Right Side of the Rainbow

A superior described him as perhaps the best narcotics officer in the country. Now former Texas drug warrior Barry Cooper “plans to market a how-to video on concealing drugs and fooling police,” MSNBC reports:

Cooper, who said he favors the legalization of marijuana, made the video in part because he believes the nation’s fight against drugs is a waste of resources. Busting marijuana users fills up prisons with nonviolent offenders, he said.

“My main motivation in all of this is to teach Americans their civil liberties and what drives me in this is injustice and unfairness in our system,” Cooper told the newspaper.

Cooper said his Web site should be operating by Tuesday.

Some of Cooper’s former colleagues are unhappy. At least one of them also lacks a sense of irony:

News of the video has angered authorities, including Richard Sanders, an agent with the Tyler Drug Enforcement Agency. Sanders said he plans to investigate whether the video violates any laws.

“It outrages me personally as I’m sure it does any officer that has sworn an oath to uphold the laws of this state, and nation,” Sanders said. “It is clear that his whole deal is to make money and he has found some sort of scheme, but for him to go to the dark side and do this is infuriating.” [Emphasis added.]

Of course, the drug war itself is in part a full-employment project for the police, prison guards and construction contractors. But apparently Officer Sanders doesn’t appreciate the “scheme” in his own work.

I haven’t seen Barry Cooper’s video and can’t vouch for its usefulness. But Flex Your Rights has produced a highly instructive video — “Busted: The Citizen’s Guide to Surviving Police Encounters” — that every American should watch. (See it below for free.)

Recently I saw an episode of “Cops” and was struck that not one of the suspects knew he had a right to keep his mouth shut. If we don’t know our rights, we don’t exercise them. And if we don’t exercise them, we lose them.

Let me say again, for the umpteenth time, that I neither use drugs nor condone their use. And I freely admit that for individuals who are using anything other than recreational marijuana, the odds are good they need help. Prison just isn’t my idea of help.

This isn’t all about the war drug, though. It’s also about the limits of government power in a free society.

Technorati tags: War+on+drugs, civil+liberties

HT: Amy