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Do The Gardai Live on Sesame Street?
Read more about: Law
Drug seizures are always big news, particularly when there’s some nice pictures to go along with them. Take for example the following RTE news story caught my attention last week:
A sniffer dog gave an indication that a passenger was carrying drugs
Now this story would have made the news on any day, but the fact is that the main reason the story got so much airtime was because it was a slow news day, and there was a rather cute sniffer dog to parade before the cameras.
So much of the information regarding drug seizures provided to and by the media regarding drug seizures is “sexed up”. Take for example the use of the so-called “street value” of the drugs. The “street value” of the drugs is said to be as much as four times the wholesale value. The only reason the “street value” is used is because it makes it seem as though a large quantity has been uncovered and it probably helps to impress judges when prosecuting people.
The other problem with the use of “street values” stems from the fact that the Gardai don’t tend to buy drugs all that often. Often the information they provide to the public seems ridiculously inaccurate. If you don’t believe me, then do the maths for the above story. Find somebody you know who uses cannabis, ask them how much they pay for a quarter, then multiply that figure by the number of quarters in 18kg (EU regulations regarding the use of imperial measures were generally ignored by drug dealers). It won’t come anywhere near the “street value”.
You might argue that the Gardai would have some expertise in this area, and that may be the case, but it is best to remember that they have a vested interest in inflating the value of the drugs they seize, and that would be relatively harmless were it not for the fact that the sentences are judges impose are based on the “street value” the Gardai place on the drugs they find, so a drug dealer who paid 3000 euro for cannabis could find himself in prison for over a decade because the Gardai place a street value of 13,000 euro on the drugs he was found with.
Should somebody go to prison for over a decade for having 3000 euro worth of cannabis? I don’t know. But if we’re going to use the retail value of a drug as the basis of a sentence, then the Gardai need to start pricing drugs correctly and to stop abusing their position in order to get more convictions and longer sentences. Similarly, the media need to stop parroting the Gardai and investigate the actual prices of drugs. Two hundred thousand euro worth of cannabis may make for higher newspaper sales than fifty thousand, but accurate journalism would be nice. Nobody wants to see the drug barons prosper, but there has to be a way to combat them without resorting to the abuse of bad laws.
I see where you’re coming from but note it says ‘herbal cannabis’, not resin, which costs a lot less.
Someone, can’t remember who, told me they paid €300 for an ounce of grass recently, so 18kg of grass @ €300 an ounce is around €200,000.
And wholesale value isn’t really relevant anyway as a dealer is going to sell it at street value anyway.
Have to agree with Twenty there
That’s assuming that the person caught with the drugs is going to sell it. I’m not an expert at all when it comes to the comings and goings of drug supply, but as far as I know, drugs will be sold on a couple of times before being consumed.
Prices vary dramatically, and the prices quoted by the Gardai always seem to be the maximum possible that dealer could expect to get for the amount he has. Realistically, the dealer will never get the maximum amount. Some people pay more for drugs than others and the Gardai tend to price drugs as though everybody was paying the maximum. Wholesale value just seems a little less variable, and it seems less likely to excite judges, who’d probably hand down a harsher sentence to somebody caught with cannabis with a street value of 13,000 than they would someone who paid 3000 to a wholesaler for cannabis.