Winning lotto ticket confiscated from drug peddler
Michael David, 46, bought a lottery ticket in Ellsworth, Maine that turned out to be a $1,000 winner. A little later though, David was busted for selling $60 worth of methadone the previous week. Police confiscated the lucky ticket because, they argue, it was purchased with "proceeds from a drug transaction." A judge will determine if David will get the lottery ticket back or not. Link
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ultimately, the state will be able to seize all one's property and that of any relations on the basis of suspicion of intent alone. Just watch.
what do you mean will? If police find a large sum of cash in your car they can just take it until they determine its yours. They don't need any reason to be suspicious. "Hey you got ten grand? Well we're gonna hold on to it till you prove its yours."
i've read a few newspaper articles where this has happened to people.
boo! that's cold, ellsworth PD. real cold.
not that i expected better of maine. all cavorting with new brunswick, like that.
I understand the DEA enjoys seizing the houses of cancer victims using medical marijuana
Unless they sold him that ticket on credit, I don't see how getting busted for a drug sale AFTER the purchase proves where he got the money to pay for it.
Everyone's so quick to defend the drug peddlers.
"I understand the DEA enjoys seizing the houses of cancer victims using medical marijuana"
because medical marijuana is not a valid reason to smoke pot. Unless of course you're part of that federal medical marijuana project that still provides marijuana to people in the program.
watch this and tell me what you think
http://www.pot.tv/archive/shows/pottvshowse-4604.html
@6
someone selling methadone is almost certainly a heroin addict. A $60 transaction hardly qualifies them as a cocaine baron (or CIA accomplice). Some poor bastard who made a bad choice and needs medicine more than prison is hardly a fit target. An easy target, yes.
That doesn't mean I won't beat the junkie I catch breaking into my car. It also doesn't mean I've bought into a ludicrously bankrupt "war on drugs" which is a thinly disguised private profit industry.
at least it was 1,000 and not a "life changing" amount. I'd hate to see them whammy the big bucks from the poor guy.
From the article:
"Michael David, who had been staying at an Ellsworth motel, sold four 10-milligram methadone pills for $15 each last week, Police Chief John Deleo said.
He >>then
He bought the ticket with the proceeds from the drug sales.
Cops got it right, this time.
Poster (David) got it wrong.
I was watching a reality TV show last night about cops and they showed how they seized "drug money." They did a "line up" of brown paper bags containing either cut up paper, uncirculated paper currency or the arrestee's money. The drug dog, not surpassingly, picked the "drug money" at which point the officer said that was good enough for the State of Florida to seize the money!
A while ago, tests showed that there are detectable levels of drugs on all circulating currency. I'm guessing the cops get a 100% hit rate on their "drug money" line ups! (Comparing to uncirculated currency is pretty blatant--it means they know they can't reliably ID a particular defendants money when it is compared in a line up of circulated currency.)
@6
I'd recommend you go watch all 4 seasons of "The Wire" on dvd and the current episodes of season 5 on HBO. Whatever your perspective on the "War on Drugs" is now, and I gather from what you wrote it's not the most well-informed, "The Wire" will teach you something about the complexity of the drug trade.
Hell, just read this article by David Simon. It's eye-opening.
http://www.believermag.com/issues/200708/?read=interview_simon
Wow, comment posting system is messed up today.
"Michael David, who had been staying at an Ellsworth motel, sold four 10-milligram methadone pills for $15 each last week, Police Chief John Deleo said.
He >>then
You see what I mean.
Cpt Tim said: "because medical marijuana is not a valid reason to smoke pot."
Yeah, we wouldn't want to smoke just to have fun, now would we? (Vaporize, don't burn!) And even if you do use it to feel better because you are sick, that's okay. Because it's a plant that God put on Earth to be used as we please. It's just that the Feds don't like it when people see through the propoganda. The DEA can bust people for hard drugs, not the light ones that we all love and enjoy. "Another beer please, I'm feeling the need to alter my brain chemistry."
Damn it!!!!!
"Michael David, who had been staying at an Ellsworth motel, sold four 10-milligram methadone pills for $15 each last week, Police Chief John Deleo said.
He then went to a convenience store and bought lottery tickets and other merchandise and went back to his motel room, where he was busted."
@13
real life and documentaries trump the best entertainment television.
The "complexity" of the drug trade is not so complex. I have watched for quite a while now.
this thread could go anywhere,it's too damn big.
Proposed: Cannabis should be immediately legalized for production, trade and use. It should be regulated as is alcohol re: age, driving and responsible use. It should be taxed like tobacco and alcohol. Medical systems to treat undesired effects should be implemented. All those presently incarcerated for non-violent marijuana offenses should be freed. Education and research should supplant suppression-for-profit and propaganda.
Comments?
@Takuan:
"Comments?"
How about:
"Please sit down, be quiet, and get back to work."
Tkuan said, "Cannabis should be immediately legalized for production, trade and use."
Then tax it.
Jeff, just checking in to make sure you know i was being sarcastic.
Jeff; read the post
"It should be taxed like tobacco and alcohol"
Takuan, I 100% agree with you (and I have never smoked pot in my life).
Takuan, those proposals are far too sensible to implement.
A quick search didn't turn this up on Boing Boing, but I didn't look very hard - back in November, a Massachusetts man denied the win of a lifetime because his parole conditions forbid gambling, including lotto tickets and Keno.
http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2007/11/29/bank_robber_may_see_lottery_win_scratched/
funny thing, whenever I propose the above, the vast majority of respondents are in favour of it.
Yet in putative democracies, nothing changes.
It is almost as if there were a private-interest group working behind the scenes, actively suppressing the democratic will of the majority of the people.
How about that.
Oddly, people often turn to drugs because their fiscal affairs are messed up. Winning a little money might give them some hope. 'Crackhead' isn't most people's first career choice. The cops are just mean.
"Proposed: Cannabis should be immediately legalized for production, trade and use. It should be regulated as is alcohol re: age, driving and responsible use. It should be taxed like tobacco and alcohol. Medical systems to treat undesired effects should be implemented. All those presently incarcerated for non-violent marijuana offenses should be freed. Education and research should supplant suppression-for-profit and propaganda."
WHY THE HELL CAN"T THE PEOPLE IN POWER THINK THIS SENSIBLY????
If you want to criminalize something criminalize the biggest killer in the US... ALCOHOL!!!!!!
perhaps they find it more lucrative to pretend to think otherwise.
Well, this thread jumped the shark.
Did they confiscate the "Other Merchandise"? If not, this was quite selective in what they seized.
Also, and this is not in regards to this case, but as a whole issue, after the seizure what do they do with items? I ask since if this get thrown out in court (for whatever reason) that must be returned to him. No 'crime' per se means no seizure. If the time limit on the ticket runs out, and they then give it back...who pays? Call me curious, but things like this could get interesting. Especially since one of the more vocal officers in the Toronto area has actually called for vehicles to be seized and DESTROYED immediatly...no need for that pesky trial...
"They did a "line up" of brown paper bags containing either cut up paper, uncirculated paper currency or the arrestee's money. The drug dog, not surpassingly, picked the "drug money" at which point the officer said that was good enough for the State of Florida to seize the money!"
I saw that, and was shocked at the fact that the policeman had first handled suspected drugs, and THEN the money, tainting the entire process.
Seems like a get out of money confiscation free card to me...
Does it not follow then, that police departments are in a conflict of interest where confiscation laws prevail? Would police make as many drug busts if ALL the confiscated money and assets were turned over to help the seriously addicted get off heroin,meth and cocaine?
Takuan, sorry for have missed the important word: Tax. Cpt Tim, I would like at least one anti-pot person to talk with. I have very little reason to promote more drug use of any kind. But the history of drug use shows that weed has long been used and in many forms: hash, bam, kif, bud (it's wonderful what you can find in Amsterdam),and that it isn't any worse than drinking. We're free adults (in theory); if we want to grow a plant, and use it as we please, that should be our right. That said, I do not want to live in a hood with pot in every garden. It would smell kinda nasty. Humans like their drugs.
#10
I don't know the cost of living in Ellsworth, but depending on where you live, $1000 could be enough for damage deposit, first month's rent, and a suit of clothes fit to wear to a job interview. For a homeless person who's always scrabbling to get money for one night at the Y, the next meal, or a laudromat, $1000 could well be life changing.
Granted, for a heroin addict who's having so much trouble quitting that he's selling off his methadone, it would probably be hard for him to discipline himself to actually spend it that way. But the potential is there.
Takuan:
I recommend "The Wire" to anyone who has bought into the drug war party line. Gets them thinking beyond the militarized hysteria that prevades the conversation. Good fiction can be more accessible for some people.
I think you're treading into conspiracy theories. That way of thinking gives the people in power too much credit and minimizes the role people can play in changing their communities. Why bother working to change things if some smoke-filled backroom already has it all laid out?
The drug war in this country is a confluence of an out of control military-industrial complex, morally panicked politicians, racial tensions, stark economic changes, immigration and trade policies and simple human addiction. Ascribing that to some nebulous cell within the system avoids the complexity of the issue, and limits our response to it.
@SANTASKNEE (#16), what did I get wrong?
I think SantasKnee was trying to say you got the wording wrong. Your entry says he bought the ticket, then sold the dope, which would imply that there's no way that drug money was used to buy the ticket. The actual article, however, says he sold the dope, then bought the ticket, which implies that drug money could have been used.
I think their logic is a little fuzzy here anyway but the order of events definitely impacts the story.
@KLOKWERK (#36), Actually, I didn't get anything wrong. I said that he bought the ticket and was later busted for selling methadone. That's what happened. However, I can now see why my wording may have been confusing. I've added that he allegedly sold the drugs the previous week. Thanks!
Humans like their drugs.
indeed. put i prefer mushrooms to pot. Pot is a constant interruption of my trains of thoughts, like too much alcohol. Mushrooms let my thoughts go about their business, if in a more unorthodox manner.
conspiracy?
I've seen the faces of the DEA. I know evil when it is before me.
Ah, I see what you meant with the wording now, David. I blame the AP. The way they worded it, it's impossible to tell if they meant that he sold the drugs last week, then went to the store and got busted or if all three things happened back to back, last week. AP news quality is so random.
Takuan said, "I've seen the faces of the DEA. I know evil when it is before me."
The DEA is a meme cult. You have to buy into the BS to work for them. And if you aren't already programmed to think all drugs are the scurge of the universe, then you will be. I've never met a DEA agent that I've liked. Maybe they are evil. I'm willing to bet that most of them have the same wierd mindset that fundi-religious types do. If tax payers in Amerika only realized how much money has been flushed down the crapper to fight the War on Drugs! Oh, the folly of men and their twisted moral crusades.
I've never met a DEA agent that I've liked.
Funny. I've never met a controlled substance that I haven't liked. Well, maybe midazolam. You don't get high, but then you can't remember whether you got high or not.