties chipped away, day by day, year by year.
Ask yourself this. Why do we not get tax credits or rebates when the police seize millions of drug dollars? Where does that money go? What do they do with the drugs they confiscate and where do they get the drugs to set up sting operations? When is the WOD supposed to end, what defines success, will our civil liberties be returned once the WOD is successful? What other "Wars" is our govt. involved in that are evolving along the same lines?
Half the 16,000 murders in the USA last year went unsolved. Why do we even bother when the effort is such a waste?
And rapes? Geez, there must have been hundreds of thousands that never even got reported.
More of these crimes would be solved if LEO resources were freed up from the WOD. Less of these crimes would be committed if jail cells weren't occupied by nonviolent drug offendors under mandatory minimum sentencing.
You think there's an obesity "epidemic" now...
(do I really need the /sarcasm tag here folks?)
How many of them were related to the trade in illegal drugs?
While you're at it. legalize prostitution.
That's an excellent idea!
Half the 16,000 murders in the USA last year went unsolved.
How many of them were related to the trade in illegal drugs?
How many of those wouldn't have occurred if recreational drugs weren't soley supplied by a black market monopoly?
Put another way, how many times have you heard a report about the Budwieser and Henieken representatives shooting it out over turf, or how many turf wars erupt into violence by reps from Abbott labs and Phizer?
There's no good answer. For me the cost outweighed the benefit on the WOD when asset forfeiture became commonplace. I don't care how great the need or noble the cause...due process is a constitutional right.
The only possibly worse answer is offering free treatment and decriminalizing drug use. Everyone with the benefit of hindsight can see the cost of the Great Society programs, the "war on poverty." We finally pulled the plug because of the $$$ cost; not only were the programs much more expensive than predicted, they created an increasing demand for the services.
We haven't totally counted the human cost. We now have a whole generation of welfare recipients, for example, possibly second and third generation, who are for all intents and purposes incapable of functioning as adults. We have a generation of young men who will never be employable. This was done with the best of intentions, but with little or no foresight.
Politicians believe there's no law they can't amend, but they've had little success on the law of unintended consequences. These results were easily predictable, and were predicted by some. They were assaulted as being mean-spirited and judgmental. Sound familiar? It should.
There's no shortage of politicians whose ambition outpaces their understanding...and plenty of do-gooders whose good intentions outweigh their judgment.
This is a minefield of unintended consequences. If I could support any change it would be to decriminalize, along with a philosophy...you are free to make bad choices, but we will do our best to see that the consequences are borne by you alone.
Hey, don't mess with those Pfizer boys. They will jack you up.
Overdose of marijuana? How amazing. Must be the first case ever. Are they going to write it up in the New England Journal of Medicine or the Lancet?
Meth is the biggest drug problem this country is facing right now. That should be the focus.
I fully agree. As I said on another thread, I'm in favor of legalization of marijuana, decriminalization and medicalization of most hard drugs, and public hanging for methamphetamine dealers.
-ccm
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
