triticale - the wheat / rye guy

I Sure Feel Safer

Lastango at the Daily Pundit has linked a report on a campaign by Georgia law enforcement to arrest small merchants for the felony of selling common legal household items. The proclaimed purpose is to prevent tweakers from cooking their own meth. The criminal organizations (violent motorcycle "clubs" and Mexican cartels) who, by DEA estimates, supply 80% of the country's crank, will have little trouble picking up the slack, and "drug money" which would have returned to the local economy will instead remain in the gangs' coffers.

Emrack has shared with me an anecdote which fits with the problem of immigrant shopkeepers not comprehending the ramifications of some of the items they carry. He had walked into the corner market by where he is staying in the Kansas City barrio looking for papers. When he responded to a wave toward the newspapers with a shake of his head, the man behind the counter said "Ah, you want weed papers." My son felt it important to explain the game they needed to play. "We need to pretend that I am buying these for a legal purpose" even tho he'd never bought a sack of Drum "or at least that you don't know why I'm buying them." A simple lecture like that would have made it harder for the Georgia cops to entrap so many people, especially since aluminum foil is almost as good as rolling paper as a test shim for tight fits.