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Are Pot Users Criminals? The Tragic Case of Rachel Hoffman
ABC News ^ | July 24, 2008 | BRIAN ROSS and VIC WALTER

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 ...


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Culture/Society; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: baronmunchiehausen; criminals; donutwatch; jbts; lawsuit; libertarians; munchies; pot; potheadalert; potheads; themunchies; wod; wosd
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To: MartinStyles

I do not use illegal drugs. Surprised? I only use oxycontin, morhpine, sleeping pills, dilaudid, you know all the USUAL legal DRUGS. I even cannot use marinol (the ok pot given in a pill) because the dose is too strong.

I know you are so shocked.


661 posted on 07/27/2008 8:41:30 PM PDT by greccogirl
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To: Mojave

I am sick of the billions being wasted on the war on drugs. I don’t give a crap what it is called.


662 posted on 07/27/2008 8:42:12 PM PDT by greccogirl
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To: Oztrich Boy
she's an unknown buyer in the big time dealer

Her friends chose the perps.

663 posted on 07/27/2008 8:48:51 PM PDT by Mojave
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To: greccogirl
And this gives the cops the right to kill him defenseless in his car 15 YEARS LATER HOW?

And there was no reason to suspect that a gangbanger with a history of violent assaults against officers had a weapon when he went searching for one under the car seat. And there's no reason to question the word of his gangbanger father with a criminal hisory.

That would be contrary to your obsessive hatred of police and our drug laws. The sheriffs should have waited until one of them took a bullet before firing. And then they should have used tasers.

664 posted on 07/27/2008 8:57:36 PM PDT by Mojave
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To: greccogirl
I am sick of the billions being wasted on the war on drugs.

No, you're hysterical over the success of our drug laws.

665 posted on 07/27/2008 8:59:56 PM PDT by Mojave
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To: greccogirl

I doubt you haven’t used them.. You’re on those harmful legal drugs, but want just as (and more) harmless drugs legalized at the local 7-11?!?


666 posted on 07/27/2008 9:04:37 PM PDT by MartinStyles
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To: MartinStyles

Well, vote 666.. I menat you want just as harmless and porbably more than you’re legal ones legalized..

That’s all I can say. I want harm reduction, and legalizing more drugs isn’t it.


667 posted on 07/27/2008 9:06:59 PM PDT by MartinStyles
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To: daler

You didn’t read any of my other posts associated with this one, did you?

I don’t care if pot is legal or not. It won’t affect me either way. I was making the point that the girl died because she was doing something illegal.

However, I will say that in this instance, no, the police were not doing their job. The cops are the ones certified and trained for law enforcement. They should have let a judge handle this girls future. They had no authority to authorize a civillian sting operation.


668 posted on 07/27/2008 9:12:17 PM PDT by waiyu (Living is the only thing worth dying for.)
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To: waiyu
They had no authority to authorize a civillian sting operation.

Source?

669 posted on 07/27/2008 9:25:20 PM PDT by Mojave
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To: MartinStyles
You said the data from the governments of Singapore and the Netherlands showing a significantly worse drug addiction problem in Singapore was "a joke" (see #151). Asking again, what is your basis for that claim?

FYI, it looks like Islamic Iran is failing even worse than Singapore in the WOD. From a June 2004 BBC article:

Iran has the highest proportion of heroin addicts in the world and a growing Aids problem.

--news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/this_world/3791889.stm

670 posted on 07/27/2008 11:56:11 PM PDT by Ken H
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To: Ken H

If any one you drug supports would ADMIT to using or use in the past, it would help so much in the discussion.

You people act all weird about the subject. Supporting it, but denying use. The only answer I can say is, if you don’t use it, don’t worry if it’s illegal.

If you use it, talk about it. Explain the need for your use.


671 posted on 07/28/2008 12:06:46 AM PDT by MartinStyles
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To: bamahead
"I'm calling her a criminal....That's my job as a police chief to find these criminals in our community and take them off the street..."

Wow, what a thing to say in this case.

Stop this inane "drug war". We have a real war to fight now.

672 posted on 07/28/2008 4:57:31 AM PDT by Free Descendant
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To: ConservaTexan
Sometimes doing drugs (even marijuana) has negative consequences.

Our policies cause the worst of the consequences for far more people - crime, botched raids, corrupt police and things like this.

Can you imagine a 23 year old among your family or friends making such a mistake? This was sad and wrong. You don't use a 23 year old girl in a sting with violent criminals. It's insane and it's immoral and very sad.

And ask yourself this. Why wasn't Jeb Bush's daughter, or John Ashcroft's nephew or Al Gore's son used in sting operations? They were all busted for drugs too.

673 posted on 07/28/2008 5:07:06 AM PDT by Free Descendant
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To: waiyu

And honestly where do you see these three if they weren’t smoking pot? Brain surgeons? Corporate executives? Rocket scientists?

Laziness and a lack of motivation is common. Is it a surprise that unmotivated, lazy people spend all their time smoking pot?

How sensible is it to spend billions fighting this “drug war” when our soldiers who are fighting a real war have to struggle to get proper equipment.

A large number of our casualties in Iraq were from IEDs. Did you know we have vehicles that are resistant to IEDs? Most of our soldiers are not equipped with them. Why? We have finite resources and we have to decide how we use them.

How many of our soldiers have we allowed to be maimed or killed because we were spending on our money on a futile attempt to keep pot out of the hands of 23 year old girls?

If for no other reason but our limited resources and priorities let us end the drug war and then re-visit the idea again when there aren’t people out there who want to blow up our soldiers and detonate nukes in NY and LA.

Billions and billions and billions and billion...down the drain...such a waste.


674 posted on 07/28/2008 5:25:45 AM PDT by Free Descendant
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To: dalereed

“If I had my way anyone using drugs should on the spot execution.”

Wow! I am utterly amazed. I was just perscribed a tiny little pill that I now take daily, it is supposed to help me lower my cholesterol. I better not go into your region of CA. I was considering getting a Chantax perscription, I better be careful I don’t get executed as I leave the drug store.

I don’t throw the “taliban” reference around litely, but you remind me of the Islamofascists.


675 posted on 07/28/2008 8:17:35 AM PDT by CSM (Hey if a small tax increase didn't work, a bigger tax increase should not work even BETTER!)
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To: waiyu
"You didn’t read any of my other posts associated with this one, did you?"

Actually, I did...and agree with most of what you posted.

It was my error in wording my response in a manner that was misinterpreted.

When I referred to "if you want to change the law contact your elected representatives..." I meant that in the general sense. It wasn't directed at you personally.

676 posted on 07/28/2008 8:22:28 AM PDT by daler
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To: MartinStyles

“What, now we’re against letting adults make their own choices to be informants?!”

So, we should consider it our individual right to put our physical beings in harms way on behalf of the police, free of coersion? But, at the same time, we should not be allowed the individual rights to use that same physical being to ingest anything we see fit, free of coersion?


677 posted on 07/28/2008 8:41:15 AM PDT by CSM (Hey if a small tax increase didn't work, a bigger tax increase should not work even BETTER!)
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To: itsahoot

“Arsenic, also put here by God, along with myriad’s of poisonous plants, all there for you to use at your pleasure.”

A myriad of manufactured products require the use of arsenic in the manufacturing process. Are you advocating that the federal government prohibit the posession, use or sale of arsenic?


678 posted on 07/28/2008 9:52:51 AM PDT by CSM (Hey if a small tax increase didn't work, a bigger tax increase should not work even BETTER!)
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To: dalereed
“Spoken by a man who must not use any alcohol, tobacco, caffeine or prescription medications.”

Except for thyroid you are right.

I'm guessing that you have a pretty lame music collection.

679 posted on 07/28/2008 10:22:31 AM PDT by jmc813 (Scattered, smothered, covered, diced, chunked)
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To: MartinStyles
If any one you drug supports would ADMIT to using or use in the past, it would help so much in the discussion.

My friends and I occasionally enjoy bubbler rips. Amongst these friends are two business owners, 3 school teachers, a physician, and one of the top women marathon runners from New Jersey.

680 posted on 07/28/2008 10:25:22 AM PDT by jmc813 (Scattered, smothered, covered, diced, chunked)
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