Totally.
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 ...
-ccm
Totally.
The Drug War can be easily eliminated by simply securing the borders. Pot and industrial hemp should be legalized but not the other drugs.
Prick? Huh?
"The Drug War can be easily eliminated by simply securing the borders. "
Oh I dunno, the drug war really hasn't been that bad. How else will our police departments augment their funding?
Yeah I saw that. What kind of news editor lets his journalists call anyone a prick? Obviously the Dallas Observer.
No big deal. He's not really giving away any inside information. His tips are all common sense stuff.
Securing the borders--if you really think that's possible even in theory--may work against cocaine and heroin, but meth and grass are most often made/grown in the US.
In fact, the US grown marijuana is so much more potent and available that it has largely ended large scale importation of the evil weed from Mexico and S. America.
Some people say it is the second largest crop behind wheat in the US in terms of gross dollars.
Well, what's the story? Do coffee grounds really work?
I smoked dope when I was a kid (early twenties). I also drank. IMHO, making marijuana illegal is silly. I neither smoke or drink anymore, but had far worse times from liquor than anything else. I never had much of a problem with marijuana.
As someone who has seen the horrible effects of serious drug addiction, I can say without a doubt that drugs are readily available anywhere. I can also tell you that the WOD has been a failure. It creates a ridiculous margin for the drug dealers and in turn makes it worth killing for. Legalize, educate, and treat anyone who wants it.
Buy the tape and find out!
Anybody can get treatment any time they want it.
If course, that's not what you meant, right?
Nah, I don't need to know that bad.
Or get all those neat armored personnel carriers and flash-bang grenades and stuff?
One who recognizes a short, accurate description, and the ultimate truth gelled down to one word.
Just had a friends 31 year old son die of an overdose.The kid got hooked as a teen and although he tried to clean up through a number of drug programs never could do it. This guy's name may be Barry Cooper but Benedict Arnold would fit him just as well !!!
Libertarian ping! To be added or removed from my ping list freepmail me or post a message here.
Anybody can get treatment any time they want it. Really, and what how did you come to discover this fact? Actually, I know for a fact that this isn't the case. Stop ASSuming.
But...that's still not what you meant, is it?
I don't know what you mean about "that's still not what you meant, is it?" You sound like a nut. Well, of course places are available if you have money. If you'd pull your head out of your a-- for a few minutes you might realize that many drug addicts aren't exactly carrying around extra money for help (let me guess, their families undoubtedly have the money for it)? My point is that there isn't enough money for treatment. Get rid of the idiotic laws and crazy artificial profit margins and spend the money on treatment. We'd all be better off for it.
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.
I hope that was clear enough for you...drugs seem to have affected the function of your brain cells.
This is just so wrong on so many levels.
Why the hell should my tax dollars go to treat some meth-mouth that doesn't want to be treated? Are we going to give them free drugs too? If not, they'll have to steal to pay for the legal ones anyway.
End the war on drugs. We can then employ hundreds of thousands of social workers, who can all say, "I feel your pain."
Money spent on the WOD will be a pittance compared to treating the dregs of the WOD. Although it should be right up the alley of some of you that want to nationalize health care. This'll put that on the fast track.
If pot was legal, it would be taxed, use the tax money to pay for the treatment programs.
jack
Not too many people are going to bother going over and reading all four pages of the article.
But that wouldn't work, right? All the things that druggies want to do require someone who isn't on drugs to act like an adult to administer it. That's the flaw behind libertarian attempts, for example, to legalize drugs. Someone still has to stay sober, to pick their lovely, stinky, stoned bodies out of the gutter.
How is "securing our borders" going to stop that (not that I disagree with secure borders).
I have been arguing "man-made global warming" with somebody on another forum.
I'm amazed that many of the anti "man-made global warming" extremists see the "War on Some Drugs" as propaganda and a power grab - but don't see the same in the Global Warming debate.
Over here, it is the opposite - many on this forum see the Man-made global warming debate as pure propaganda and a power grab - while supporting the War on Some Drugs
And they are both, the EXACT same thing.
Get some consistancy to your logic people!!!
Why the hell should your tax dollars be spent on our drug searching military patrols in Columbia and off our coasts? Why should your money be spent on filling the jails with drug related crimes? Why should your money be spent on caring for those who fall victim to drug related violence? The amount of money spent on the WOD is amazing. Treatment and education for those who want it would be much cheaper than the current program.
Exactly.
What about the argument that Marijuana is a 'gateway' drug that leads kids to harder stuff?
If deaths and long term damage are your criteria for criminalizing drugs, then shouldn't cocaine and meth be taken off the list and replaced by alcohol and nicotene which cause untold more deaths and long term damage?
I grew up around addicts, including my parents(you effing idiot). Why don't you tell me what facts, education or experience you bring to the table? Better yet...why don't you explain your insights into human nature, then tie that into why, in your opinion, criminilization misses the mark...and how a medical model interacts with said human nature?
You've said that the criminilization model is flawed; that's no great achievement, inasmuch as any process involving humans is flawed. You've also said that medicalizing the issue will address some of those flaws, which is true. Cost, however, is not one of them. If we can't afford what we're doing now, how will we be able to afford exponentially more? That's what it will cost, you know. Treatment per addict will increase past the point it costs to keep an inmate, and the number of addicts seeking treatment will skyrocket.
I've heard it said time and again that a little knowledge is a dangerous thing. You seem to be illustrating that...applying simple theory to complex problems.
So...like the other guy, you still want me involved in their little habits. No thanks...if all those who want to stay wasted want to work something out voluntarily, then hey...go for it!
But that wouldn't work, right? All the things that druggies want to do require someone who isn't on drugs to act like an adult to administer it. That's the flaw behind libertarian attempts, for example, to legalize drugs. Someone still has to stay sober, to pick their lovely, stinky, stoned bodies out of the gutter.
Of course there has to be someone who is not on drugs to administer it, the most successful programs use a AA or NA member with proven years of soberity. These people do this because they want to, it's a large part of their own program of soberity to assist others.
And the only money to support such programs would come from the taxes collected on the sale of these drugs, not from any other source, so if someone doesn't buy drugs, they put no money into the rehab programs.
Jack
Hey, I wish you success.
They won't stay lit.
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
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