Study Busts Meth 'Myths,' Says Abuse Is Not an Epidemic or Even Widespread

AP via Foxnews ^ | June 14, 2006

[discostu]

Codiene is a prescription drug, you have to sign for prescription drugs, it's also a drug that's inherently hazardous and addictive all by itself (hence why it's not over the counter). Sudafed is an over the counter drug, not inherently hazardous or addictive. The one problem of Sudafed (and the other cold and allergy meds) is that a very small percentage of purchasers intend to do something illegal with it, and for that we make ALL purchasers sign documents and have their purchases tracked so that if people are buying "too many" they can be arrested (already happened in Louisiana, they collated the cold medicine purchase data and went after the people who bought too much in one month). The fact that they're using this data to make arrests means that this data is a gathering of evidence, which means they ARE treating people like criminals, it's not a matter of feeling like a criminal they are treating you like one.

[TKDietz]

"Add in prison over crowding and you've got a system that would rather ignore most crimes that will result less than 30 days in jail get ignored."

We were talking about meth cases in particular though, right. You were originally saying that only a very small percentage of those arrested for meth are actually convicted. That's certainly not what I've seen in my state or the neighboring state where I've done a little work, or in federal court either for that matter. There are rare cases where I've seen meth charges pled down to misdemeanors. And on some occasions I've been lucky enough to get a meth charge dropped as long as my client will plead to another felony. Usually that will take a hefty fine paid up front or something like that, but for someone who needs to keep his drivers license it could be worth it. I realize there are some places where felony drug possession cases are regularly pled down to misdemeanors, but that is not the norm. It almost never happens around here. I've got to get the right prosecutor and catch him in a really charitable mood to get that done around here, or their case has to be really weak, or my client has to have helped law enforcement or be willing to pay a big fine up front, or put up some money for an asset forfeiture. They don't drop these things to misdemeanors out of kindness, not unless the defendant happens to have an important daddy or something, and that's not really out of kindness either.

When I was talking about getting charges dropped earlier, I was thinking more along the lines of getting a driving left center and speeding charge dropped in exchange for a guilty plea on a DWI, or getting four out of five counts of forgery dropped in exchange for a large up front restitution payment. We don't see just a whole lot of felony charges being dropped without some good reason. And a lot of times there is a good reason.

I just did a plea for a guy this week where his possession of marijuana with intent to deliver charges were amended to simple possession, a misdemeanor. He had close to an ounce of pot in a bag, a little loose pot on a tray under his couch, and something like twenty "blunt roaches" in ashtrays around his house. A "blunt" is a cigar that has had the tobacco removed and replaced with marijuana. These were blunts he had smoked down to the butt. After the police weighed the pot in the bag and that on the tray and that removed from the blunt roaches, the total was something like 35 grams. There is a presumption in my state that any amount over 28 grams is an amount possessed with the intent to deliver, an amount possessed for sale. Now, obviously this guy just smoked a hell of a lot of pot, as was evidenced by all the blunt roaches. That was his personal stash. I would have most likely have been able to effectively rebut the statutory presumption and convince a jury to convict on the lesser included offense of simple possession rather than the possession with intent offense, and the prosecutor knew that. He agreed to amend the charge to the one that really should have been filed in the first place, simple possession. Oh, and this guy had also been charged with possession of cocaine because a girl that was there had coke in her purse. That was a complete loser for the prosecutors so they just agreed to drop that. This guy took a drug test immediately and only tested positive for pot and there was no proof whatsoever that he had any idea what that girl had in her purse. The arresting officer just had his head up his arse and I guess the prosecutor who filed the criminal Information wasn't paying much attention to the facts alleged.

It is common though for people to be "overcharged." Law enforcement/prosecutors seem to like to pile on as many charge as possible when they arrest someone and often they charge people with the more serious crimes than they could convict on. I guess that gives them a better place to start in plea negotiations and it helps law enforcement coerce people into acting as confidential informants because their threats are scarier when people think they are facing a lot of prison time.

Anyway, things may be different in your area, but in most places charges are filed when people are arrested, and probably 95% of the time criminal charges will result in some kind of conviction. Around here at least and everywhere else I've practiced law, felonies usually are not dropped down to misdemeanors without some good reason for it. And at least in my area most everyone arrested for meth gets a felony meth conviction.

[discostu]

No my original statement was that a very small percentage of arrests in general actually result in convictions. While I'm sure the stats fluctuate by crime type I was apply the general rule to the semi-specific, semi-specific because the phrase I had to work with was "meth related" which could be anything from possession to selling to manufacturing and then you've got the felony vs misdemeanor. That whole section of the coversation was dealing in rather sizable generalizations on both sides.

Yeah overcharging is a big thing, though it makes sense from a police point of view. Knowing how little of what they throw at the wall manages to stick for various reasons (procedural messups, prosecutorial over work, good defense attorneys, juries) they now throw as much at the wall as they can. Often times it winds up with some wierd looking cases like the one you described, but sometimes it's a good thing because some really nasty criminals get off on the big stuff but manage to go to jail on some of the overcharging.

Again I was speaking in the broad generalization. Most of the charges (and full on cases) I know about getting dropped (also I should have said that better, in haste I said "no charges" really meant charges getting dropped before trial if there even is one, they can't complete an arrest without some charge being filed, what happens after that is really what I was talking about) are misdemeanors, because misdemeanors tend to have such minor penalties the legal system is growing less and less fond of even worrying about them. This of course has caused a reactionary effect with a lot of law makers pushing to move laws from misdemeanor to felony so they don't get ignored. It's a crazy cycle.

[Law is not justice but process]

"On any given day, new arrests in my county are fully 50% meth related."

Where are you? In my county in Coastal South Carolina we are still seeing a minor amount of meth, even with large numbers of bikers around. Here crack is still King. We had a rash of Ecstasy that seems to have petered out and a huge upswing of Oxycontin arrests that has tapered off since the local script writers have been shut down (of course, that led to a huge upswing in heroin). Meth has never taken hold as I am told it has in the West and Midwest (or even Upstate South Carolina). I suspect is will come eventually and do not relish the thought.

We had an interesting meth case last week. A woman was arrested with a meth "kit." It was a box with all the ingredients and hardware for making meth. It even had written instructions (in pencil on yellow legal paper - looked like jail mail). It was clearly homemade, but also clearly mass-produced (maybe in the dozens, not hundreds). I wonder if that is a harbinger?

[SauronOfMordor]

Well, the majority of meth used in Arizona comes from illegal labs on the Mexican border. Maybe that's why you're seeing fewer busts of meth labs in your town.

Have you noticed that we didn't have a lot of concern about preventing people from home-brewing meth until the point where Mexican labs were making it in commercial quantities

Could it be that somebody doesn't want the Mexican labs to have competition

[BeHoldAPaleHorse]

Nationwide, it may not be a hugh and series problem, but in isolated pockets, the problem's bad enough to stune your beeber.

[Energy Alley]

The police I know call it "Cracker Crack"

[moviegirl]

You must live near me. 2 cousin's on it, in their 50's no less. Three friends in recovery from it. That advocacy group must have hit the "dry" cities. :)

[brazzaville]

Good afternoon.

Ask any rural Sheriff, in any state, what drug, other than alcohol, is causing more problems than meth.

Cocaine seems to be less of a problem than it used to be and crack seems to be pretty much limited to urban areas. Most of the harm that comes from pot use is caused by the fact that it is illegal.

Meth users on the other hand commit violent crimes and pollute the environment while destroying their health. Meth is easy to make and cheap to buy. I guess you have to decide for yourself what "epidemic means", but the danger meth exposes us to goes far beyond rhetoric.

Michael Frazier

[brazzaville]

Good afternoon.
"Of course one must take into account what kind of shape the teeth were in to begin with."

Tooth loss and gum disease are somewhat common among Vietnam veterans. I've read, but cannot confirm, that both are also common in the population of the former III Corps region of South Vietnam. That was one of the most heavily defoliated parts of South Vietnam.

Michael Frazier

[Know your rights]

Meth is easy to make and cheap to buy.

Thanks, War on Drugs, for making far less nasty stimulants more expensive. An excellent use of tens of billions of our tax dollars every year.

[TKDietz]

In almost all states, possession of any amount of methamphetamine is a felony, not a misdemeanor. If what you were talking about were misdemeanors when you mentioned that newly hired public defenders in your area can expect to get thirty new cases a week, that's nothing. Misdemeanor cases are easy. If all I had to do was close out thirty misdemeanor cases a week, I'd feel like I was on easy street. I only close out on average around fifteen cases in misdemeanor court per week, but I always have better than a hundred active adult felony cases going at any given time (I've had as many as 175) ranging from minor cases on up to the most serious cases (except death penalty cases, for now), and on top of that I get appointed to represent every single juvenile who gets in trouble in our small county. Our prosecutors also have high caseloads, but they aren't dropping cases left and right. Sounds like you guys need to either clean house in your prosecutor's office and get some guys with gonads who aren't afraid to work, or just add a few other lazy wimpy bums to help those already there and hope that between them all they can do the work of a few good prosecutors. There is no way that kind of stuff would go on where I'm from. Law enforcement would be furious, and neither the judges nor the voters would stand for it. I wish they would just drop more cases for the hell of it. It would sure make my job easier. But that's just not the way it works here or in most other places. I have a feeling from you various posts on this thread that it doesn't work that way where you are from either, but I'll give you the benefit of the doubt on that.

[enraged]

Yeah right, treated like a criminal. Having to ask for a product behind the counter IS just like doing hard time at the local pen. Give me a break.

Meth is a scourge in the pacific northwest and is slowly creeping towards the east coast. The cost to society is enormous, the lives it destroys, the children abused or neglected, the toxic waste it generates is abandoned or dumped into the environment, buildings condemned, peoples land or homes confiscated because some tweeker dumped his poison in the middle of the night and they can't afford to pay to have it cleaned up, the list goes on and on and on......

I say shoot the freakin' cooks right between the eyes when they are caught and make it public knowledge.

[discostu]

No it's not just asking for a product behind the counter, having the fact that you bought a legal product recorded and tracked so they can determine if you're buying "too much" of said product and possibly arrest you as a meth manufacturer IS treating you like a criminal. Every time you purchase any of those medicines they are gathering evidence against you, you gather evidence against criminals, or at least suspected criminals. As of a few months ago anybody purchasing medicines wiht psuedo-ephedrine is a suspected criminal.

The cost to society of treating the populace like criminals and suspending the bill of rights is enormous.

Careful about saying that, if you buy too much sudafed YOU will labeled a cook.