So I'm walking to work as I usually do and as I approach the doors these two guys walk in right before me. They seemed inebriated in some form or fashion. No big deal, obviously. So they stumble in and find a table to sit at. So far everything is still normal.

I walk to the back of the store and start talking to the girl who was in charge at the time (Call her "M" ) when we get interrupted by a different lady who was cleaning the lobby/dining area. She hands M a lockbox that had a broken lock on it and says, "I found this out on one of the tables..."

We opened it up to find about 7g of weed, a couple grams of crystal meth (judging from past experience, I obviously didn't break out a test kit...), scales, meth bubbles, baggies, syringes and a big knife.



The lady who brought it to our attention then went back out into the lobby but quickly ran back because she realized that she took the box off the table that the two inebriated dudes from earlier were sitting at.

"M" had already called the police to report that a "box of drugs" had been found. The police were on their way. Here is the kicker though: Those guys were so messed up that they didn't even realize the box was gone!

So as soon as the police arrive on the scene, the two dudes had wandered outside to their cars. One of them leaves. As "M" is handing over the box to the police, the other dude stumbles back in, walks past the officer, and says, "hey, there's my box!" and tries to reach for it. The officer puts it out of reach and says, "This is yours?"

"yes"

Everyone looked around at each other kind of comically (including the officer) because the only guy not grasping the situation was the meth head.

"Alright, well then, step over here and place your hands behind your back..." etc etc

What baffles me is that the guy could have left but he came back and announced his illegal activities directly to an officer's face. Also, both of the guys had separate cars, so there was no reason for them to bring the box into the establishment in the first place.

As much as I would have liked to just give them their box back and tell them to leave the property, there were many prying eyes....not to mention, proper procedures to follow when drugs are found on the premises.

Anyway, I thought this was a bit of a funny story so I wanted to share...the main lesson being, leave your boxes of drugs at home, or if you must drive around with it, leave it in the car.

M is lame for calling the pigs.

then again, so are those guys for fumbling their stashbox.

I mean how stupid can anyone be

Its bad carring even small amounts like 1g of weed.
But the whole deal? And then go in front of the police?

Thats a darwin award for drug users really. If they were so messed up maybe it gets them help. (Not in NA there they dont get treatment prolly)

I wish there had been a way where the cops didn't need to be involved but unfortunately, in this situation, it was beyond my control. The dude incriminated himself when he could have walked away a free man!



But as for treatment, getting sober in a cell is about as far as it will go most likely. Possession of any drug besides Marijuana (35g or less is a misdemeanor) in my state is usually considered a Class C Felony, punishable by up to 7 years in prison and up to $5,000 in fines. Seems a bit extreme to me...

I would just get a fine and then need to go to piss test and drug education. but its not nice because you get a record too.

Lessons learned:

1) Don't let anyone get the key to your Meat Locker

2) Your really can get any charge you want at Alice's Restaurant

As far as the cops go, personally, no sympathy for meth heads. They won't get "treatment",whether it's diversion, suspended sentence, probation, fine or jail time; their lives won't improve as a result of their interaction with the justice system but they will surely be made more difficult. And that's cool. If one of these idiots quits as a result somehow, then good, but I don't expect much from someone once they get to the point these guys have obviously reached with that drug.

Meth is taking over the city I currently live in, and it's scary, in fact it is one of the factors in the equation the sum of which is my upcoming relocation to the other end of the valley. I never used to fear walking even in dark urban industrial area at three am here, but it's changed, now one never knows what one of these freaks will do in broad daylight. Last week, i was violently attacked without any provocation by some maniac who had been up for too many days. He tried to choke me out, having jumped me from behind right after I passed him walking on the sidewalk. Has he not been pulled off by a brave Samaritan, I have no doubt he would have tried to kill me.

I'm thankful the police actually helped me in this case. (took them 45 minutes to show up during which meth dude had to be restrained).


I've been noticing a disturbing trend among the street drug users here that is leaning heavily towards meth. Traditionally a heroin town, and never did the two meet, it appears that literally tons of very potent, incredibly cheap cartel meth is taking over. A 23 year old homeless addict was actually complaining to me during a talk the other day about how it is offered to him for free all the time.

It is more destructive in every way than any other drug of addiction, it even frustrates arguments on the legalization of hard drugs to reduce crime and other social problems caused by the necessary criminality of addicts some people on it commit crime because they're on it , not to get more.

Below is the Face of Meth that attacked me :

Oops, sorry for the hijack, back to point :
Meth people think that they are at the top of their game, when they can't put two coherent thoughts together. This is evident by this guy's behavior.

nonviolent crimes vs. violent crimes.
that's the difference.

True. I mean why not pure M in a controlled setting just for testing? I tried various amphetamines just to realize that they exhaust me too much and do me no good. 2 cans of Red Bull is sometimes even to much for me. And if I have serious conditions like ADHD, there's always a chance to go to the doctor to receive some dexamph or desoxyn, which is the sought after 99,5% pure (S)-isomer and not some 85% food dye colored (rac)-shit with solvent leftovers.

Attacking ppl for no reason? Some jail time for meditation practices can be healing imo....

Great story, TGO. Very bold of the fellow to walk up to a cop like that and ask for his drug box back! I guess he was so desperate he wasn't thinking about the consequences.

I watched a really good Ted talk the other day regarding addiction. There was a study done where they put a rat in a cage and gave it two water bottles (you may have read about it) - one with either heroin or cocaine and the second with normal water. The rat drank the drug laced water until it died. Years later a doctor repeated the experiment with two water bottles as before, but had a big cage with lots of rats and fun toys. Essentially a fun park for rats... they would barely drink from the drug water. It goes to show how the more isolated we become, the more likely we are to use a crutch or essentially form a chemical bond. My point being, putting people in prison and criminalising them seems outright bonkers when dealing with addicts, as all it does is isolate them from society even more. Portugal is obviously showing how it should be done on this front and even pay half of rehabilitated drug users wage to make it more appealing for companies to take them on.

Sorry if this was a bit of a derail or an obvious point, but thought it was important to mention. Countries with massive drug problems need to look into the studies that have already been done and change their ways. It seems crazy to use fear and isolation in order to try reform an addict.

Rant over

Not surprisingly, I disagree with benzyme yet again We see things very differently and that's cool, I appreciate it. But I think in this situation, from the information we have, calling the police was the most sensible thing to do.

Not only were there drugs and paraphernalia in there, there was a BIG knife. That was the description given. So it wasn't just some little pocket knife, it was a deadly weapon. They might not be violent, but from the big ass knife they store with their drugs, I would hazard a guess that it's a possibility that they could be a little rough around the edges.

I can empathize with drug addicts of all types due to my checkered past, so I do speak from a plethora of personal experience. This is a sickness that is far too often ignored and demonized. That's not really what I take issue with. It's the chaos and violence that often comes with the drug addiction that's been something I've always kept at a distance and tried my best to minimize. Just like the spirit of this community we're all a part of, it's about reducing harm and trying to spread knowledge and educate those who wish to explore different psychoactive substances. That's been my attitude since I was able to learn to control my own tendencies.

Two women find a box with drugs and a weapon and they're not going to try to handle it like you or I benzyme I wouldn't call the cops, no. I would try to talk to them first, maybe learn a little about their life and try to get them to see that there is light at the end of the tunnel they're currently travelling. Sure, I might get stabbed for my troubles but that's a risk I willingly and knowingly take. These women have not the same countenance

I think the core of this argument is the current state of policing in the US and other countries. We are so mistrusting of the police that we feel they are unnecessary. Perhaps that's closer to the truth than most of us think...but the reality of it (at least here, now, today) is there are some dangerous people out there who really could cause some serious destruction and pain if we didn't have a gang of armed, uniformed "protectors" keeping most of them at bay. That is what we're faced with. Better options need to be implemented, real change needs to happen, that's not in dispute.

Perhaps this is the birth of the transparent society we seem to be heading towards. It's painful and it's not fun, but in the end we'll have love and trust and cooperation that will allow us to evolve as a species. That's cool with me, and I hope I live long enough to see some of it.

The nonchalance demonstrated by the star of the story makes me wonder, particularly with the inebriated (as opposed to outright 'wired' ) appearance, if there weren't some benzodiazepines in the mix. La belle indifference in a pill, that's the benzos for ya!

This video touches on that experiment.

I saw that video. Its good but its still missing the fact that some compounds, like caffeine, actually create a physical dependence.

In case of caffeine your body creates more receptors to circumvent the caffeine.
In the end you dont even feel the caffeine anymore and you are dead tired if you dont drink your daily cups.

It's a little different when you own a store/business in a sue happy world.

I mean, really.... you don't know these people. Them waking up, freaking out, attacking a customer could very well put you out of business overnight.

Imagine this happened at your home and not in some unknown place.
Imagine waking up one morning, your wife and kids asleep in the house.
You walk outside and two dirty looking dudes are passed out on your porch. A large box full of drugs, etc is found next to them.
Do you wait for them to wake up, discuss drug treatment with them? Perhaps cook them some eggs?
No, you call the police.
It's only sensible.

Putting drug addicts in prison, sure that isn't exactly the greatest thing. I have much compassion for drug addicts.
At the same time, this scenario isn't really about that. It is about getting help with these two guys in case something goes badly.
We aren't talking about these guys getting high in their kitchen, we are talking about them in a public place. Totally different thing altogether.

RW

that's a good point, the ever-present threat of frivolous lawsuits.
Myself, and many others, do not trust police...they are trained to not trust us. They are a monopoly, and like most monopolies, are a corrupt institution. I champion vigilante justice, because police are not obligated to protect citizens (this was ruled by the supreme court in 2008 ), but rather, they protect the status quo. They do have an obligation to protect businesses, so in that aspect, I can understand why M called the pigs.

Society-at-large is brainwashed into believing they need government to protect them. this leaves too much room for corruption, and infringement of rights and civil liberties. policing has become largely an institution of extortion for the state. this is a fact. you may not agree with it, but it is clearly obvious...expecially when you consider there are more drug testing kits being used than rape test kits (the money is in drug offenses, not rape cases).


legality ≠ morality

I have an anarchist mindset, I do agree with you about the role of police and government. But what we're faced with currently is the situation we've made for ourselves. Most people believe in the system and that's enough to maintain it. Things desperately need to change, and it will, it always does, that is the nature of the universe. So we will see a much more trusting and open society once we do away with police. But can we do that overnight? That wouldn't be smart OR safe. We need many intelligent people coming up with real solutions and that is going to take some time.

I don't trust police because, as you said, they're trained to not trust the public. However, knowing how they operate and what their mindset is like you can manipulate them and use them to your advantage. Like you also said, they'll protect businesses and anything worth serious money. They can be called to deescalate certain situations, even if the only purpose is to disperse the crowd before the police actually arrive. Just knowing how to deal with them and how to talk to them is a very valuable skill. I've never been to prison because I cultivated that skill

But do I think they're necessary? Do I have any love for them? No. But I was born into this world where everyone thinks it's necessary and feel they have to defer to them because of their perceived 'authority'. They didn't brainwash me into their cult, they always failed. But living in such a world, being so different from most of the people around you, allows for certain personalities and skills to develop. And when I am forced to deal with the gang of thugs called police, I flip a switch and act completely different, simply as a survival mechanism. I would not survive in prison and I've always known that, so I've become some simpering sycophant to these people. It's sickens me....but I'm alive.

May you please cite the supreme court case in which that statement was made? Which Justice stated that, and in what context?

There are a lot of good points being made here, I appreciate the feedback.

I'm an ex meth head myself so I always take it a bit personally when I see someone, even complete strangers, going down that horrible path that leads to nowhere. If I see a tweaker my first thought is always the same, "How many days have you gone without sleep?"

After 72 hours, things get weird. I've had some of the most bone chilling, paranoia filled hallucinations due to lack of sleep from that substance. It is horrible, and what is worse is that it is incredibly hard to quit. I had to lose (or destroy) everything and everyone before finally hitting rock bottom. Luckily my Mom took me in and let me recover for a few months before releasing me back out into the wild once again.

It's just sad that it is like this. Meth is everywhere in my town and if you get caught they throw you in a cage like an animal. Prohibition doesn't work, but the government likes to ignore that fact. Maybe someday that will change but until then, I'm keeping any and all stash boxes safely tucked away at home!