LOVE STINGS IN DRUG BUST

Citizens in Northern California are sleeping easier now that a major drug
ring has been handily dealt with by the long, plainclothes arm of the law.

Earlier in the year, alerted by parents to Lindhurst High School's "rampant
drug use and sales" problem, the Yuba County Sheriff's Office decided to
send an undercover cop into the school to flunk a few locker-side dealers.

According to the April 25 Appeal-Democrat, a 27-year-old agent of the state
Alcohol Beverage Control was enrolled in classes and began attending on a
daily basis near the start of the semester -- "21 Jump Street" for the new
millennium (though, ironically, Johnny Depp more recently starred as
infamous narco-trafficker George Jung in the movie, "Blow," instead of a
troubled teen version of Dudley Do-Right).

After racking up a total of 21 marijuana, ecstasy and diet-pill sales, the
agent was pulled out and, days later, the arrests made. In all, eight
hardened drug offenders met the business end of the law.

One such hardened criminal, Richard David Rodney, was the only adult stung
by the sting, as he turned 18 shortly before the bust. His offense: Rodney,
at the agent's request, sold her two $10 bags of marijuana, pot which the
judge in the case later declared to be "extremely poor" in quality.

"The agent attempted to have the defendant obtain methamphetamine and
cocaine for her," Judge James Curry wrote in his decision, "but he said he
did not use those drugs and had no ability to obtain them."

Not that authorities weren't happy with the dime-bag duo.

Originally, Rodney faced two counts of felony transportation, distribution
and importation of marijuana. If convicted, he could have spent the next
four years in jail. Instead, as reported in the Oct. 17 Appeal-Democrat,
he'll get 45 days in the clink after a plea bargain to a single misdemeanor
charge of possession.

Even that, while some will disagree, is nuts.

Seems Rodney had the hots for this undercover agent -- an apparently
attractive 27-year-old. She asked him to score her some drugs, and, wanting
to get on her good side, he did his best -- two dime bags of garbage ganja.
He didn't even know where to look for the harder stuff she wanted.

"All parties agree that the two marijuana sales were an effort by the
defendant to impress the female operative, and did not appear to be part of
an ongoing profit-making enterprise," said Curry in his decision, citing
Rodney's "naiveté."

By any reasonable standard, that's entrapment.

Sure, the officer didn't make him break the law, but she certainly cajoled
and induced him to -- and, added to the hormonal charge of a teen-age male
looking to score with a girl clearly more "mature" than any other senior on
campus, the whole scenario almost inevitably led to his grabbing a few bags
for her.

Just to show you how far gone he was, according to the judge's decision,
friends told Rodney the lady was probably a narc. It didn't matter to him.
Boys in lust will do almost anything to win the heart of the woman they want
- -- even doing the legal equivalent of swimming at sea with raw horseflesh in
hand, knowing sharks might well be lurking.

I'm frankly surprised he didn't get the coke and speed she asked for.

The ACLU responded to a similar Los Angeles case in which a high-school
football player, egged on by his "girlfriend's" insistent demands for drugs,
was arrested after finally succumbing to her pleadings. Chalk it up to dumb
jock luck -- she was an undercover cop.

"When other adults try to get young people involved with drugs, we call it
contributing to the delinquency of a minor," the ACLU noted. "When the LAPD
does it, we call it the school-buy program."

As for the "juveniles" busted, it was a first offense for all but one of the
other seven arrested. No drugs like cocaine or meth were involved, as
authorities expected. As it turns out, Lindhurst's "rampant drug use and
sales" problem consisted of one repeat offender and seven rookies out of a
student body of 1,250. "Rampant" is a pretty lousy adjective.

And it's also pretty lousy that with genuine criminals on the prowl, people
inflicting damage to life and property, law enforcement officials deem it
worth their scarce time and resources to root out offenders that have to be
prodded and pushed to break the law. Rodney might never have broken the law
if an undercover agent hadn't asked him to do it for her.

This is one sting that really stinks.

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