House Speaker McCarthy, preparing to waste a lot of time and money on an impeachment probe so that TV news will cover Trump's criminal trials and this silly investigation as if they were of equal importance. Chip Somodevilla / GETTY

Comments

3

"From the sounds of it, the cop stood in front of the car to try and stop the theft, and then got hit by his car, and then fired at the car. Edmonds officers found the SPD cop's Hyundai Santa Fe about an hour later at an apartment complex in Burien, but they did not find the department-issued handgun that was inside the car."

And this idiot will be given another gun.

9

When will Americans demand that all of the money wasted on bullshit nonsense by the Republicans be repaid? Pro tip: You can't impeach someone because you don't like them. A president that has not committed a crime cannot be impeached. The Republicans are wasting our time and money and it's gotten SO OBSCENE AND SO OUTRAGEOUS that they need to be forced to pay back all of the money and work all of the wasted time (or better yet, be forced out, not voted out, but forced out, for never doing their jobs, for what, decades now)? All of this bullshit is exhausting. They are stupid, they are hate filled, they are unethical, they are incompetent, and they are so out of the bounds of reality. Enough!

GET RID OF THEM. EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM. ALL THEY DO IS LITERALLY SHIT TRILLIONS OF DOLLARS DOWN THE DRAIN WHILE THIS COUNTRY SPIRALS FURTHER INTO THE DUMPSTER FIRE AND LANDFILL THEY HAVE MADE IT INTO. PUT THE TRAITORS IN PRISON AND FORCE THE OTHERS TO PAY UP AND GET THE FUCK OUT.

10

Criminals everywhere support banning firearms.
Makes sense too.
Who wants to get shot in the middle of a car jacking or when breaking in to someone’s house?

11

Not sure how arresting drug dealers will increase death by OD.
But hey, if The Stranger said it, it must be true.

12

Maybe it means that arrests take responsible dealers off the street. You know, the ones who really care about their customers.

14

The article basically says that disrupting supply leads to periods of forced opioid abstinence, reduced tolerance, and then a higher likelihood of overdosing at next use. That's one of the reasons that those relapsing after a period of sobriety or a rehab stint often overdose because they take the amount their body used to be able to handle not realizing their body can't tolerate that dose anymore. What that's missing is that the increasing adulteration of non-opioid drugs with fentanyl makes those drug busts imperative. People are dying because what they thought they were buying, that wouldn't normally be fatal, now is because fentanyl is ending up everywhere and killing those who weren't even seeking opioids.

15

@8 "It was awkwardly phrased because it included users and dealers and seemingly conflated the two"

This is because the criminal system conflates the two. Contrary to what most laypeople expect, the vast majority of "dealers" prosecuted are not Avon Barksdale types but rather addicts who buy in bulk and split with others, or at worst who sell a little on the side to support their own habit.

And you're 100% right: they lose their tolerance in jail (but receive no help at all to beat their addiction) get out, use too much by accident, and die. Which some people may not see as a problem, but those who assert we are "helping" these people by jailing them or that this plan is "compassionate" are either wildly ignorant or full of shit

17

@14 "fentanyl is ending up everywhere and killing those who weren't even seeking opioids"

Is fentanyl in the room with you right now? Who exactly is getting killed by fent that wasn't seeking opioids (please don't say kids eating Halloween candy)

18

perhaps the city should register the responsible fentanyl dealers and give them safety ratings so users can trust their doses. also maybe subsidize some storefront locations to take the shame of scoring in the middle of the tourist/shopping district away. and give the addicts free housing, free needles, free food, and free phones!

20

I make this comment every time TS posts one of these rants about jail not helping drug users. That is an accepted fact but these laws are NOT about the users, they are about the rest of us who have to put up with the bullshit that goes with them using. You know the stealing, the random assaults, the smoke on the bus (its not harmful though) and the general destruction of the environment that happens everywhere they go. If you want to do drugs in private and can manage your business then go ahead and kill yourself. If you want to do drugs in public and impact the rest of us then you deserve a time our or some consequences and if part of those consequences is an increase in the OD rate of the users I'm ok with that at this point.

21

The Chemical Brothers? That brings back memories-Galvanize was my favorite.

22

As far as this decriminalize idea goes - at some level, there has to be a disincentive for this ecosystem of taking and selling illegal drugs, stealing, armed robbery and shootings to stop. It's not going to resolve itself on its own.
Yet another shooting (and now fatality) in an area I used to walk by quite frequently.
And @20 is correct. I can point to a number of people these crimes affect- many of them minority business owners and employees. How does that fit any type of progressive agenda?

24

@18 - I think you are proposing a “Trip”advisor kind of rating system for drug users. Makes sense to me.

25

And speaking of "Trip advisor", you know the gas station where Charles wrote a couple years ago about getting breaded and fried catfish?
Two unfortunates had their last trip there. Maybe putting them in jail wouldn't stop them, or maybe it might- but shooting up on the street certainly didn't help them.

26

@17 Surely you're aware that fentanyl is ending up mixed with other drugs, where users think they're purchasing press pills of xanax or molly, cocaine, and other drugs that have been adulterated with fentanyl. Fentanyl is relatively cheap and doesn't require large cultivation. Drug busts may disrupt usage and tolerance for chronic users, bust reduce the supply of other drugs that have been adulterated. "Nationwide, there has been a growing trend of illicit drugs (particularly methamphetamine and cocaine) and counterfeit pills contaminated with fentanyl and other life-threatening substances." https://admin.publichealth.lacounty.gov/phcommon/public/media/mediapubhpdetail.cfm?prid=4063
https://www.dea.gov/resources/facts-about-fentanyl

27

@26: “Surely you're aware that fentanyl is ending up mixed with other drugs, where users think they're purchasing press pills of xanax or molly, cocaine, and other drugs that have been adulterated with fentanyl.”

What @17 doesn’t know about crime and the criminal justice system could fill a book, one made entirely out of his comments here. ;-)

(Seriously, contamination of other drugs with fentanyl has been such common knowledge for so long, an entire story arc in “Ozark” was based upon it.)

28

The reason Portland is being used as a cautionary tale is because they have seen a threefold increase in murders since 2019, and unlike other cities that showed a spike in murders during the pandemic, their murder rate has so far stayed at that elevated level.

This has given rise to speculation that this surge in violent crime is related to Portland's policy changes around law enforcement in that same period.

29

@1 Garb Garblar and @9 xina +2 for the WIN!! And thank you both for beating me to it.

30

I hope the injured Great Blue Heron that got caught in a fishing net is okay. There were many along with the abundant marine life where I grew up, wading along the shoreline. There was a lagoon up the beach from our house. A Great Blue Heron protectively stood guard by a low branched tree as if to say, "Get off my lawn!" We had bald eagles, otters, loons, and gray harbor seals, as well.
It saddens me to think that many younger generations will not experience what I did.

31

Fuck you, Daniel Auderer!

32

Can people stop equating The Stranger writers as "progressives".

I get why Republicans do it, because they want to push that false narrative of progressive Democrats being crazy. But the TS writers are not "progressives", they are radical left-wing extremists who troll you with their batshit hot takes for clicks.

They're no different than Jason Rantz, they just have a different political ideology. And it certainly isn't "progressive".

33

@26 why would anyone cut cocaine or molly with fentanyl? Their customer would at worst die and at best be extremely dissatisfied with how sleepy their party drug made them. It's like if Starbucks started adding melatonin to their lattes, it makes the opposite of sense. Do you have any evidence that this is actually happening besides the DEA (lol) saying so?

@27 not surprised you get your drug "knowledge" from tv dramas

34

@33: “Do you have any evidence that this is actually happening besides the DEA (lol) saying so?”

Denial is a terrible thing. Try reading the other link @26. (Go ahead, we’ll wait.)

“…why would anyone cut cocaine or molly with fentanyl?”

Do you really believe counterfeit drugs are manufactured with the same rigorous quality-controlled processes as found in an FDA-approved pharmaceutical facility? Fentanyl either gets used as filler because it’s really, really cheap, or it just winds up contaminating other drugs because, again, an illegal drug operation typically doesn’t spend much time or effort on rigorous QA of their products.

35

Hate to agree with @tensorna ever but @33 you’re wrong.

It’s wide proven fact that many street drugs including coke, meth and mdmh are being cut with fentanyl and if you believe that’s illogical it’s bc you are not a dealer. In the same way that these were being cut with cattle dewormer in the past, and before that fucking flour. The point is to take the pure product you paid top dollar for and spread it further at a premium so that you make more money.

Capitalism baby.

36

@35 ya they cut the product with cheap stuff like flour, or lactose, or whatever. Not with other product. Fake press 30s are obviously fent, and xans maybe, but nobody's using it to "cut" coke or molly or meth. That's just classic cop scare tactics

37

@32: ‘But the TS writers are not "progressives", they are radical left-wing extremists…’

You’re entirely correct about everything in that quote, but at this point it’s a bit like explaining the Bolsheviks stole the color red from anti-Tsarist democrats. It’s a factually correct statement, but also entirely useless.

(And IIRC, when the Stranger first started abusing the term “progressive,” some of us commenters tried to push back, but constantly writing “so-called” or whatever quickly became tiresome. With a small lie, It’s just easier to play along with it, than constantly trip on correcting it.)

39

What's up with the cop who had his car AND gun stolen shooting at the car? Do they have going to get donut guns and car guns?

40

@36, they have long cut the product with other drugs, as mentioned before cattle dewormer, levamisole is a popular one which is a horse medicine that cause pulmonary hypertension in humans. Fentanyl is much cheaper to make and import then the actual intended product and doesn't require land for cultivation or complicated smuggling. It would require about 30 seconds of research to realize that fentanyl adulterated drugs are a problem, it's one of the reasons there is such a push to legalize fentanyl test strips in so many states where they're banned....because fentanyl is ending up in drugs it isn't supposed to be in.
"Hidden Fentanyl Is Driving a Fatal New Phase in US Opioid Epidemic" https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2022-us-fentanyl-opioid-deaths/

41

@38: And that story was linked in Monday’s Slog AM post, which explains why Slog’s self-appointed expert on drugs, crime, and justice missed it entirely. (https://www.thestranger.com/slog-am/2023/09/11/79162521/slog-am-bob-ferguson-makes-it-official-2500-dead-in-morocco-quake-ai-uses-a-ton-of-water)

@36: “That's just classic cop scare tactics”

Because a county which now sees multiple overdose deaths daily must really, really need “classic cop scare tactics” to show Drugs Are Bad. (https://kingcounty.gov/en/dept/dph/health-safety/safety-injury-prevention/overdose-prevention-response/data-dashboards)


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