Ancient Aztec Ritual Harshed by Narcs

Huge drug bust at San Diego State -- a six-month undercover DEA investigation into seven fraternity houses nets 96 arrests (75 of them students), plus "4 pounds of cocaine, 50 pounds of marijuana, 48 hydroponic marijuana plants, 350 ecstasy pills, psilocybin (mushrooms), 30 vials of hash oil, methamphetamine, various illicit prescription drugs, one shotgun, three semi-automatic pistols, three brass knuckles and $60,000 in cash."

This DEA quote caught my eye:

"Our children are our biggest asset and absent a safe, drug-free learning environment, their chances of succeeding are greatly diminished," said Ralph W. Partridge, special agent in charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration in San Diego. "The university police and SDSU administration are to be commended for their swift actions in confronting the drug use problem on campus."

Funny, I thought that cheap access to frat-boy drugs were the whole point of SDSU…. At any rate, if having illegal narcotics in your post-high school learning environment "greatly diminishe[s]" your chances at success, then California has been doomed to failure since what, 1959? Somehow the state, and its college graduates, manage to muddle through.

More seriously, I always wonder what happens to these guys who are arrested in their early 20s for meeting a sliver of the insatiable undergraduate demand for pot-smoking. I was never any dealer, nor much of a user, but I've known and worked with quite a few perfectly successful people who dealt drugs in college. I have also known a couple who were unlucky (and/or careless) enough to get carted off to jail, but those guys I lost track of. (Though through the magic of Google I see one former mushroom-dealing colleague running a successful business in Texas, so hopefully it all turned out well.)

So I leave the question open to the floor: What ever happened to your drug dealing friend or aquaintance who got arrested in or around college? And by what year in our glorious future will the act of purchasing marijuana be a perfectly legal transaction between consenting adults?

Comments

[R C Dean]

Holy shit, that's a lot of dope.

And by what year in our glorious future will the act of purchasing marijuana be a perfectly legal transaction between consenting adults?

Its a generation off, at best. Say, 2030 at the earliest.

[thoreau]

I teach at a California university with a very large plant sciences program.

I'm just sayin'.

[Kwix]

None of my friends ever got arrested thankfully, but the one hard-core stoner I still keep in touch with works in R&D at Intel. Make of that what you will.

[Shannon Love]

What ever happened to your drug dealing friend or aquaintance who got arrested in or around college?

Middle-class, moderately successful. On the other hand he started out with 3 times as much brains as the rest of us. The guys I knew that started out dealing in junior high or high school are doing exactly the same thing in the same place.

And by what year in our glorious future will the act of purchasing marijuana be a perfectly legal transaction between consenting adults?

I'd say it will start within 10 years. Late night talk show host now routinely make pot jokes indicating a broad middle-class acceptance of pot usage.

[J sub D]

"Our children are our biggest asset and absent a safe, drug-free learning environment, their chances of succeeding are greatly diminished," said Ralph W. Partridge, special agent in charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration in San Diego. "The university police and SDSU administration are to be commended for their swift actions in confronting the drug use problem on campus."

Holy hallucination, Batman! They've started using illegal drugs on campus? Good thing we nipped this trend in the bud. This could have gone nationwide!

[Jamie Kelly]

I used pot for years, and meth for a couple of years, and now I'm a journalist surrounded by people who think the Drug War is just the neatest thing.
Friend of mine dealt and did meth for 6 years, got off it and now owns and runs a pizza joint.
So the moral lesson is: Do meth once, and you're fucked for life, a hopeless addict with a life expectancy of five years.
Oh, wait ...

[SIV]

And by what year in our glorious future will the act of purchasing marijuana be a perfectly legal transaction between consenting adults?

The year after the Great Pestilence or following the Big Asteroid Strike.

[dead_elvis]

This is the quote that caught my attention:

Those arrested included a student who was about to receive a criminal justice degree and another who was to receive a master's degree in homeland security.

So your point is...? Are we supposed to be shocked, or scandalized, or scared? We're at a point where it's assumed any candidate for high political office probably did drugs, so I fail to see how this is mention-worthy.

[SIV]

I'd say it will start within 10 years. Late night talk show host now routinely make pot jokes indicating a broad middle-class acceptance of pot usage.

1978 would be 10 years after late-night TV pot jokes started. That was also about as close as we got to "legal".

[ktc2]

So 96 students lose their financial aid and/or go to jail and this is HELPING them?

You could duplicate this on any college campus in the US I suspect, and could have for the last 40 years.

"Our children are our biggest asset" which is why we have to arrest and ruin the educations of 96 of them for not harming anyone.

[Brian Courts]

Our children are our biggest assets

Besides the typical gag-inducing triteness of the statement, I see the infantilization of college students continues.

[ktc2]

As for the date, I personally suspect not within my lifetime, so . . . 50 years or more away.

Why?

Because the generation of moralizing moron dinosaurs we've all been waiting around to die off are raising a subgeneration of moralizing young hipocrit moralizers and given the dynastic nature of american politics you got at least another whole generation minimum.

[fyodor]

Back in the 70's we were sure that legal pot was only a matter of time.

Then Jimmy Carter turned on us, Ronnie Reagan got elected, and you know the rest.

I sure ain't holding my breath (unless I just "inhaled"!!!).

[Naga Sadow]

Hmmmm . . . all the small time dealer friends I had have moved on and I've lost track of them. My big time dealer friend ,however, was in prison last time I checked. Statutory rape with a 17 year old when he was 19.

Pot legalization? Never gonna happen. Very pessimestic of me. Sorry.

[TallDave]

What ever happened to your drug dealing friend or aquaintance who got arrested in or around college?

Hmmm, most of them: nothing (cops didn't go out of their way to screw people over in my experience). A few people I knew took to a life in that sort of thing, but they generally weren't on a path to do anything more productive anyway.

I'm hoping by 2040 it will be almost as legal as tobacco. I base this on something that has fundamentally: ever-increasing access to information. I don't think people can be sold the lies they were in the 1980s.

Hell, look at this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marijuana

Key phrases:

While cannabis is associated with certain health risks, it is nearly impossible to overdose from the consumption of cannabis.
...
In spite of this, a recent large-scale study found no correlation between heavy marijuana use and lung cancer, despite noting that cannabis contains the same carcinogens as tobacco.

Good God, they execute people for cannabis possession in some places? Didn't know that.

[TallDave]

fundamentally changed*

[troy]

What ever happened to your drug dealing friend or acquaintance who got arrested in or around college?

He didn't get arrested. He did law review.

And by what year in our glorious future will the act of purchasing marijuana be a perfectly legal transaction between consenting adults?

Never. The criminal-industrial complex won't allow this to happen.

[Kolohe]

And by what year in our glorious future will the act of purchasing marijuana be a perfectly legal transaction between consenting adults?

I am very pessimistic about this; I say not in my lifetime (I'm 34).

Two factors:
1) From all accounts x'ers used pot less than boomers did, and so have an even less incentive to decriminalize. Actually incentive is the wrong word; x'ers will have a higher apathy factor toward marijuana when they're in charge - a defining aspect of our generation, right? - and simply not give a shit to alter the status quo.

2) The trend line with 'the war on smoking' leads me to believe it is more likely for government to achieve 'harmonization' between tobacco and mj laws by making them both *illegal* within 2 generations, vice both being legal.

[stopdrugwar]

I remember the '70's when we thought we were about to make marijuana legal. I've been active with the Libertarian Party for 25 years. When I first talked with people about ending the drug war it was just like the experience Ron Paul had talking about it on the Morton Downey Jr. show in '88. Screaming irrational hissy fits by those unwilling to even consider it. Now even conservatives in the Constitution party are willing to endorse a candidate that makes it a major part of his speeches (Ron Paul).

I actually think legalizing marijuana sales may be coming in at least a few jurisdictions very soon. Look for it in a college town near you (assuming you live in Vermont or Colorado).

[JParker]

masters in "homeland security" now that's a scary thought. Only in the new America. Where you are expected to spend 4 years and climbing in college would your basic "jackbooted thug" have a masters in jackbooted thuggery. Looks like he was an apprentice in thuginomics to 🙂

[Stopdrugwar]

Let me define very soon, within the next 10 years.

[juris imprudent]

Where's Neil to trumpet how these college students finally learned something?

Though not what Neil imagines they've learned.

[Kolohe]

I actually think legalizing marijuana sales may be coming in at least a few jurisdictions very soon. Look for it in a college town near you (assuming you live in Vermont or Colorado).

Where 5 min later, the US Justice department, even one run by an Obama selected AG, will render it moot armed with Raich, institutional inertia, and more guns.

[Guy Montag]

(Though through the magic of Google I see one former mushroom-dealing colleague running a successful business in Texas, so hopefully it all turned out well.)

You grew up with Ross Perot? Wow, you look so young in person!

[J sub D]

Let me define very soon, within the next 10 years.

I'm thinking Stopdrugwar is young. When I was 21, I'd have said something like

It'll be legal in 10 years. How can such a compratively innocuous drug be classified as a narcotic and treated the same as heroin, when the reality is it's more benign than alcohol?

That was 31 years ago. Today, we raid people's homes in the middle of the night with paramiltary LEOs looking for reefer grow operations as described by a known burglar.

Sorry to splash the cold water of reality on you, Stopdrugwar.

[BakedPenguin]

There were three presidential candidates who advocated an end to the drug war. While they were somewhat at the fringes, they weren't joke candidates - a representative, a senator, and a mayor of a major metropolitan city. That gives me some hope.

[The Bearded Hobbit]

What ever happened to your drug dealing friend or aquaintance who got arrested in or around college?

.. he's running (I almost said "head of") the IT department for a large medical review company ..
And by what year in our glorious future will the act of purchasing marijuana be a perfectly legal transaction between consenting adults?

.. I've been saying from the mid '60s that legal pot was just around the corner .. I now have serious doubts that it will ever be legal in my lifetime (30-50 years, hopefully)..realistically?? never ..

as fyodor pointed out, Carter was about as close as it will ever get ..

.. back OT, at least the drug bust at SDSU will have some positive aspects .. I'll bet that there are another 96 converts to end the WOD ..

.. Hobbit

[Danny]

"Our children are our biggest asset" which is why we have to arrest and ruin the educations of 96 of them for not harming anyone.

I came here to say THIS.

[Tacos mmm...]

I have one friend who spent half a decade or so slinging relatively small quantities of weed and acid. He's been out of the business for a while, but hasn't really changed too much. Sleeps till noon, plays video games all afternoon, goes out and gets laid at night. I'm pretty jealous.

[Steve-o]

What ever happened to your drug dealing friend or aquaintance who got arrested in or around college?

During my first year of law school a friend was busted with 50 odd plants in his attic. After a brief "hiatus" he returned to school and, with significant support from peers and faculty, was allowed to sit for the bar. He now has a very successful practice. However I would note that this was before even a simple possession conviction made you uneligible for financial aid.

And by what year in our glorious future will the act of purchasing marijuana be a perfectly legal transaction between consenting adults?

After the f*****g rapture.

[MattXIV]

None of my college dealing friends ever managed to get caught - including the stupid ones. The one person I know who has was never college (or civilized society for that matter) material and had a healthy share of run-ins with the cops on non-drug related matters as well; she's still bouncing from fast food job to fast food job as far as I know, but that probably has as much to do with the obviously batshit crazy aspect as her run-ins with the law.

My read of prospects of pot legalization is still low, but higher than any time since the 70s. I think prospects are very slim of legalization becoming standard across the nation, but I can see a small but non-negligible chance of the reigning in of federal authority via a more sensible commerce clause interpretation and popular opinion to the point that some more permissive cities may be able to achieve de facto or de jure legalization via unenforced state level laws or the elimination of state level laws in some places (although there will still be a lot of local bans even in those states). Everything else of course stands a snowball's chance in hell of legalization for the forseeable future.

[Travis]

"What ever happened to your drug dealing friend or aquaintance who got arrested in or around college?"

One was shot & killed by the police during a drug bust(don't pull a gun on the police they don't like that), One is happily married & financially successful. others no fucking clue.

[mantooth]

The dealer in my dorm is now a very successful Copyright Attorney.

[Gimme Back My Dog]

What ever happened to your drug dealing friend or aquaintance who got arrested in or around college?

It took a little digging on Google, but I found him. He became a dentist, but then lost his license for prescribing medicine for non-therapeutic use (I guess old habits die hard). Now a consultant for a health insurance company.

[Travis]

"And by what year in our glorious future will the act of purchasing marijuana be a perfectly legal transaction between consenting adults?"

Only if constitutional federalism is restored, some cities or states might decriminalize drug use like Argentina just did. Of course the federal government will never give power back to the states so basically never.

[BakedPenguin]

One thing I've mentioned on H&R a few times, but forgot for this thread - marijuana has been proven to be beneficial for Alzhiemers patients. This could potentially be a huge asset, since the largest voting demographic (and the one most likely to suffer from that horrible disease) now stands to gain a lot from at least a medical decriminalization.

[Stretch]

Why do they specify that the pot plants are hydroponic? I realize that more information is usually better but, it seems like that modifier was thrown in there to make the plants seem extra dangerous/potent.

For that matter, why is that sect in Texas always referred to as a Polygamous sect rather than just a fundamentalist sect, conservative sect, zealous sect.

[jtuf]

I knew a bunch of recreational drug users in the past. The ones who just smoked hemp from durg dealers eventually quit and found steady employment. The two who pharmed when we hung out ended up with bleak futures. I guess the drugs supplied by the high school did more damage than the drugs banned in the high school.

[Dave B.]

why is that sect in Texas always referred to as a Polygamous sect rather than just a fundamentalist sect, conservative sect, zealous sect

I'm going to guess its because they practice polygamy. That's what makes them different from other fundamentalist/conservative/zealous sects. Its the most apt description for letting people know who you're talking about.

Why do they specify that the pot plants are hydroponic?

It does give a small amount of information. It tells you that they were grown indoors with the aid of a bunch of equipment. This wasn't a bunch of plants growing on the side of the building or anything.

[Brandybuck]

I went to UCSD. When we got bored we would drive out to SDSU and laugh at how stupid they were. Then they would beat us up.

[Dr. K.]

I agree with Kolohe.

We'll see the prohibition of tobacco before MJ is legalized.

I predict my generation (Xers) will turn out to be just as big hypocrites as the boomers are on this issue.

[The Real Bill]

I predict my generation (Xers) will turn out to be just as big hypocrites as the boomers are on this issue.

Maybe. Most people are hypocrites.

There is no chance of legalization until the WWII generation has died off and at least half of the Baby Boomers.

[Bob Mologna]

College dealers.... I were one. The small time guys I sold to have all gone on to respectable careers. Me? I'm in real estate development, so clearly I haven't improved much. Just couldn't kick the life of preying on unsuspecting suckers...

Real legalization seems further away than ever. Medical decriminalization, perhaps.

[Bob Mologna]

College dealers.... I were one. The small time guys I sold to have all gone on to respectable careers. Me? I'm in real estate development, so clearly I haven't improved much. Just couldn't kick the life of preying on unsuspecting suckers...

Real legalization seems further away than ever. Medical decriminalization, perhaps.

[BakedPenguin]

So am I the only one who thinks this may have an effect on changing people's (especially old people's) minds on the subject?

[Bob Mologna]

That could be a big help all right.... what were we talking about?

[BakedPenguin]

Bob, I guess irony can be pretty ironic at times.

Frankly, after all the drug war bullshit, I think it's great that marijuana actually can be used to save people's brains.

[Bob Mologna]

"Frankly, after all the drug war bullshit, I think it's great that marijuana actually can be used to save people's brains."

Agreed, I'm still rather pessimistic about legalization though.

[troy]

Speaking of marijuana, isn't this picture from the DEA a picture of some good shit? When it was downloading, I saw all those white dots and thought, "wow, is that stuff that hairy?" and started slobbering like the pavlovian dog that I am.

[CSI]

Won't someone think of the children! (child = anyone under 25, apparently)

[Bob Mologna]

Wow, the USDOJ does some good dope porn! Not afraid to use a bit of bandwidth either (2911146 bytes)!

Are they trying to give the idea that the DEA is actually a large penis made from marijuana? I'm confused.

[MoebiusLost]

I would say it will be legal by 2020, assuming most of the Baby Boomers are kicking the can by that time.

[ktc2]

Scientology Video Channel ads now?

Ugh!

Is there a way to kill those?

[Captain Awesome]

Guess it's time to make my annual comment for hit and run. It just so happens that I'm a graduate from SDSU(2004), and the #1 featured fraternity in the news is my chapter of my fraternity, happened to be wearing one of our t-shirts to grad school today. I know a hand full of these guys and feel for them and their troubles.

It's maddening for me because, despite my feelings about the drug war, I personally put many hours of work into getting the drug element out of the house to avoid the liability for the organization. The greek system comes with a large social network which attracts drug dealers and makes drug dealing more profitable/attractive to those considering. It's very hard to keep clean.

A few weeks ago I contacted SSDP with the intent to begin a new chapter at CSUEB. I wasn't sure if I'd be willing to put in the work start it up, but this has decided it for me. If you attend CSUEB with me and want to help me start it up send me a message at SpuriousC-at-hotmail.

And as for old college friends that were involved in the black market, one is a successful financial consultant, and another works as a mechanic for the air force.

[somedude]

Here in Los Angeles, it's kinda legal (medically). My girlfriend just got here "recommendation." It's really weird being able to go into a store and buy it (well i get to go along but wait in the lobby). It's weird seeing flyers advertsing "first time buyers get a free gram" or a "free pipe." It's weird seeing all the normal people come in and buy it.

The whole experience gave me hope that this will become normal and lead to at the very least defacto legalization.

[P Brooks]

"Our children are our biggest asset and absent a safe, drug-free learning environment, their chances of succeeding are greatly diminished," said Ralph W. Partridge, special agent in charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration in San Diego.

I would like to wire that guy's nuts to an army field telephone and give the handle a spin while asking him if he really thinks being in jail is better for a twenty year old kid than smoking a joint. What an odious pool of slime.

[P Brooks]

What ever happened to your drug dealing friend or aquaintance who got arrested in or around college?

I cannot say; but I went to school with a guy who dealt significant amounts of cocaine who, as a student aide to the district attorney's office, was rumored to have carefully tracked ongoing narcotics investigations. Last I heard, he was an investment banker.

[P Brooks]

Do meth once, and you're fucked for life, a hopeless addict with a life expectancy of five years.

But you might get your own billboard, and that's cool.

[The Wine Commonsewer]

I can't say much because it could incriminate people who don't need the grief. Suffice it to say that one of my old druggie friends is dead. Another turned lezzie. Yet another just wrecked his snowmobile at about 120 mph after retiring from Public Enemy # 1, another is in charge of some serious space stuff without which re-entry to earth would be a bit more dangerous, and someone else, well she traded the bad stuff for the red stuff, another guy ran for congress, and the guy who vowed death by age 21 survived the Army............

FYI, Mrs TWC was on the SDSU Speech Team for a while whose motto was:

We Speak & Party Too.

Mrs TWC did not partake.

[The Wine Commonsewer]

Do meth once, and you're fucked for life, a hopeless addict with a life expectancy of five years.

Maybe not, but if you've ever known anyone who was seriously hooked on meth you realize that it has a much seamier down side than most substances.

Yes, your teeth fall out, you hang yourself, and you see phantoms. Five years at the outside, in many cases, less than one.

There's a reason why even the hippie drug culture shunned meth.

Annie's In A Graveyard, She's Awfully Dead Regards........

[The Wine Commonsewer]

Is there a way to kill those?

Firefox

[The Wine Commonsewer]

Oh wait, I misunderstood the question. I thought it was druggies not drug dealers.

One dead. They found his Porsche in Carson City and his body near Tahoe after the snow melted the following year.

One turned Jesus Freak and recently fell off a scaffold at work which saved his life because they found kidney cancer and were able to operate. He used to sleep with a .357 under his pillow.

One Dead, heart attack at 50.

[Joe Antognini]

One of my friends was an LSD drug dealer in his late teens. He was arrested for marijuana possession (he has a great story about how he very nearly got caught with enough LSD to put him in jail for life). Anyway, now he's at the California Institute of Technology and will graduate next year with a degree in Applied Physics. It seems he'll do more for society with a Caltech degree than a life sentence....

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[SG]

I knew three real dealers in college - one is dead (OD or suicide by OD, probably the latter), the second is a doctor and the third is doing very well on Wall Street... kinda a mixed bag.

[Dave W.]

I'm just sayin'.

Give it a try, T.!

[d]

I got arrested at college in the mid 90's selling weed and mushrooms. turned over a lot of cash found via an owe sheet and copped a plea. Got a 2 year suspended sentenced and probation. arrested on 6 felonies but managed to plea to misdemeaners. Kept on truckin through college, got a physics degree and went on the get an MEE from GT. Now working as a systems engineer on military com networks. maybe it was the 10 year time lag, but my arrest wasn't really an issue with obtaining a clearance. Home depot probably wouldn't hire me but I'm good for cleared work. Was honest and up front about it all, plus I'm not seriously in debt (a biggie for clearances). I always laugh when I read quotes like "do drugs and you ruin your life". To this day though I struggle to hold back when people make ridiculous comments like that around me. In a way my experience could teach them a lot, there's no way most people I interact with now would ever guess what my past was like, but then again I still fear their reaction, like they'll keep their kids from playing with mine or some crap like that.

[NeonCat]

I'm afraid I don't know what happened to anyone I may have known who dealt.

As for when cannabis will be legal? I keep hoping it will happen in my lifetime. I worry that instead of people having a massive attack of common sense - that there are far more important things to direct law enforcement resources at - that it will be legalized to provide much needed tax revenue for the government, at some point down the economic road which will make the current downturn look like a slightly overcast day.

It would make me giggle uncontrollably if the money was earmarked for education, i.e., "it's for the children."

[robc]

Technically, arent children liabilities and not assets? Any accounting people on here who can clear this up for sure?

[P Brooks]

It depends- if you put them to work in the coal mines, they might generate net positive cash flow.

[Tom]

One of the first posters got this one right with the comment about 50 pounds of dope being alot.

This isn't about the drugs per se. Nor is this about a guy trying to make a few bucks on the side by dealing dime bags of pot in college.

This is about college students operating a criminal enterprise. Additionally, this is about the hubris of people wanting to go into law enforcement and our government at an executive level who have engaged in a criminal enterprise.

[R C Dean]

Additionally, this is about the hubris of people wanting to go into law enforcement and our government at an executive level who have engaged in a criminal enterprise.

Not that hubris and engaging in criminal enterprises are necessarily inconsistent with becoming a member of our Master Class.

[Rimfax]

Just as every cop is a criminal
And all the sinners, saints

[J sub D]

One of the first posters got this one right with the comment about 50 pounds of dope being alot.

As someone who used to purchase weed a pound at a time. I don't perceive 50 lbs on a college campus as all that much. That's 800 ounces for a big time college? 50 lbs might be enough to supply the homecoming parties.

The Medellin cartel this ain't.

[Nash]

"I went to UCSD. When we got bored we would drive out to SDSU and laugh at how stupid they were. Then they would beat us up."

I went to USD. After they beat the shit out of you we bought all their coke.

[Blue]

I don't keep touch with any of them anymore, but some of my my drug dealing friends who got caught have genuine substance abuse problems now and find it nearly impossible to find meaningful work. However the ones that didn't get caught seem to be leading healthy and somewhat successful lives. The deciding factor seems to be if the person did any substantial time or not. Prison seems to manufacture career criminals. In the movie Blow, George Jung played by Johnny Depp says, "I went in with a Bachelor of marijuana, came out with a Doctorate of cocaine." That sounds about right.