cliff@unmvax.UUCP (02/06/85)
from the March isssue of Science 85, explaining the situation Deputy Sheriff
Dave Weidler was in when it was obvious that someone was synthesizing a legal
heroin substitute:
"Deputy Weidler was ready to raid the housse, but without probable cause that
a crime was being committed, no judge would issue a search warrant. While it
*is* a crime for an unlicensed individual to make meperidine, no laws proscribe
the synthesis of meperidine-like drugs or the chemicals for making them unless
they are controlled substances. So the sheriff's office enlisted the fire
department to conduct a fire inspectioon of the house, with Weidler in tow, to
get a look at what was going on inside.
The lab's operator met the fire department at the door and graciously consented
to an inspection, commenting that he was merely experimenting with methods to
make snow cone flavorings and moisturizing creams. Laboratory equipment and
clean glassware were set up, but nothing was being synthesized at the time.
Fire department authorities advised the lab operator that the chemicals
constituted a fire hazard and gave him 24 hours to remove them, which he did.
Authorities, however, did spy a container of powder and pinched a sample of it
during the inspection. Later analysis of the sample revealed a meperidine-like
substance identical to that found in new heroin."
So next time you read about another law that is for your own good giving
*anyone* the right to pry into your private life, be prepared to see it
used by thieves in police uniforms in illegal spying activities. Let me
guess: "pinching a sample" of something isn't theft when the person who
does the pinching is a police officer.
--Cliff [Matthews]
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