Is weed consumption prevalent in PA, or what?

[lookout123]

This is from Fox news, but i didn't figure anyone would mind for this story.


Top Cop Smokes Pot
Thursday, October 07, 2004

Cops in the small eastern Pennsylvania town of Weatherly had been complaining for months about the smell of marijuana smoke in the office, the pot pipes lying around, the seized drugs that disappeared.

On Wednesday, their chief of 10 years, Brian S. Cara, was arrested by state troopers, reports The Morning Call of Allentown.

"I was really shocked to find out everything he was supposed to have done," Weatherly Mayor Joseph E. D'Andrea told the newspaper. "If he has had problems and needed help, we could have helped him."

The borough of 2,600 people, about midway between Wilkes-Barre and Allentown, has three full-time and six part-time police officers.

Cara, 38, did not immediately return a phone message left at his home.

State Attorney General Jerry Pappert said the probe started in Sept. 2003 when Weatherly cops told state authorities suspicious things had been disappearing for months.

There were the plastic envelopes of cocaine that mysteriously "exploded" after having been placed in the evidence locker — an unlocked drawer.



There were the times when cops showed up unexpectedly at the station only to find Cara there alone and the place reeking of pot smoke.

There were the joints and pot pipes cops noticed in Cara's desk drawer.

Finally, a "reverse sting" was set up this summer. On Aug. 2, one of Weatherly's officers told Cara that two ounces of pot had been seized and were in the office.

Also new to the office was a hidden video camera.

State drug agents told a grand jury they watched Cara smoke some of the pot later that same day, then go back for more no less than eight times on Aug. 3. All of it was caught on videotape.

On Aug. 4, it all came down. Cara was seen smoking pot five times before 9:15 a.m. Then he packed a pipe, tucked it into his pocket and went out on patrol.

Later that day, state agents with a warrant searched his desk and found drugs and drug paraphernalia.

Cara was made to undergo a blood test, which came back positive for marijuana, and he allegedly admitted smoking pot from the evidence locker.

He was immediately placed on paid suspension, but the paychecks may end following his formal arrest.

"We're not his judge and jury, but we can't continue paying him and filling in for him at his salary," D'Andrea said.

Cara was charged with four misdemeanors: obstructing justice, criminal attempt to obstruct justice, possession of a controlled substance and possession of drug paraphernalia.

He was booked and released on his own recognizance. His first preliminary hearing was scheduled for Nov. 17.

[404Error]

Guess the adage is true: Cops got the best dope.

[wolf]

I've heard that some officers dispose of smaller amounts (defined as enough to see, but not enough to justify the paperwork, but possibly enough to get some youngin' to give up the name of his supplier) by tossing it into a river that they have handy.

[Cyber Wolf]

Let's see how long it takes for one of those cop drama show ala Law And Order to pick up this story and work it into one of their episodes...if they haven't already. Sounds like some good TV drama fodder to me.

[LabRat]

When my husband was a department manager for a local grocery chain, he caught one of his employees with a joint, which he confiscated but kept. That was the first time I smoked pot, and was so terrified of getting caught and kicked out of grad school it wasn't even any fun. Damn conscience.

[York]

well, i can tell you, over here in Belgium its like nowhere else! About 10 years ago i was rollin a good one, in a private boys-club , and police came in, it was a guy ive known a bit before he was a cop...well he took the jay before the other cop was in and told me " thanks" Well, at least i didnt get a ticket! haha

[Radar]

Using drugs is not a crime. Creating laws against using drugs is a crime. Police, judges, politicians, and everyone else knows the drug war is a miserable failure, because you can't legislate appetite, and you any laws that try to ban a peaceful activity like drug use only undermine any respect the legal system might still have.

This cop should not be in trouble at all.

[wolf]

There's a disconnect between what the laws are now, and what you think the laws should be ... work to get the laws changed, if that's what you feel is appropriate.

Until then, the top cop shouldn't be bogeyin' the doob on the county's dime.

[York]

Radar, using drugs is a crime! Like almost everywhere in the word, it still is illegal! In Netherlands u can just smoke some pot without being arrested, and jamaica maybe! I think that any kind off drug or other stuff that can harm u , should be illegal! Cause in the end, there were study' s enough to proove that it aint healthy and u can get serious problems because of it! I smoke a long time without any side-effects but ive seen people go crazy! And i wouldnt wanna be like that! I dont know if any sane person would wanna be sick! With the harder drugs it is even wurse...paranoia, suicide etc. Some people do need it , and for those people i wish it was legal... And than u have the users-for-pleasure...it can make u smile, make u eat, make u experience music differently....but overdo it , and all off that goes away and your left with misery!

[Happy Monkey]

Originally Posted by wolf

Until then, the top cop shouldn't be bogeyin' the doob on the county's dime.

Until then?

[tw]

Heroine is probably the most destructive recreational drug. Since heroine addicts most often are not 'cured' in their first drug therapy, then we make the victim into a criminal. Extremist conservative then say rehabilitation cannot work. One successful program for heroine addicts is heroine maintenance. They get a small daily dose which is usually enough to keep them productive and alive. But this is contrary to a political right wing agenda that says all drugs (except those who make campaign contributions) are evil. So yes, there is a major disconnect between drug laws and reality. When a mariguana user can get mandatory sentences equivalent to murder. Yes, there is a major disconnect between those making the laws and reality.

[wolf]

Originally Posted by tw

Heroine is probably the most destructive recreational drug. Since heroine addicts most often are not 'cured' in their first drug therapy, then we make the victim into a criminal. Extremist conservative then say rehabilitation cannot work. One successful program for heroine addicts is heroine maintenance. They get a small daily dose which is usually enough to keep them productive and alive. But this is contrary to a political right wing agenda that says all drugs (except those who make campaign contributions) are evil. So yes, there is a major disconnect between drug laws and reality. When a mariguana user can get mandatory sentences equivalent to murder. Yes, there is a major disconnect between those making the laws and reality.

Bypassing your inability to spell "heroin" ...

First off, maintenance programs are nowhere near as successful as you seem to believe. Whether you provide maintenance doses of heroin itself or of the best-known heroin analog, methadone, you've still got an addiction. An addiction, incidentally, to a substance that requires higher and higher doses to get the same level of satisfaction from over time. The cravings are still there, and so are the withdrawal symptoms. Cramps. Sweats. Nausea. Chills.

It's like the hole in the water skin example ... you can keep pouring water into the skin with a hole in it, but by doing so, the hole becomes larger, and so you have to add the water at a faster and faster rate, until you reach the point at which the outflow is equal to the inflow.

Rehabilitation can work, but requires a strength of character that often, had the junkie had it from the get-go, would have kept them from starting use of the drug in the first place.

I see people who relapsed after 1 week, 1 month, 6 months, 1 year, 5 years of sobriety on a variety of drugs and/or alcohol. One of my repeat customers was a drug rehab counsellor, who had 10 years under his belt, and had helped a lot of other people become sober before his own relapse ... talk about a placement problem!! Try to find a rehab for a guy who can't go anywhere local because of the likelihood that he'd be hospitalized along with people that he had treated.

One of my most problematic heroin users was an adolescent girl. She'd started using when she was around 15 or 16 ... I started giving her evaluations to go to rehabs after she turned 18 (there's a different type of eval that I'm not certified in for adolescent placements). I evaluted and placed her at least five times, and I'm not the only professional she had approached. Her parents had taken her to this doctor in New Jersey who has a treatment which is generally very effective ... He places a Narcan implant into the patient's body, usually in the upper arm. Narcan is a heroin antagonist. It stops the drug from working. It's the same stuff that is given in an ER for a heroin OD. Brings you down QUICK. Anyway, the implant is surgically placed deep in the upper arm. This chick ripped the Narcan implant out of her arm.

Twice.

As far as the "most destructive drug" I'm going to have to vote for crack cocaine.

$1000/day crack habits are commonplace. $1000/day of heroin is rare, and for most people, fatal. Even the real stone heroin junkies rarely do more than a bundle a day, with most of them around the 4-5 bags a day IV level.

[xoxoxoBruce]

How many bags in a bundle?

[wolf]

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

How many bags in a bundle?

Ten

[jane_says]

As someone who has gone through methadone treatment (and if this wasn't an anonymous internet message board, you can bet your ass you'd never hear me admit to it), I have mixed feelings about it. I was lucky enough to get a regualr doctor to prescribe it for me rather than going through a clinic. He had been treating me with Neurontin and extremely high doses of Librium, which did nothing but make me sleep constantly and feel even more depressed. At my next appointment I took him the huge bottle of Librium (there were over 400 capsules in it as I was taking 16 a day) and told him I was going to the methadone clinic. He became very upset, and told me I had no business in "that place" with "that kind" of people (he and my dad are buddies), and offered to prescribe it for me himself. I did 80 mg. a day for about 6 months, and weaned myself off it.
Coming off the methadone was FAR WORSE than coming off any other opiates, and my experience with them is far-reaching, long-lived and quite varied. I have never felt worse in my life than trying to quit that shit. Even though a two-week script was just $13 without using my prescription card (the doctor advised me not to use it and to go to a different pharmacy than I normally used), I found myself saving the scripts and buying the methadone for $10 a pill from a neighbor who was disabled due to a back injury who got it for pain. I knew if I had a brand-new shiny bottle of 54-142's, I'd be empty in a day or two. Buying it illegally made it easier for me to quit, even with my own prescription. My sinuses are completely shot forever from all the crap I put in them, and I'm lucky I didn't die.

As for the cop, meh. He just got caught. There are scores of others just like him who don't get caught. Smoking 5 times by breakfast sounds more like OCD than someone who likes to get high though.