PD's hoax about contaminated meth leads to 1 arrest

[pixy0stix]

www.9news.com/news/local/police-departments-hoax-about-contaminated-meth-leads-to-1-arrest/106060811

GRANITE SHOALS, Texas – A police department northwest of Austin says a woman was arrested after she responded to their Facebook hoax about contaminated drugs.

The hoax, posted to Facebook on Tuesday, stated “Breaking News: Area Meth and Heroin Supply Possibly Contaminated With Ebola. Meth and Heroin recently brought in to Central Texas as well as the ingredients used to make it could be contaminated with the life threatening disease Ebola. If you have recently purchased meth or heroin in Central Texas, please take it to the local police or sheriff department so it can be screened with a special device. DO NOT use it until it has been properly checked for possible Ebola contamination! Contact any Granite Shoals PD officer for testing. Please share in hopes we get this information to anyone who has any contaminated meth or heroin that needs tested.”

Two days later, Granite Shoals Police say a “concerned citizen” brought her drugs to the police station so officers could test it. The woman, identified by police as 29-year-old Chasity Hopson, was arrested and charged with possession of a controlled substance.

Some of the department's Facebook followers got a good laugh out of the arrest and congratulated police, but others questioned the woman’s mental health and claimed it was police entrapment.

[downtoearth]

This isn't entrapment? How can this charge stick? It's one thing if they were offering drug treatment in exchange for drugs, but arresting after this seems wrong.

[pixy0stix]

I'm thinking it comes down to intent. They posted it to be funny, and someone took it seriously.

[elleblue]

That kind of sucks. But then I think drugs should be decriminalized.

[downtoearth]

Mar 28, 2016 11:08:00 GMT -5 pixy0stix said:

I'm thinking it comes down to intent. They posted it to be funny, and someone took it seriously.

Did it have a winky-face emoticon?    I find it funny and get it, but I wonder if a meth-addict would figure out the sarcasm?

[MixedBerryJam]

I don't necessarily think it's right that the police arrested her, but I don't think it's entrapment, either. Entrapment is enticing someone to do something they would not normally have done, except for the actions of another. This woman had presumably already bought her substance on her own. Entrapment would have been, "Go buy some, bring us the receipt, and we'll pay you double" (silly example). PS: I'm not a cop or an attorney. But that's my layperson's understanding.

[pixy0stix]

What were the police supposed to do when she walks in, voluntarily, with currently illegal drugs?

[downtoearth]

Mar 28, 2016 11:50:01 GMT -5 pixy0stix said:

What were the police supposed to do when she walks in, voluntarily, with currently illegal drugs?

Maybe the "possession of a controlled substance" is a lesser charge compared with other drug charges.  Maybe that's appropriate. I would love to see the DA offer a plea deal with treatment in lieu of jail/fines, but she could always not agree to that.

[MixedBerryJam]

Mar 28, 2016 11:50:01 GMT -5 pixy0stix said:

What were the police supposed to do when she walks in, voluntarily, with currently illegal drugs?

Oh, I agree. But the possession of the drugs wasn't entrapment, is what I'm saying. Maybe the protections of the 5th amendment would come into play? No self-incrimination? I dunno. I agree that she shouldn't have been arrested. Helped, sure. Arrested, no.

[nikki25]

Mar 28, 2016 11:59:23 GMT -5 MixedBerryJam said:

Mar 28, 2016 11:50:01 GMT -5 pixy0stix said:

What were the police supposed to do when she walks in, voluntarily, with currently illegal drugs?

Oh, I agree. But the possession of the drugs wasn't entrapment, is what I'm saying. Maybe the protections of the 5th amendment would come into play? No self-incrimination? I dunno. I agree that she shouldn't have been arrested. Helped, sure. Arrested, no.

I think there is definitely an argument for entrapment; whether it flies is another story . Iunderstand your idea regarding entrapment MixedBerryJam but to add on she wouldn't have gone to the police station to get it "tested" without the belief it may have been laced.

Also, the police have definitely had times where they plea with the community turn in their drugs when they find bad batches of heroine which are killing people at a high rate.

Regardless, I hope the DA goes easy on her and offers treatment not jail. Jail is NOT solving these issues. 

[phdprocrastinator]

That poor woman.

I hate the tone of this article ("haha, drug users are dumb"). The police shouldn't be making these "jokes". It is very possible that they will know about bad batches of drugs, and in a humane world we should inform possible users that there is a real risk associated with drugs on the market (other than the obvious problem with drug abuse in general).

I don't think I'm totally crazy thinking this way either, as I saw alerts about bad heroine in Australia in the early 2000s. The entire idea was to keep the users safe.

Perhaps they can get this woman some actual help rather than adding to her rap sheet.

[nursecramer]

Mar 28, 2016 12:38:04 GMT -5 phdprocrastinator said:

That poor woman.

I hate the tone of this article ("haha, drug users are dumb"). The police shouldn't be making these "jokes". It is very possible that they will know about bad batches of drugs, and in a humane world we should inform possible users that there is a real risk associated with drugs on the market (other than the obvious problem with drug abuse in general).

I don't think I'm totally crazy thinking this way either, as I saw alerts about bad heroine in Australia in the early 2000s. The entire idea was to keep the users safe.

Perhaps they can get this woman some actual help rather than adding to her rap sheet.

Or needle exchange programs. You don't want users to see NSPs and think "I'm not falling for that and bringing in my needles!"

[Deleted]

Posting something like this as a joke on a PD Facebook page leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Either way, it's really just poking fun at drug users. I don't find it funny. I have a huge family with multiple cousins who have spent time in prison for meth, and cleaning up their life is hard enough without an entire community pointing, laughing, and judging.

[lg28]

While in many ways I think it's clever, I ultimately disagree with what the police did. I also think that it sets up a problem in the future if there's an actual medical health concern (aside form the obvious concerns about doing drugs in the first place).

[sfy]

Mar 28, 2016 13:13:52 GMT -5 lg28 said:

While in many ways I think it's clever, I ultimately disagree with what the police did. I also think that it sets up a problem in the future if there's an actual medical health concern (aside form the obvious concerns about doing drugs in the first place).

I don't even see how it's clever. It brought one person into the station. A clever scheme would have resulted in more arrests. I think this PD needs to reevaluate how it uses it FB pages. There has got to be a better purpose than mocking people who actually need help.