Selfmeditaker
Bluelighter
DETROIT http://www.clickondetroit.com/news/...rport/-/1719314/9685750/-/as925q/-/index.html
Every day agents at Detroit Metro Airport randomly pick passengers and inspect them and their luggage.
When Steven Thao was pulled from the line, no one expected the 55-year-old chicken farmer to be smuggling heroin.
Thao was on a jet that took off in Vietnam. The flight stopped over in Narita, Japan and eventually landed at Metro Airport in Romulus. Thao is a chicken farmer with 11 children. He is not the kind of guy who gets the attention of drug enforcement officials working at the airport. However, agents do random checks and they chose Thao for inspection. In his luggage, agents found prescription bottles with about 500 pills. As they looked closer, Thao fidgeted. He became nervous. Those pills had 400 grams of heroin in them. That's enough heroin to get charged as a heroin dealer and face 20 years in prison.
"He had a larger amount than a typical user would have," said Sanford Shulman, Thao's attorney.
Shulman said it looked bad for Thao and his family. Real bad.
"When you go to federal court, and you're in a situation where there is this kind of quantity of drugs, someone's going to prison," Shulman said.
The attorney said he soon learned that things were not exactly as they appeared. Thao was shot in the foot during the Vietnam War. While recently visiting relatives in Vietnam, he discovered they used heroin pills for the pain. The pills worked.
"Heroin is chemically similar to morphine which is a very common pain reliever in the U.S.," said medical expert Dr. Frank McGeorge. "The difference is heroin has a very high addictive potential and, hence, it is illegal in America."
Dr. McGeorge said that while heroin is illegal in the U.S., it is still a very effective pain killer.
"Heroin is a good pain medicine and is used in other countries," he said.
Shulman was on a mission to keep Thao out of prison and with his family on the chicken farm. He arranged a lie detector test with a professional polygrapher. Thao passed the test. When he was asked if the pills were only for himself and only for pain, he passed.
"You don't want to just put it into an equation and come out with an answer without giving some thought to it, because there is a human side to it, too," Shulman said.
However, the law is the law. Bringing heroin into the country is illegal and when it is $50,000 worth of the drug, prison time is almost a certainty.
"It was just that he was in possession of narcotics and these pills contain heroin, which obviously made it a serious offense," the attorney said.
Shulman convinced Thao to throw himself at the mercy of the court and plead guilty in hopes that the judge, Avern Cohen, would return him to the farm instead of sending him to prison.
Letters were written to judge Cohen from most of Thao's 11 children. They told Cohen that their father is a good man, a hard worker and someone who is needed on the farm, and more importantly with the family -- with his children and grandchildren.
When Thao went before the judge for sentencing, the judge gave him a huge break. Citing the lie detector test and his family's service during the war, he ruled probation and no prison time. The ruling reduced Thao to tears.
"We have a person with a family and a reason to look beyond strictly guidelines and numbers and prison," Shulman said.
Thao may have been given probation but he still must report monthly to the court to prove he is off heroin. If even one random test comes back positive, Thao can be hauled back to court and sentenced to the full 20 years in prison.
Every day agents at Detroit Metro Airport randomly pick passengers and inspect them and their luggage.
When Steven Thao was pulled from the line, no one expected the 55-year-old chicken farmer to be smuggling heroin.
Thao was on a jet that took off in Vietnam. The flight stopped over in Narita, Japan and eventually landed at Metro Airport in Romulus. Thao is a chicken farmer with 11 children. He is not the kind of guy who gets the attention of drug enforcement officials working at the airport. However, agents do random checks and they chose Thao for inspection. In his luggage, agents found prescription bottles with about 500 pills. As they looked closer, Thao fidgeted. He became nervous. Those pills had 400 grams of heroin in them. That's enough heroin to get charged as a heroin dealer and face 20 years in prison.
"He had a larger amount than a typical user would have," said Sanford Shulman, Thao's attorney.
Shulman said it looked bad for Thao and his family. Real bad.
"When you go to federal court, and you're in a situation where there is this kind of quantity of drugs, someone's going to prison," Shulman said.
The attorney said he soon learned that things were not exactly as they appeared. Thao was shot in the foot during the Vietnam War. While recently visiting relatives in Vietnam, he discovered they used heroin pills for the pain. The pills worked.
"Heroin is chemically similar to morphine which is a very common pain reliever in the U.S.," said medical expert Dr. Frank McGeorge. "The difference is heroin has a very high addictive potential and, hence, it is illegal in America."
Dr. McGeorge said that while heroin is illegal in the U.S., it is still a very effective pain killer.
"Heroin is a good pain medicine and is used in other countries," he said.
Shulman was on a mission to keep Thao out of prison and with his family on the chicken farm. He arranged a lie detector test with a professional polygrapher. Thao passed the test. When he was asked if the pills were only for himself and only for pain, he passed.
"You don't want to just put it into an equation and come out with an answer without giving some thought to it, because there is a human side to it, too," Shulman said.
However, the law is the law. Bringing heroin into the country is illegal and when it is $50,000 worth of the drug, prison time is almost a certainty.
"It was just that he was in possession of narcotics and these pills contain heroin, which obviously made it a serious offense," the attorney said.
Shulman convinced Thao to throw himself at the mercy of the court and plead guilty in hopes that the judge, Avern Cohen, would return him to the farm instead of sending him to prison.
Letters were written to judge Cohen from most of Thao's 11 children. They told Cohen that their father is a good man, a hard worker and someone who is needed on the farm, and more importantly with the family -- with his children and grandchildren.
When Thao went before the judge for sentencing, the judge gave him a huge break. Citing the lie detector test and his family's service during the war, he ruled probation and no prison time. The ruling reduced Thao to tears.
"We have a person with a family and a reason to look beyond strictly guidelines and numbers and prison," Shulman said.
Thao may have been given probation but he still must report monthly to the court to prove he is off heroin. If even one random test comes back positive, Thao can be hauled back to court and sentenced to the full 20 years in prison.
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