The drug war has unleashed a series of disturbing unintended consequences, such as widespread, institutionalized racism. But every now and then, you hear of yet another case of men and women being unjustly arrested and having their lives ruined because of a wrong drug-related charge.
The latest incident involves a Georgia woman. She was wrongly accused of having methamphetamine in her vehicle when in reality, it was nothing but cotton candy. Now, she’s suing the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) for spending three months in jail for no reason whatsoever.
David Morris Jr. was riding along Dasha Fincher on New Year’s Eve 2016 when Georgia police officers pulled them over.
At first, they claimed it was about a window tint violation, but once deputies Cody Maples and Allen Henderson spoke to them, they said her car’s window did not violate the law. However, authorities stated that Fincher and her passenger had expired licenses, prompting officials to search the vehicle.
That’s when they found a “plastic bag filled with a blue crystal-like substance in the passenger side floorboard,” reports state. When asked what was inside the bag, Fincher said it was cotton candy. But officials said she was “shaking” and “very anxious.” That, they must have thought, meant she was probably lying.
After officials tested the substance on the spot using a Nark II roadside kit, the results came back positive for meth and the two were detained.
But despite the officials’ claims, the lawsuit states that dashcam footage proves both the driver and the passenger were calm during the encounter. In addition, Nark II kits are famous for how often they get these tests wrong. A fact highlighted by Fincher’s lawsuit.
After being held on a $1 million bond for charges of trafficking and possession of meth with the intent to distribute, Fincher couldn’t afford to be released, so she was forced to remain in jail for three months until the GBI finally tested the substance.
When the results came, Fincher was vindicated, as officials admitted that the material wasn’t any controlled substances but exactly what Fincher had said it was: cotton candy. She was released on April 4 and her charges were dropped two weeks later.
Now, Fincher is suing the GBI, the two deputies who arrested her and the faulty kit manufacturer, Sirchie Acquisition Company, alleging that the arrest kept her from witnessing the birth of her two grandsons.
Government Is Always Inefficient, So End The Drug War
Georgia’s investigators taking three months to test the substance is not the only example of sheer inefficiency in this story. The fact that officials lied about the reasons they stopped Fincher and then used the license issue to justify a vehicular search, as well as law enforcement’s continued use of a test kit that is both faulty and inconclusive are all great examples of government inefficiency at work.
Many of the laws we have on the books are unjust and invite abuse when applied in the real world.
The drug war, which is nothing but an immoral fight against commerce and free individuals doing whatever they please with their own bodies, is now used as an excuse to threaten, steal from the innocent, and arrest them at staggering rates. It’s time we put an end to the abuse done in the name of the drug war, if only because the government is completely incapable of doing its job efficiently.
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