Posted on 08/13/2005 3:39:11 PM PDT by freepatriot32
Spurred by new laws restricting the sales of cold remedies such as Sudafed, which contain pseudoephedrine, a necessary component of popular meth-cooking recipes, police and prosecutors across the country have been arresting convenience store clerks -- sometimes on charges that carry substantial prison sentences. In one Georgia case, authorities made mass arrests of immigrant store clerks and owners, but it's starting to look less like a criminal conspiracy and more like culturally naive foreign-born merchants simply trying to sell their merchandise.
It's all a big waste of money, says the Drug Policy Alliance, which issued a press release this week calling for money spent prosecuting and imprisoning store clerks to instead be spent on treatment for meth addicts. "Convenience store clerks have become the latest casualities in the war on drugs," said Bill Piper, director of national affairs for the Drug Policy Alliance. "Selling lighter fluid, cold medicine and other legal items shouldn't get someone decades in prison."
But that's what 49 rural northwest Georgia store clerks and owners, 44 of them Indian immigrants, are facing in the wake of a federal sting called Operation Meth Merchant, the brainchild of US Attorney for the Northern District of Georgia David Nahmias. Nahmias sent various undercover informants into the stores seeking items that could be used to make meth, then indicted the clerks on charges that could net them 20 years in prison. Nahmias told the New York Times he was convinced the clerks were guilty.
But as preliminary motions in the cases are filed, defense attorneys have been able to argue convincingly that the clerks and store owners often didn't understand that the informants were trying to tell them they wanted products for cooking meth. "They're not really paying attention to what they're being told," said Steve Sadow, one of the lawyers. "Their business is: I ring it up, you leave, I've done my job. Call it language or idiom or culture, I'm not sure you're able to show they know there's anything wrong with what they're doing," he told the Times.
"This is the first time I heard this -- I don't know how to pronounce -- this meta-meta something," said Hajira Ahmed. Her husband is one of the 49 arrested. He sits in jail awaiting trial on charges he sold cold medicine and antifreeze.
The Indian store clerks simply didn't understand the drug slang used by the undercover informants, defense lawyers said. When one told clerks he needed cold medicine, matches, and camping fuel to "finish a cook," the clerks thought that he was talking about a barbecue. Defense attorneys were able to point out that government documents defined the phrase in a footnote, suggesting that if it had to be explained to attorneys familiar with enforcing methamphetamine laws, it was hard to expect socially isolated store clerks to know its significance.
"This is not even slang language like 'gonna,' 'wanna,'" said Malvika Patel, who spent three days in jail after being arrested in a case of mistaken identity. "'Cook' is very clear; it means food." And in this context, she told the Times, some of the items the government wants stores to monitor would not set off any alarms. "When I do barbecue, I have four families. I never have enough aluminum foil."
The experience has soured some of the immigrants on their newly adopted homeland. Patel's husband, Chris, who Americanized his name on arrival, told the Times his wife's arrest made him think of selling his three stores and going back to India. "We are from so much cleaner society where we are from in India," he said. "We didn't even know what drugs were."
It's not only Indians in Georgia, but also Middle Easterners in Arizona, more than 30 of whom were arrested in a similar sting recently. And just plain white folks in Oklahoma. And with some 40 states having enacted or about to enact legislation restricting the sale of cold medicines as part of the war on meth, there will be more to come.
There has to be a better way, says the Drug Policy Alliance. "Putting store clerks in jail and breaking up families does nothing to deal with the problems associated with methamphetamine abuse," said Piper. "The hundreds of thousands of dollars it will cost to imprison these clerks would be better spent on drug treatment."
If libertarians are more than just a bunch of potheads looking for a way to legalize their weed, why don't they ever discuss anything else on FR?
Yet I was able to buy 10 bottles of Sominex...not a blink. Who needs 10 boxes of sleeping pills except someone with bad intent?
Or who has a friend with a dog with allergies...and who knows that Sominex and Benadryl are the same medication.
Disclaimer: I'm not a physician, etc.
Where I live we have an increasing meth problem. I have a CCW, and I carry more often than I used to. At night my M1911 is within reach. I will not be a victim of some meth-head.
better be careful next time you go to super walmart too...the metro narcotics division has an awful lot of undercover agents working at wally world...buy 2 or more ingredients that "could" be used to mfg meth and you will be arrested in the parking lot and charged with operating a clandestine lab.
It is totally ridiculous...better not be going camping and need sudafed and coleman fuel....instant jailbird with 40K bond minimum.
The party of 'smaller government'
You don't need a gun or Sudafed. Only a criminal would want to carry a gun or buy meds. </sarc>
Interestingly the guy that filed suit against the bloggers is a Democrat. The bloggers the ACLU is defending aren't known, but general consensus is that they are most likely supports of the Republican Mayor of the town.
out-of-control Amerika ping
Fertilizer is a legal product. Try buying a truckload of that.
um would you like me to add you to my libertarian ping list so you can actually see what the libertarians are discussing on fr?Drugs are only about 30-40 percent.We also discuss the kelo decision, campaign finance reform,gun rights, zero tolerance policy's ,the border, the war on terror, the patriot act, the ever increasing size of government under are publican controlled congress and senate and presidency, and a whole range of things that the republicans should care about but dont because they are more interested in the power they can acquire and lord over us peons then they are with upholding and defending the constitution of the usa and protecting the country from all enemys foreign and domestic
Click on my screename and then click on in forum to see all the libertarians pings for the last few months its not just about legalizing weed so that white women with have sex with negro jazz musicians to create mud race babys after they turn into abat after just one hit.
Its not the meth heads you have to worry about breaking into your house and killing you in the middle of the night espially if they know you have a ccw
Man killed by Sunrise police in drug raid had 2 ounces of marijuana
Yeah, I saw that story. ANYBODY who shoots at me had better get a first-round hit if they expect to survive. I WILL shoot back at anybody who breaks my threshold. On the qualification portion of the CCW course I put 20 out of 20 into the silhouette -- two head shots and the rest in center of mass.
It is safer that way they don't get shot at!
The prosecutors have become the criminals.
Whoa. Like dude, thanks for clearin' that up. I thought you guys were, like, always stoked on drugs and crap. Fer sure!
Bwahahahaha!!
You say that with a straight face, when the that's precisely the purpose of doing meth, crack, and heroin.
How many more lives to be sacrificed for the "war on drugs".
How about, "As many as it takes to blow all the lotus-eaters, strung-out losers, and thugboy distributors out of the country?" Go somewhere else, you want to do that stuff. Try Thailand. Switzerland, Holland. Just nowhere near here.
Your friend needs to consult a doctor about his medical needs. That just ain't right. He's probably hooked already anyway.
If you think this is about weed, perhaps I can get you to vote for Hildebeast. I don't smoke, sell, or injest any drug. I do have a problem with our government jailing people for selling LEGAL substances. Making these substances controlled by pharmacists essentially makes the pharmacists responsible for the jobs cops should be doing instead. This is not going to stop the production of meth in ANY way.
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