Flour or Coke?

A horrifying story in today's Inky about a female Bryn Mawr student falsely accused of transporting upwards of a kilo of cocaine/speed/opium while headed home to California after finals. She spent three weeks in a Philadelphia jail cell. This happened two years ago, but a civil-rights lawsuit was filed recently on the eve of the expiration of the statute of limitations.

"I haven't let myself be angry about what happened, because it would tear me apart," Lee said. "I'm not sure I can bear to face it... . I'm amazed at how naive I was."

That naivete, she said, began when screeners at Philadelphia International Airport inspecting her checked luggage found three condoms filled with white powder. Lee laughed and told city police they were filled with flour. It was just part of a phallic gag at a women's college, she told them, a stress-reliever, something to squeeze while studying for exams.

The police didn't find it funny. They told her a field test showed that the powder contained opium and cocaine.

A lab test later proved the substance was flour - and no one now disputes that Lee is innocent, including the prosecutor.

Now that's some fucked up shit.

I think everyone's seen a cop/FBI/CIA/... show where they do that taste test of powder. I think I recall a cop coming to speak to us in either high school or middle school telling us that they did/could do such a thing and it wasn't some fake Hollywood stuff [I may be warping reality with TV here though]. But either way, I've read that cocaine is supposed to taste pretty nasty and is supposed to have a numbing effect. So, a taste test should reveal a nasty tasting and then numbing substance. Flour tastes like, well, flour. Yes, coke is often cut with flour, baking soda, talcum powder, sugar... but none of those things cause a numbing effect. So what the fuck happened during two field tests at the Philadlephia airport?

I can't imagine spending three weeks in a cell. I don't know if I'd just lose hope even if I was 100% positive I was innocent, shit just happens and I read about it every day, I just did again right here!

Lee's lawyers say that there are two possibilities as to why the two field tests resulted in a positive for drugs:

Either the field test was faulty or someone fixed the results.

And to futher the matter, a prison guard, who recognized Lee from her volunteer work at Overbrook HS, thinks that the two positive tests were racially motivated. Whoa.

Comments

[Jerome Gaskins]

I don't think I want my police tasting drugs or potential drugs. There is a way to test without compromising the tester. In this case, they could have just dropped some in a glass of water, since I'm pretty sure the drugs wouldn't make dough.

Racist or not, things like this happen. If it happens to you, it is imperative that you be calm as you're going thru it. Otherwise, you'll just be entertainment for the other inmates.

If the thought of being jailed really bothers you, you might try some volunteer work that gets you inside the jails so you can see what it's like. The worst part of going thru something like that is not knowing what to expect.

I once spent 3 months in the Detention Center for being accused of robbing someone who had stolen from me. I never liked sharing my private space with people, and I still don't. But you find that you can endure a lot more than you think, especially when you're sure that you're not in imminent danger.

The very idea of Bryn Mawr College being an opiate or coca distribution point is absurd. But so much about the law is aburd and paranoid...