so “2. ?” is a brick of coke. What does that have to do with underpants though?
This is a question I’ve wondered about more than once.
I have to admit that I’d be tempted to do the dishonorable thing. I know users that I can trust. Those users know small-time dealers, and the small-time dealers surely must know larger-scale distributors. I might try to get rid of it through the intermediaries and take whatever cut of the money I could get.
There’s still substantial risk there, so I’m not entirely sure that I’d go that route, but I’d definitely consider it.
Good question. That actually was the story they tried to use (“we were taking it to the police”). I don’t know al the details and (I think the sentence was partially based on probation vilations), but I believe the charges were largely based on the fact that they tried to hide the marijuana from the cops when they first drove up. The attempt to coceal was evidentially sufficient to sustain a charge of criminal intent in possessing the bale.
I guess it wasn’t entrapment because the cops weren’t personally offering the dope to anybody. They were just letting it lay there and seeing who tried to grab it. I think it was pretty cheap and sleazy but I guess it must have been technically legal.
Balle_M: But, when you get so homesick you think you’re going insane, would you travel back to Texas in a low-flying plane? Hmm?
Well, it’s nice to see that I’m not the only one here who’s tried it. The answer I was looking for was “another line”, but you were in the ball park.
You win a line.
Dammit! Opened this thread JUST to quote the Reverend, only to find I’m too late! Too late!!
Keep about 10 grams and sell the rest on the cheap to the two or three people I know that would be interested/could afford a large amount.
…ahem…one thing might have been missing when the cops got there, assuming I had made the call.
To be honest, I’d keep it. I would use a little bit, give some to a few friends, and sell most of it. Then I could get a few things that I wouldn’t have been able to justify spending money on previously. I know that it’s illegal, and that it could be dangerous, but in practical terms it’s powered money. And that is how I would treat it.
Powered money?
Or powdered money?
I don’t need the inevitable media exposure, the quizzical looks from law enforcement and a possible grudge from some low-life street banger.
So, I’d probably call it in from a distant pay phone, provide only location and then hang up. I’d also wipe the coin/phone.
I would also start packing my silenced .22. 
Sell it.
Call the cops. If it’s feasible, leave it right where it is, call the cops on the cell phone, and let them handle it when they arrive.
What do you think “entrapment” is?
If the police urge you to commit a crime, that’s entrapment. If they merely make avaliable the possibility to commit a crime, that’s not entrapment.
Cops can leave an unlocked car, with the keys in it, on the street. It’s still theft if you hop in it and drive away, and it’s not entrapment. Now, if an undercover officer sought you out and said, “Hey - I know where there’s a car with the keys in it, just sitting there… why don’t we take it? I know where we can sell it to a chop shop, no questions asked!” THAT might be entrapment.
If I have my way, something involving Catherine Zeta-Jones.
I understand that, but the example of the drugs on the beach seems to come pretty close to that line.
That is just plain Evil! So wrong. That’s entrapment.
How so? The drugs on the beach are analogous to the car with the keys in it.
But what’s missing is the undercover cops telling you you should take it, which in my example was necessary for the entrapment to exist.
Merely presenting you with the opportunity to commit a crime is not entrapment.
Leaving a large pile of money on the floor of a bank is not entrapment.
Leaving a bike unlocked on a bike rack outside a store is not entrapment.
No matter how EASY the police make it for you to commit the crime, there is no entrapment. It’s when the poilce actively encourage you to commit the crime that entrapment is possible.
“Entrapment” is not a buzz word. It has a specific meaning.
sigh
I admit that the person in question attempting to hide the drugs put them squarely in the guilty column, but what if they had approached the officers as soon as they arrived and said “Officer! We just found a bale of marijuana on the beach!”. What law have they broken? What if they really were loading it into their car to take it to the cops and turn it in?
See, this would elicit a toooooooooooooooootally different response from me than a brick of cocaine.
No, it is not entrapment. However, it is completely fucking scummy.
I thought a sting operation must entice only those who are predisposed to the criminal behavior being instigated.
Bricker, I hate to quibble with a man who finished law school, but I can’t see successfully prosecuting these guys for anything but theft – as with the money on the floor of the bank. Nailing them for possession just seems – well, it’s apparently legal, but definitely slimy. Possession of a dealer-sized amount of marijuana carries penalties far in excess of what these guys are truly liable for.