Tim Naveau is a criminal now and all that he did was buy some allergy medicine for himself and for his son. You see, everyday Tim takes one Claritin-D tablet which helps him with his allergies. His son also suffers from allergies as well, and since he can’t buy Claritin-D legally, his father bought it for him. However, buying that many tablets put Tim over the limit and he was busted as a suspected methamphetamine maker.
“(I was) made to feel like a criminal — Made to feel low, dirty. Just totally degraded,” recalled Tim Naveau, who says he’ll never forget the hours he spent in Rock Island County Jail — he says all because of his allergies.
“They searched me, made me take my shirt off, my shoes off,” he recounted.
I fail to see how this was an efficient use of limited police and jail resources. There was no meth lab on his property, there was no meth. His use of the drug is perfectly legitimate and the purpose for which the drug was made, but he was still arrested. And the local law enforcement don’t seem to care at all,
Rene Sandoval, Director of the Quad Cities Metropolitan Enforcement Agency — the agency that enforces the law — says it’s meant to catch meth makers, and does.
“We’ve seen a huge decline in methamphetamine labs,” Sandoval said.
But even if you’re not making meth, if you go over that limit — of one maximum strength pill per day — you will be arrested.
“Does it take drastic measures? Absolutely. Have we seen a positive result? Absolutely,” Sandoval stressed.
What about criminal intent? Is Ms. Sandoval so blinded that she can’t see that she has nabbed a law abiding citizen? Apparently so, and to her the ends justify the means.
On a side note, I find it amusing that so many wring their hands at how President Bush is undermining our freedoms, but in reality these people have far more to fear from people like Rene Sandoval. It isn’t George Bush’s storm troopers that are going to come kicking in your door, but Rene Sandoval’s. She is probably more of threat to the freedom of the people living in the Quad Cities than George Bush will be. Granted, the Executive branch of our government is in charge of prosecuting the War on Drugs, but that has been going on for some time under both Republicans and Democrats. Further, it will likely to continue that way.
