On December 21, 1970, Elvis Presley–also known as The King–unexpectedly showed up at the White House because he needed to see President Nixon. They opened the gates for him, and mr Presley told President Nixon he wanted to be an undercover agent in order to tackle “drug culture and Hippie elements”.
The President arranged a Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs badge for him, and mr Presley went back to Graceland with the badge he needed to do his part in fighting the American drug culture, and, of course, the hippie elements.
Now, does anybody know anything about the particulars concerning this badge? According to an article I read, it would allow Presley to carry any substance upon his person, “from Aspirin to angel dust”. Is that really true, in theory and/or in practice?
For instance, say that a police officer stopped Elvis Presley’s car, and happened to see illegal drugs on him; could Presley have flashed his Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs badge, and continue down the street…?
As a side note, one might add that Elvis Presley on October 11 the same year was officially sworn-in as a Shelby County Sheriff’s Deputy, which give rise to similar questions.
Elvis was a narc, dressed in rhinestones after dark
He did his best to keep Memphis drug-free
He knew every pill he’d eat would be one less on the street
Elvis took 'em all for you and me
Free association aside, however that became standard in the General Question section, nobody with insight into the legal implications of the badge happen to read this and have input…?
No one is above the law. Elvis could not, even with his shiny new badge, have had illegal or nonprescription drugs on his person without being subject to arrest and prosecution. Being the King, of course, he might’ve been able to convince a sympathetic cop that he was engaged in an undercover investigation…
Hey, be grateful. I saved your post from disappearing onto Page 2 with no replies (your post was the second from the bottom of Page 1 when I replied). I just thought my way was more fun than simply posting “bump”, and was at least related to the topic.
Thanks, but would “the badge” be useful in any sense? I mean, it must mean something having a Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs badge – but then again, what (not anecdotally but *legally *speaking)…?
A badge is simply a quick and convenient way for a LEO to identify himself or herself to the public and to other LEOs. It is not a license to violate the law. The fact that Elvis was so famous, that his “appointment” by the President was so well-known, and that it was (then and now) essentially considered a publicity stunt IMHO, would certainly diminish some of the authority that the badge might otherwise have conveyed.
His struggles with his weight were certainly notorious during his lifetime. Were his drug abuse problems also well-known, or did that come out only after his death?
Well, pretty much you get out of traffic violations (unless they are really bad, then you are well and truly fucked beyond that of a “civilian”), and a few other “professional courtesies”. In many cases you can carry a gun, you are waved through many lines, and such.
Concerning Elvis’ drug abuse, that was very much known by those around him; the same people isolating him. But few did anything about it. His manager Tom Parker tried to put an end to it once during the seventeens, but they had already grown apart at that time (a separation beginning at the phenomenal '68 so called Comeback Special (which Parker wanted to be a silly Christmas show), and Elvis didn’t listen to him much anymore (actually firing him eventually); and his doctor (forgotten his name) gave some placebos together with the abundance of other pills Elvis demanded in a futile attempt to slow him down, but only one time as far as I know, did somebody really confront him with it. It was the Denver police.
He had many friends among the Denver police, whom he visited from time to time during the seventeens - once he gave twelve of them a Cadillac or a Lincoln each…!
But being police officers, they quickliy understood he had a drug problem and confronted him with it: “We know you have a problem and you must…” etc. It didn’t work out, unfortunately, since Elvis Presley was living in denial (not uncommon, of course). In fact, he was devasted that his police friends, in his mind, all of a sudden regarded him as a junkie, and never visited them again. (This is from memory, after reading Guralnicks Last Train To Memphis and Careless Love some time ago.)
Elvis never saw himself as a junkie, even though he began with downers already in the fifties, and amphetamines too (probably during his service in Germany), because it was “prescription” drugs; a very important distinction to him. In fact, already as a teenager he had a strange fascination with medicine and drugs. - His mother, by the way, was also somewhat of a drug addict, and also died prematurely.
About '75 – two years before his death – the relationship with part of his crew, the so called Memphis Maffia, broke down, and some of these guys wrote a book about Elvis, where the drug abuse was laid open. So from then on, at least, it was public knowledge, and once again, of course Elvis was devastated.
But even before that, say '73, though I can’t recall the sources, I believe it was the New York Times or some other publication, wrote in a concert review how tragic Elvis had become, at least hinting at drugs. It was quite obvious many concerts that he had taken too much of something, often forgetting the words, mumbling incoherently, insulting female band members at least once or twice from stage, and I believe he two times collapsed on stage. There are YouTube clips illustrating some of this. Also, if you watch the clip where Elvis is interviewed regarding his Aloha from Hawaii satellite show, it is obvious he is not all that clean.
OK, thanks. I knew a little about that but not much. That makes me all the more certain that the King’s BNDD badge, in and of itself, would not lead LEOs to cut him much if any slack if he was found with drugs.
I’ve become a fan of Presley recently and he really is a phenomenal performer. He was rightly called the King (not self-named like the so-called King of pop).
However, he was very clearly a drug addict. There is no doubt about that.
One of little tidbits I found interesting was that he was able to get two guns into the White House and present them to Nixon. Bizarre stuff.
Actually I thought it was made clear that this was a title created by Jackson? If I recall his publicist went around demanding that he be introduced by this name. Given his relationship with Taylor I would not be surprised if she were told to say it. My memory may be hazy but I don’t think so. In fact, I believe she said it when presenting an award to him which suggests that it may have been written for her. Call me cynical.
Indeed, once you get past all the kitsch, all the commercialism, the impersonators, and all that crap which most people associate with “Elvis”, there is really a spectacular performer and an interesting man behind, which I myself always return to. He was really something else.
I don’t have an answer for the OP, but I do have a coffee mug with the picture of Elvis and Nixon at his DEA-ification ceremony on it, and I always found it amusing that Elvis, between the flashy Vegas-style clothing and probably having one of the best known faces of his generation, wanted to be an undercover narcotics agent.
Yeah, on the one hand The King on drugs, requesting to become an undercover narcotics agent; on the other hand, The President who thought it would be a great idea.
Now picture Michael Jackson requesting on the one hand, and Barack Obama approving on the other, and one gets a feeling how bizarre this really was.