Mephedrone prosecuted as controlled substance analogue in the US

23536

23536

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[mods: sorry the thread title is different from the headline but the headline is not too informative]

(December 8, 2010)

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Bryan Keith Koppe is charged with possession with intent to manufacture or distribute a Schedule 1 controlled substance, a Class 3 felony.

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Koppe’s case is set for arraignment at 10 a.m. Jan. 5 in District Court.

Koppe was arrested July 28 in Craig as the result of a joint investigation between the All Crimes Enforcement Team and the U.S. Postal Service.

According to court records, Koppe was the recipient of a package mailed to him allegedly containing a Ziploc bag with 307 grams of a substance thought to be methamphetamine.

ACET reported that a field test confirmed the substance was meth but sent it to the Colorado Bureau of Investigation for more tests.

Koppe originally was charged with possession of a Schedule 2 controlled substance.

However, in late September, Koppe’s charge was changed from possession of a Schedule 2 controlled substance to a Schedule 1 controlled substance, said Marguerite Carr, a deputy district attorney for the 14th Judicial District Attorney’s Office in Moffat County.

“Everything is exactly the same,” Carr said. “It simply is that we are contending at this point in time that it is an analog of a Schedule 1 drug as opposed to a Schedule 2 drug.”

However, Carr could not comment on what the results of the CBI drug test were or what the substance was determined to be.

Carr said plea negotiations are taking place with Koppe. She said she is unsure whether the defendant would enter a plea at his arraignment in January.

http://www.craigdailypress.com/news/2010/dec/08/craig-case-sent-district-court/
 
I was wondering what was gonna happen with this case. Its CRAZY that its Colorado doing the prosecution too. I never would have expected that. This is going to start a chain reaction of arrests and convictions involving mephedrone and its sad that it comes from Colorado of all places.
 
melange said:
have hope. colorado seems pretty liberal.
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Liberal to a point but Colorado has had huge problems with research chemicals. aET and aMT got their start as psychedelic street drugs in Colorado, we had (or still have) a huge meth problem, we have an ecstasy problem, and most of the state are stoners. I almost feel like Colorado tries to be liberal in regards to marijuana to try and get the use of other drugs to go down. Heroin is starting to gain popularity here and I've heard of mephedrone being sold on the street as ecstasy - whether that is true or not remains to be seen as I don't buy street drugs but the description of effects I was given by one of my really good friends who is a seasoned roller about some "molly" he got sounded very much like mephedrone to me.
 
Shit he was a really nice guy to. Seeing as how they are going through with this knowing now that is it Mephedrone the days of Meph might really be over this time.
 
Where are we getting that its Mephedrone? Article says prosecutor did not say what it tested as. Did the dude say somewhere?

Article says Methamphetamine. It quotes prosecutor saying it was an "analogue of a Schedule I substance, instead of it being a Scedule II substance."

So where are we getting that he really was buying Mephedrone?

Dont know how they are going to prove "intent to distribute" and intent for human consumption if it really is mephedrone. Unless he admitted it or let something slip, like when they served the warrant bitched out loud "But I thought it was legal to take this to get high?"

THEN that would show intent to consume, and the amount would show intent to distribute. But without any establishing of intent to consume he could argue he was going to put it in the soil around his pine tree or daylilies or something.

Now, over 300g, yea thats alot. That's why it says US Postal Service is involved. Probably was first opened by Postal Inspector.

BELOW ON OUNCE a first class letter is assumed to contain "Personal Documents" and is NOT ALLOWED for the postal instpector to open it without a specific warrant. So buying below 20 grams or so at once (to allow form envelope, ziplock weight) would avoid this. I would guess they opened it at random due to the size of the package... and/or due to prior conviction, though I would assume that is not really allowed.

But that article states the prosecutor refused to say what it tested as... did the dude say somewhere?
 
Where are we getting that its Mephedrone? Article says prosecutor did not say what it tested as. Did the dude say somewhere?
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This guy was a vendor selling it online although its not mentioned in the article.

Dont know how they are going to prove "intent to distribute" and intent for human consumption if it really is mephedrone. Unless he admitted it or let something slip, like when they served the warrant bitched out loud "But I thought it was legal to take this to get high?"
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He has a previous conviction for selling coke. I don't think they are going to have a hard time getting a conviction for something, I think he is going to have a hard time proving he has 300 grams of mephedrone for anything other that human consumption. Good luck telling the judge it is a plant enhancer

Xamkou said:
I guess they're taking it cos Methcathinone is Shedule I
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thats what is looks like, analog to mcat
 
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He advertised on a site that specializes in legal highs it is obvious to everyone this is for human consumption
 
nervousone said:
He advertised on a site that specializes in legal highs it is obvious to everyone this is for human consumption
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Ah, that would explain it then. Well no wonder the Postal Inspector was opening a box being shipped to him. Pretty stupid of the guy.

I am pretty sure they would not be allowed to use prior conviction for cocaine to "prove" intent to consume a analogue, however. And so far as "good luck proving its plant food to a judge", HE WOULD NOT NEED TO. So long as THEY have no hard evidence that HE INTENDED it for human consumption, it does not matter what half-assed uses he would have claimed it was for... he would not have to prove he had reason to think that, just that it was an experiment he wanted to try. He had a dream or a hunch. He heard voices telling him that. Jesus told him. Doesnt matter. Without the other factors in this particular case, they have to prove your intent for consumption. In the case of this guy of course he did that for them.

Curious is that Fed Analogue law was earlier declared unconstitutionally vague and thus void in Colorado. So could not his lawyer just say the identical Colorado law is also void?

Unless they thought of that and have a strategy to get around that and this is a deliberate ploy to be used to reinstate the applicability of both Colorado and FAA law.
 
DwayneHoover said:
Ah, that would explain it then. Well no wonder the Postal Inspector was opening a box being shipped to him. Pretty stupid of the guy.

I am pretty sure they would not be allowed to use prior conviction for cocaine to "prove" intent to consume a analogue, however. And so far as "good luck proving its plant food to a judge", HE WOULD NOT NEED TO. So long as THEY have no hard evidence that HE INTENDED it for human consumption, it does not matter what half-assed uses he would have claimed it was for... he would not have to prove he had reason to think that, just that it was an experiment he wanted to try. He had a dream or a hunch. He heard voices telling him that. Jesus told him. Doesnt matter. Without the other factors in this particular case, they have to prove your intent for consumption. In the case of this guy of course he did that for them.

Curious is that Fed Analogue law was earlier declared unconstitutionally vague and thus void in Colorado. So could not his lawyer just say the identical Colorado law is also void?

Unless they thought of that and have a strategy to get around that and this is a deliberate ploy to be used to reinstate the applicability of both Colorado and FAA law.
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Not sure this is true. This is from the Wikipedia discussion of the analog act: "On the other hand under part C(iv), none of this applies if it can be proven that the substance is not intended for human consumption. It is unclear which way the burden of proof would lie, i.e. whether the defendant would have to prove that the substance was not for human consumption, or if the prosecution would have to prove that the substance was for human consumption. Normally the burden of proof rests on the prosecution, but this is not always the case for certain offences such as those involving drugs or terrorism."

It all depends on how the court decides to interpret the case law. This guy was advertising on a legal high site but he never sold it for the sole intent of getting high; it was labeled at plant food. My guess is the court will assume intent based both on his prior record for selling drugs along with his advertising on a site for legal highs.

It will be interesting to see how it plays out.
 
nervousone said:
Not sure this is true. This is from the Wikipedia discussion of the analog act: "On the other hand under part C(iv), none of this applies if it can be proven that the substance is not intended for human consumption. It is unclear which way the burden of proof would lie, i.e. whether the defendant would have to prove that the substance was not for human consumption, or if the prosecution would have to prove that the substance was for human consumption. Normally the burden of proof rests on the prosecution, but this is not always the case for certain offences such as those involving drugs or terrorism."

It all depends on how the court decides to interpret the case law. This guy was advertising on a legal high site but he never sold it for the sole intent of getting high; it was labeled at plant food. My guess is the court will assume intent based both on his prior record for selling drugs along with his advertising on a site for legal highs.

It will be interesting to see how it plays out.
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Indeed... I would say advertising "Plant Food" on a site all about "Legal Highs" seals the deal... pretty much totally defeats the purpose of labeling it Plant Food doesn't it? Shoulda been totally obvious. I think the guy was just greedy and wanted to make money off it really quick and started advertising everywhere he could think of without doing one whit of critical thinking / risk analysis. Extremely stupid, IMO.
 
Sorry if this is confusing for some of you but I thought I'd come over here and finish a conversation DwayneHoover and I were having before the threadwardens get all bent out of shape there. The original thread is here

I agree that the guy was being pretty stupid. IMO it is laughably easy to avoid being convicted for a violation of the FAA (but still expensive). For instance, I think it's pretty easy to argue that methylone isn't "substantially similar to or greater than the stimulant, depressant, or hallucinogenic effect" of MDMA. Of course, arguing that to somebody who's never done either might be harder.

At any rate, the analogs are all legal if not intended for human consumption. Some of the people prosecuted under the FAA have been convicted because they accepted orders from people with things like ravrgrrrl as a username and the prosecution successfully argued that it was obvious they were ordering for abuse.
 
Burden of proof always falls on the individual thats why everyone goes "get a lawyer" They speak for you otherwise no one will listen to what you say. Its not you against the state its the state against you. If you think its the other way around get arrested for something. Guilty until proven innocent.

Why is it that i cant find any mephedrone i trust buying but he had 300g of it, everyone needs to stop hogging the good mephedrone!
 
235360287471352662 said:
wait, were the Operation Webtryp people ever convicted?
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they all went to jail. pondman got a life sentence cause they hit him with the murder of one of the people who OD'd on his products. another guy got 10 years for selling to a guy who overdosed. I think the other people got 3-5 years.
 
Yeah the Webtryp people all went to jail because they weren't careful and were rubbing the government's face in what they were doing. The government does not appreciate being made a fool of so they were punished.

I'd like to think that one day we will rise up and stop the government from telling us what to do in our personal lives and then I look around me and realize I'm not hopeful.
 
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