A North Platte woman was arrested Saturday and charged with possession of 14 grams of methamphetamine.
Police executed a search warrant shortly after 4 p.m. at a home in the 700 block of E. 11th, spokesman Rory Little said.
They found Nicole Garcia, 37, detained her, and continued the search. Three large knives and a baggie of meth were found, as well as other illegal drug-related items. A test later confirmed that the baggie in fact contained meth, Little said.
Fourteen grams equates to 0.03 pounds. The estimated street value of that quantity is about $700.
Garcia was charged with possession of meth and illegal weapons. She was taken to the Lincoln County jail. Bond was set at $150,000, according to Lincoln County sheriff’s records. She asked the court to appoint a public defender.
(The percentage of 14 grams in a pound has been corrected. – Editor.)
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What’s it going to take to get people off of drugs? It’s a dead end. We keep seeing these people get arrested for selling and posessing, and it’s an endless stream of mugshots. It’s easy to just say no. Why do you think they call it dope? Because dopes do drugs, that’s why.
This reads like an amalgamation of every DARE commercial produced in the 90s.
Unpopular but correct opinion time: Nixon’s war on drugs is a massive failure and raging dumpster fire of tax dollars whose only accomplishment in 50 years has been to create a thriving black market for drugs which has directly led to the proliferation of fentanyl in every street drug and is almost singularly responsible for the Mexican cartels now controlling as much of Mexico as their government.
Prove me wrong.
Guy, you seem like an educated, thoughtful fella. Thanks for participating in talkback.
Given that you’re right and we can’t go back and undo the Nixon policy of 50 years ago, what do you think we should do at this point?
Pointing out obvious problems is easy, finding workable solutions is the hard part. Almost as hard as providing an answer concise enough to fit here.
Step one has to be a tidal change in the way large parts of society view narcotics and the people who use them. If a person is sufficiently inclined to smoke meth, despite the legion of well documented hazards, then they’re (obviously) going to find a way to do it. Laws only serve to keep an honest man honest. I’m not necessarily advocating for a wholesale adoption of legalizing every drug known to man like Oregon is doing, but people have to understand straight up mass prohibition just doesn’t work. Didn’t work with alcohol a century ago, isn’t working with drugs now, and actually brings to mind that anecdotal definition of insanity. If you think prohibition is working, take a look at the daily Hotsheets as far back as they go and report back whether drug related arrests have gone up, or down. Once we get more people to that point we can start to have a rational conversation about the subject.
From a practical perspective (and aside from being constitutionally protected), in a lot of ways guns aren’t a whole lot different from drugs. Neither one of them jumps off the table and kills somebody without human intervention. They can both be very dangerous in the hands of the wrong people. Some people can use and enjoy them responsibly, some people cannot. It’s the people who cannot that are the problem. You almost never see the regular working guy who does a little shopping across the border in Colorado in the Hotsheets because they can use responsibly, while still getting up and going to work in the morning and taking care of their family. In that way it’s a drug that is no different than alcohol or caffeine, the latter of which is the real gateway drug in America.
That said, there’s clearly a ten mile gap between THC and Meth or Fentanyl, and thus fewer people are able to handle them responsibly, perhaps nobody. But then again there are guns that have been deemed too dangerous for normal citizens, despite being constitutionally protected. The national firearms act of 1934 made automatic weapons illegal for average citizens, at least not without going through an extensive bureaucratic licensing process, the same can be done with exceptionally hazardous or addictive drugs like meth. Whatever the legal solution is, it has to exist on a continuum that takes into account and balances market demand (and thus black market demand) with potential hazard and social costs. And for God’s sake, don’t let the government get involved so that it’s taxed and regulated so heavily as to be more expensive than the black market and undermine the whole point.
Beyond that, you have to address the socioeconomic factors, and not with free money, but with opportunity. It’s a lot harder to score drugs with opportunity than free government money. Right off the top a certain percentage of people are just going to be addicts, period. I’m not qualified to treat true addictions, but that class of people needs their own solutions and one of those is probably a personal prohibition. There’s a certain percentage of people that turn to narcotics seeking escape from their lives, things like generational poverty, abuse, abandonment, lack of education or opportunity to get ahead or addict parents are all a part of that, so is the idea of self medicating for depression, anxiety or any host of very real mental health issues. I’d argue outside of those two groups are the vast majority of the population who can or could use responsibly if so inclined, and within those two groups the latter can likely be controlled by having an actual future to lose. This part is far more nuanced than most people want to admit, dopes do dope? Nope, people with no hope do dope.
Best solution my simple mind can muster is to decriminalize (which is not the same as legalize) the drugs but make the penalties for any crimes associated with the social costs of drug usage MUCH stiffer, with mandatory minimum sentences. DUI drugs = felony; child abuse associated with drugs = serious felony (second offense you lose your kids); theft over $500 = felony; sell drugs to kids = serious felony; kid gets into your drugs and ODs = you get to ride the lightning that the state of Nebraska provides you all the way to the next life.
At the end of the day, what happens in your home between consenting adults is your business, unless it infringes on the rights of somebody else or forces the rest of society to pay for your problems. I think this arrangement honors that while addressing the real problems that come from drug abuse, all while not turning honest people into criminals.
Guy, those are probably the most comprehensive thoughts I’ve read on the subject. It took awhile to read it all – as you say, it is a complex subject. Thank you. There is no question in my mind that we as a people need a more intelligent response to the use of dangerous drugs. .