Meth in the News
Professor Nicholas E Goeders
Some people believe that the penalties for drug smuggling in the United States are too harsh. While I believe that incarceration for simply possessing a drug may not be helpful, if you sell drugs to children, that’s a different matter altogether.
However, the penalties in other countries can be much more draconian.
Take, for instance, Indonesia.
On May 4, 2016, a panel of judges at the Tangerang District Court found Ng Ka Fung, a 22-year-old Chinese national, guilty of smuggling nearly 90 kilograms of crystal methamphetamine into Indonesia. Mr. Ka Fung was arrested in August of last year after authorities discovered 88 kilograms of meth, or “sabu” as it is called in Indonesia, in his suitcase at the Soekarno-Hatta International Airport.
The penalty for violating Indonesia’s 2009 narcotics law is death, and the panel handed down the death sentence when their ruling was read.
Three other Chinese nationals have recently been apprehended in Indonesia for similar offenses and are facing the same fate as Mr. Ka Fung.
Closer to home, on May 6 the FBI and the District 18 Drugs and Violent Crimes Task Force out of Haskell County, Okla., announced that a number of people had recently been arrested as part of a three-month investigation.
Methamphetamine, meth-related materials, and hundreds of dollars in fake bills were all recovered from a residence that was located within 1,000 feet of a school.
Authorities announced that one of the people arrested was Janet Ross, a middle school teacher in Stigler, Okla.
School officials told reporters that Ms. Ross was placed on paid administrative leave while the investigation is ongoing.
Ms. Ross wasn’t the only teacher recently arrested due to her methamphetamine use.
Heather Grace Hughes, 44, was pulled over in Beverly Hills (Texas, not California) at 1 a.m. on April 25 for a defective license plate light. This is something I see all the time – someone is stopped for a minor traffic/equipment violation and gets arrested on more serious charges. If people would just pay attention …
According to the police affidavit, Beverly Hills police officer Steve Cooper reported that he saw a “dark, round-shaped object” fall from the passenger’s door when he stopped the green car driven by Ms. Hughes.
When the object was examined, officers discovered that it was a navy blue zipper case that contained a blue glass pipe, a lighter, a retractable knife and an Altoids box with a white powdery substance inside. The powder weighed 13.73 grams and field tested positive for meth.
Ms. Hughes and her passenger, Mary Ellen Gutierrez, 46, were both arrested, but were soon released from jail after posting $10,000 bail.
Ms. Hughes is an art teacher at Waco High School and has taught in the Waco school system for a total of 15 years.
School administrators placed Ms. Hughes on paid administrative leave pending the outcome of this case.
Whenever I have the opportunity to speak with meth users, they invariably tell me that I would be astounded if I was aware of all the people using meth – from all walks of life. And the more I learn about this insidious drug, the more I realize that they are telling me the truth.
Want more proof? This next case was resolved in 2014, but the full details were just released last Tuesday.
Sonja Farak, 37, was a well-respected chemist, working first at the Hinton Lab in Jamaica Plain, Mass., and then for nine years at the state drug lab in Amherst, Mass. In fact, one senior chemist who worked with Ms. Farak in the Amherst lab testified that she was “meticulous” and “dedicated to her work.”
However, unbeknownst to her colleagues, as well as her supervisors, nearly every day for eight years, Ms. Farak was actually high on methamphetamine and other drugs that she had stolen from the very lab where she was working.
Finally, in 2013, other lab personnel finally discovered the missing drug samples and other irregularities in Ms. Farak’s work. From there things rapidly went downhill for the chemist, and she eventually confessed to everything.
An investigation by the state attorney general found that from 2005 to 2013, Ms. Farak “heavily abused” meth, cocaine, and LSD and even manufactured “crack” cocaine in the lab using lab supplies.
In 2014, Ms. Farak was sentenced to 18 months in jail.
Want more? Ok!
On April 29, Florida state bar officials announced that Linda Dawn Hadad, 43, a Florida criminal defense lawyer in Volusia County had been stripped of her license to practice law. As an assistant public defender, Ms. Hadad was also having sex with her clients!
The problem became so severe, and obvious, that the warden at the Volusia County jail restricted her access to the attorney visitation area.
Ms. Hadad also engaged in sexually explicit phone conversations with her clients, with many of the conversations routinely recorded by the jail!
Ms. Hadad confessed to the use of meth, cocaine, crack, ecstasy, marijuana, and acid as well as Xanax, Adderall and oxycodone without prescriptions. She allegedly obtained the drugs from one of her clients.
Judge J. David Walsh ordered Ms. Hadad to undergo a program at Palm Beach Behavioral Health in Palm Beach County for 90 days. I wish her well!
Finally, on May 5, Kentucky State Police Vehicle Enforcement officers stopped a 2001 Freightliner on I-75 at the Northbound Weight Station in Laurel County for a commercial vehicle safety inspection.
The officers said in an affidavit that they noticed a foul odor in the tractor trailer.
When they looked inside they located an adult female passenger and her two young children, who were 7-years-old and 16-months-old, located inside the passenger/sleeper compartment, which was not properly secured.
The officers found that the driver of the 18-wheeler, Williams R. Eichhorn, 36, of Louisville, was operating under the influence of methamphetamine. Upon further investigation, they found that he was also in possession of a concealed firearm and alcohol, and they concluded that he was placing the two juveniles in an unsafe environment.
Mr. Eichhorn was arrested and charged with Federal Motor Carrier Safety violations, Failure to use Child Restraints, Endangering the Welfare of a Minor, Carrying a Concealed Deadly Weapon, DUI and an Outstanding Warrant out of Jefferson County.
It’s frightening to imagine what the person in the vehicle next to you along the Interstate might have been smoking!
Remember, no one is immune from the effects of meth. Don’t try it – not even once!
If you are an IV meth user, especially a woman, I want to hear from you. I want to learn more about what meth does to you and your body to better determine what needs to be done to help you. I also want to know your story – how you started using meth and whether or not you also appreciate the differences between smoking meth and slamming it. Please contact me in complete confidence at nickgoeders@gmail.com. You will remain completely anonymous. I will never print anything about you that will betray your trust in me, and I will never judge you.
