March 02, 2005
Hammer time
While doing research for an upcoming entry on the methamphetamine epidemic and Rep. Tom Campbell's proposed legislation restricting pseudoephedrine sales, I found this quote from Rep. Dawn Morrell, whose district is near "tweaker central":
[Campbell's] third bill would make manufacturing meth -- or possession of meth ingredients with intent to manufacture -- eligible for the state's three-strikes law. Not everyone is on board. Rep. Dawn Morrell, D-Puyallup, who supports restricted pseudoephedrine sales, said building new prisons is expensive.
"I'm more into getting at the precursors, so you don't have the materials to make (meth). If that doesn't work, we can look at the bigger hammers," she said.
"Locking them up doesn't stop the fact that we have grandparents raising grandchildren."
Umm.
Not locking meth cooks and cranks doesn't stop the fact that we have grandparents raising grandchildren, either.
Does anyone want tweaking addicts with drano-augured brains raising said children, or getting time on the lam to produce more of them? Or is Morrell thinking that the pseudoephedrine restrictions are going to be so successful that other drug use and the attendant social pathologies are going to vanish?
She's admitting prison is a "bigger hammer," one to utilize when and if the supply-side curbs don't work.
Yeah. Let's try the most effective tactics later. "Plan B" and all that.
Posted by Brian Crouch at March 02, 2005
10:52 PM | Email This
1. Well...isn't closing the barn door after the horse is out, the liberal Democrats standard operating procedure?
2. Building prisons is expensive????
Funny there seems to be plenty of room in debtors prison for deadbeat dads (which BTW is a violation of the US constitution) but no room for meth users in prisons eh?
3. Yeah? And locking them up works? What planet do you hail from Brian? On this one we have been at war on drugs since the Nixon administration.
That's thirty years and counting. In all that time the drug users aren't the only losers. And we have more drug use - not less!
4. Just get on with it and make meth manufacturing a strike. It's a scourge on society, to be sure.
5. "Yeah? And locking them up works? What planet do you hail from Brian? On this one we have been at war on drugs since the Nixon administration."
Sorry Deadwood....
But Meth isn't your fathers cadillac of drugs! Meth is an entirely new and despicable ball game! Crack cocaine was really bad and a very difficult addiction to break...Meth permanently changes people into monsters - devoid of guilt, love and compassion! It's called a soul-stealer. Meth can quickly and permanently change the brains chemical structure and nerve pathways.
Meth users have no conscience - They lose it! They have no sense to take care of children. They see no wrong in stealing from family, friends, neighbors, or strangers if they can obtain money to feed their habit. Meth-heads go into a rage as they're coming down off of the 1 to 2 week sleepless high! They are dangerous. They lie easily. They steal anything and everything.
This woman really needs to meet some of these *stellar* addicts up close and personal - before she becomes an advocate against jail time for them! She is doing them NO favors by keeping them on the streets - and NO favors for the communities either.
This drug is not like pot, or acid or crack.....this drug is evil and produces evil monsters.
Monsters belong off the streets!
6. A lot of people don't know that some of those ingredients for making meth are horrifyingly dangerous. The anhydrous ammonia will shrivel up your eyeballs in seconds, should you encounter it. That's just one reason these meth lab houses are so brutal and it should be discouraged at all costs.
7. Hmmmmmm....... stark raving mad, mind-numb monsters? Sounds like the ideal voter for the Libs around the Sound. Maybe we've stumbled on to something here. Dawn Morrell doesn't want Meth to be dealt with because Meth Labs have turned out more Libs than any ideology ever could! I think we've coined a new phrase here, "Meth Libs" or alternatively "Mad Libs" (all puns intended)
8. I can't concur with you on this one Mr. Crouch. Drug use is a health problem and should be treated as such.
Throwing users in jail doesn't do anything to help the rest of us. They don't get treatment and get back out only to use again. In fact, they are in even worse shape because as a felon they have a much harder time working themselves into productive society.
I don't have a problem with very strict treatment of real addicts. I'd like to see a separate system that incarcerates them, puts them through 6 months of treatment, while making them work their butts off. It would only take a few years before such a system would be much less expensive for tax payers as well as the communities where these recovering addicts live.
9. The Deads: Morrel is the one with whom you should take issue. She said "We can try the bigger hammers later." That's an endorsement of three-strikes strategy as the one to try if other methods don't work.
10. Typical liberal drivel..."there are no 'bad people', just 'bad behavior'"... I would gladly pay a couple cents more in gas tax or whatever means they pick to build a new state pen. At least I'd be getting something for my taxes for a change.
11. Having grown up in Eastern Washington, it's hard not to be angry that the meth problem is only being addressed now that it is visible in cities. However, any help with this scourge is appriciated. Sending more people to jail will not help. What we need is help creating hope. Think of meth in the cities as the spiritual retribution earned by decades of neglect and scorn. If you really want to help, fight to get Christine's bio-tech money spent in Eastern Washington. If you want to help, fight for educating poor white kids in trailer courts as much as everyone fights for poor people in the cites. If you want to help, fight to create opportunities so that the exodus of the young and gifted to "anywhere but here" is ended. Our communities are dying out here and we need them to be our mayors, business leaders, teachers and doctors more than you need them to be disgruntled and newly socialist middle management. Don't forget, you all have family in the country somewhere...take care of your own.
12. Let me put in my 10 here, the reason that they are really doing nothing but badmouthing meth freaks and tweekers id there is no money in it. If you are a deadbeat dad (not me!) you have money they can siphon, if you are a working stiff, they can tag you with a traffic citation that you either pay or take off work to fight. This is how the system lives, and as long as that level is accepted, it will continue. Dont ask them to do something that will COST the system money, because short of murder they will turn a blind eye. It is tounge in cheek when this vermin steals your stereo, and IF an officer shows up they will tell you they can do nothing...but for $15.00 you can have a copy of the police report for your insurance company. But dont take the law into your own hands while these tweekers are redistributing your wealth, you can go to jail!
13. Chuck does have a very valid point! Druggies, Auto thieves, muggers, illegal aliens,...do not make money for the local government when they are arrested! They cost money! The fact that the police departments are told to concentrate on seat belt violators, jay walkers, cell-phone users, illegal parking, etc...is not a cop's fault! It is the liberal law makers who impose this money-making priority!
And I agree with those who say jail is not the *only* answer to the drug problem. There should definitely be a mandatory rehab process tied to the jail sentence. There are treatments tested in Europe for Meth addiction that have proved highly successful - yet the US will not allow these treatments? Why is this? Drug rehab should be as vital as any national security interest! There should be huge federally funded drug rehab facilities in every region. Drug sniffing dogs should be allowed on every high school campus unnannounced.
There has to be a strong show of opposition to drugs in this country...Only then will the war on drugs take a realistic appearance and people will join the battle.
14. Yeah, you're right Chuck. The ruling elitists are really just after money. That's what they love about the whole Deadbeat Dad mythe - it puts the state in the middle of processing payments, for which they take a percentage. With 50% of marriages ending in divorce, it's hard to find a better business to be in.
15. okay....drugs are a huge problem...sometimes locking them up works like a charm and sometimes it just makes them want to use more....what have we got to lose....throw them in jail! meth is horrible and if not in jail...theyll die a sooner death
16. okay....drugs are a huge problem...sometimes locking them up works like a charm and sometimes it just makes them want to use more....what have we got to lose....throw them in jail! meth is horrible and if not in jail...theyll die a sooner death
17. okay....drugs are a huge problem...sometimes locking them up works like a charm and sometimes it just makes them want to use more....what have we got to lose....throw them in jail! meth is horrible and if not in jail...theyll die a sooner death