Posted on 07/25/2008 8:49:03 PM PDT by bamahead
After being caught twice with a "baggie" of marijuana, 23-year old Rachel Hoffman was reportedly told by police in Tallahassee, Florida that she would go to prison for four years unless she became an undercover informant.
The young woman, a recent graduate of Florida State University, was murdered during a botched sting operation two months ago.
"The idea of waging a war on drugs is to protect people and here it seems like we're putting people in harm's way," said Lance Block, a lawyer hired by Rachel's parents.
The Florida Attorney General's office says it is reviewing the procedures and protocol of the Tallahassee police.
"I'm calling her a criminal," Tallahassee police chief Dennis Jones told 20/20, who maintains that both drug dealers and drug users are considered criminals to his department.
Under Florida law, possession of more than 20 grams of marijuana is a felony.
The Tallahassee police chief says Rachel was suspected of selling drugs and she was rightly treated as a criminal.
"That's my job as a police chief to find these criminals in our community and take them off the street, to make the proper arrests," Jones told 20/20.
Rachel's case also is raising questions about how police recruit and use informants in undercover operations.
"There need to be some safeguards here," said Block, the Hoffman family lawyer.
The young woman received no training before being sent to an undercover meeting to buy a large amount of drugs and a handgun from two suspects.
Police says Rachel was killed by the very handgun she was supposed to buy.
"I don't think she understood the risk or danger that she was in," said Block.
Rachel was in a drug court diversion program when she became an informant.
(Excerpt) Read more at abcnews.go.com ...
There are numerous quotes, sites and links in the thread.
“How many people overdosed on pot?”
I think the answer is a grand total of one. Used to be zero, but someone managed to do it a couple years ago. Didn’t smoke a ridiculous amount, smoked an insane amount. Enough that if it was cigs, that probably would have killed him (nicotine overdose - yes, that can happen, esp. when someone uses the patch and still smokes a couple packs in a day).
Thanks, I’ll review. Regardless, buying large amounts of coke and handguns exposes you to a much higher level criminals than being a small time pot dealer.
From the reports it was one(1) arrest and a threat of being charged.
Actually it was 20 grams (2/3 of an ounce) on her, and they found another 5 oz, when they raided her house. But if they think she intended to sell it, any amount can be "intent to sell" (and possession of more than 20 gm is a felony, which sets the bar pretty low)
She was already in a court ordered drug diversion program at the time of her most recent arrest.
Unless they charged her, it's no arrest
Oh? Were you her customer? If not, then how do you know this?
She got pulled over for speeding, and her previous time in jail was for failure to show in court. That was how she was in the diversion program, for the pot possession.
It's not like she had a huge cache of Ecstasy...well, until the cops wanted her to buy 1,500 pills (thus violating her conditions of her program).
When the medical marijuana bills are to be voted on, people like yourself yell and scream that it is closet decriminalization. Then when they pass, you say "The voters didn't vote for deciminalizatin".
Everyone knows the medical marijuana thing is BS, that's why they vote for it!
Were you her dealer?
Quote me.
“Rachel Hoffman, 23, had been in a pretrial diversion program after a minor marijuana arrest. Police in Tallahassee searched her home and allegedly found marijuana and ecstasy.”
She was caught again after her previous arrest.
These "Free My Dope" threads always go the same way - blame the police, not the murderer, call people the Taliban who disagree with you, and throw in a couple of red herrings about alcohol and peanuts.
That's assuming you would have been hired in the first place. I've found that people with a lot af attitude tend to flame out in interviews.
“Such the norm?”
I know what you mean, but it's actually not the norm. Even though they allow people to possess it and licensed shops to sell it, a considerably lower percentage of the Dutch have even tried marijuana than the percentage of Americans who have tried it. The law is not what keeps people from smoking marijuana. There are plenty of other good reasons for not smoking it and whether you live in Holland or the U.S., chances are if you don't smoke pot it's because of all these other good reasons for not smoking it rather than the law.
There feel better now?
Arsenic, also put here by God, along with myriad's of poisonous plants, all there for you to use at your pleasure.
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