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 you don't like the Constitution, then why don't YOU be te one to go someplace else instead of suggesting it to those who like the country that the Founding Fathers created?
Uh, right. Stunning logical progression there, sport. Interesting that you'd want to persuade me in that direction though. Hmmm.
Anyway, I know what this is about. This is libertarians whining about the evil government burdening meth labs uh, store clerks. Of course, nobody here actually wants meth, it's just the principle of the thing.
I do have a problem with our government jailing people for selling LEGAL substances.
Oh I agree. If these people were truly not aware of the meth world, they did no wrong and should not be incarcerated. Even if they sold truly neutral items, like camping fuel, and knew it might be misused, they should walk. If they sold a dozen boxes of behind-the-counter cold meds at a time? Sounds like a willing accomplice to me.
We could make it all prescription-only again, but we all know that isn't what you folks want. You want fewer evil big government drug regulations, not more. Not that any libertarians would buy the stuff. Just the principle, you know.
Libertarians spend A LOT more time (30-40% by your estimation) whining about our nazi-like government jailing innocent people just for selling ILLEGAL substances (that they don't use, of course. It's just the principle). This is not a conservative value, but one much more aligned with the aging antiwar hippy type.
Look at the posts on this thread. See any that sound anti-American/"Mother Sheehan"/Michael Moore/moonbat-ish?
It's not illegal, per se, to sell cold medicine, antifreeze and aluminum foil.
Heck, I buy cold medicine, antifreeze and aluminum foil several times a year (maybe only once or twice a year for antifreeze).
That's not what's against the law.
I gather that what's against the law is selling it to drug dealers -- how on earth can you know what the purchaser intends to do with these items?
they shoud just shoot him in the back of the head and make his family pay the cost of the bullet /sarcasm
This is absolutely outrageous. It make me want to take back all the nasty things I said about the ACLU and write them a check.
We've lost our minds. Our country has lost it's mind. How many more lives to be sacrificed for the "war ondrugsterror".
out-of-control Amerika ping
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
The prosecutors have become the criminals.Conservative FReepers, or a bunch of drug obsessed paranoid anarchist whiners?
Yep...that's what used to be "conservative" thinking around these parts.
Now we've got a bunch of big-government nanny statists who want to pass as many laws as possible in order to keep law abiding citizens from conveniently purchasing legal substances.
It's pretty obvious from your posts that your political leanings skew towards the liberal side of the spectrum.
Why are you even here at FR?
One of your own gave up that much when he said you "only" devote 30-40% of your time to discussions about drug use. That's supposed to demonstrate good libertarian balance. LOL
So the question goes back to you ... given the maniacal DU type "Amerika is evil" ravings I've pointed out on this thread, why are the dopers libertarians even on FR? Put that in your bong and smoke it, dude. It's like, cosmic.
BTTT
---One poster wants to support the ACLU.
---Another poster paraphrases the moonbat left with "How many more lives to be sacrificed for the "war on drugs".
---Yet another mimics the lefties with "out-of-control Amerika"
I've said very little except to poke fun at the "Legalize Pot and Some Other Important Stuff Party". I think most of you are comically disingenuous.
You say that means my "political leanings skew towards the liberal side of the spectrum"? That comment and Mosquitobite's give me an idea.
Perhaps you should change the name to the non sequitur party? Give the drugs, everyone would understand.
In other news...Mosques( AKA training grounds for terrorists) are opening all across the United States as Americans are reassured that Islam is a "Religion of Peace."
That's not really the main focus of this thread, which you would know if you had actually read the article, but I guess it's so much easier to just go off on your emotional rant directed towrds those "evil" libertarians.
From the article:
"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.
Apparently you don't see a problem with an out of control drug war that snares store owners and clerks for selling perfectly legal substances. I guess that makes you feel safer, doesn't it?
So the question goes back to you ... given the maniacal DU type "Amerika is evil" ravings
America is not evil, however the war on (some) drugs most certainly is, as evidenced by JBT's gunning down a man for posessing a small amount of marijuana.
Man killed by Sunrise police in drug raid had 2 ounces of marijuana
This kind of crap happens all the time, thanks to drug warriors like you.
Yep...you and your ilk are no different than the leftist gun-grabbers.
What I see happening...is that Bubba goes up to the cold medicine distributor in Chicago, and says he needs four cases per month of the stuff, and shipped to this store front. The store-front is Billy-Bob's bait shop and he simply picks up the cases and resells to his buddies throughout the state who need the stuff. And of course, you charge double for each bottle because you are a capitalist at heart.
What you people do not realize is that the story is that these stores had arranged the principal ingredients of meth into a single display, along with the pseudoephidrene. Just so you know what was really happening.
Do you have a link to that?
I find it hard to digest that there would be a display with
pfed,lithium,anhydrious,lye,ect in a display
This is just what I heard. I wish I had the news link, but I'm not sure where it exists. I admit that this is a touchy situation: Arresting people for selling legal products. Meth is a problem, so what do we do? Some locales have passed ordinances calling for logbooks to write down the names of folks who purchase the ingredients. I'm not sure how I feel about all this.
You're not demonizing the mosques instead of the criminals, are you? ;-)
If you had actually read what I've said, and not simply had an emotional reaction to being mocked, you'd know that that's the one thing we DO agree on.
No gun grabber here. Is this the 2+2=5 thread, or what? This is getting surreal.
Taking away our Second Amendment right to bear arms is equivalent to taking away our (oops I forget what number this Amendment is) "right" to cook meth and smoke pot?
You've got to be kidding ... or stoned.
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