Crime is crime

by Peter Twitchell

When I heard about the news from Dillingham concerning drugs and gun(s), I was confused. The news said a guy was arrested for “felony gun possession by a felon,” and that he had been dealing drugs, and that the possession of a firearm by a felon took precedence over selling drugs.
Growing up I always understood that selling drugs was breaking laws and you could be arrested and imprisoned, as one guy put it in the movie Gotti, starring Armand Asante, “a thousand years.”
I know, if it was me selling drugs in Bethel, I would be arrested, cuffed and imprisoned at the YKCC. I believe this.
As far as I’m concerned I would not sell drugs and get away with it ever, but someone sure did. As far as I could tell, from listening to the news story, the guy selling drugs was not prosecuted for selling drugs, only for “possession of a firearm by a felon.”
This incident does not make sense to me, it does not correlate with what I’ve been taught by our laws and justice system. As far as this concerns me, there is a flaw in there, by the mere fact that I couldn’t do it, and for that matter no one else would sell drugs illegally and get away with it.
In my mind what happened in Dillingham doesn’t make any sense to me.
Or, is it, one crime being greater than the other? This would shed a little light on the matter, and that is my confusion.
This was part of a live local newscast and perhaps a printed story would have taken the confusion out of the story for me. Printed news seems to have more details that what a newscaster has to say within a limited timeframe.
Whatever the circumstances, I would never sell drugs or chemicals like alcohol, due to the fact it is a crime according the laws of our state.
Legalizing the sale of Marijuana is a different matter, since many states have legalized its sale, and use as a pain killer. Since it went into effect, I’ve heard more and more individuals telling me they use it for pain relief.
Unfortunately, there will be those who take advantage of its legality to use. Cannabis is still a mind-altering drug.
From my own observation living in Kenai in 1972, I saw too many drivers driving off the road where the long stretch of road from Wildwood gradually turns left to downtown Kenai, except people didn’t make that gradual left turn, they kept driving straight and ran off the road, because of people saying they’re perception was affected by them smoking dope.
They also say that Marijuana is ten (10) times more potent that it was back in the late sixties, and that more traces of chemicals are found in dope to make it more potent now. I rest my case.