INDICTMENTS RETURNED IN PALMETTO METH RING …
Thirty-seven people in Lancaster and Chester Counties have been indicted by a statewide grand jury on charges related to the production and distribution of methamphetamines.
According to a release from S.C. Attorney General Alan Wilson, agents from the Chester County Sheriff’s Office, Lancaster Police Department, Lancaster County Sheriff’s Office, South Carolina National Guard/Governor’s Counter Drug Unit, and the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED) participated in the investigation.
The defendants – who stand accused of producing and trafficking various amounts of the drug – face a variety of meth-related charges. All are facing jail time and heavy fines.
Not long ago, this website praised Wilson’s office for its work in going after child pornographers.
“We can’t think of a more essential function of government than keeping children – especially infants and toddlers – safe from these sorts of depraved predators,” we wrote. “Seriously … there is nothing more important a society (or a government) can do than provide protection to those who lack the ability to protect themselves.”
But adults making and selling drugs for recreational use? We’ve got no problem with that.
In fact investigations, prosecutions and incarcerations like this are nothing but a waste of taxpayer time and resources.
Oh well … let’s just hope Wilson didn’t use the City of Columbia, S.C.’s drug lab to process the product for any of these “offenders.”
55 comments
“…But adults making and selling drugs for recreational use? We’ve got no problem with that….” If the pictures at this link don’t give you a “problem with that” you’re not paying attention.
http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=meth+death&qpvt=meth+death&FORM=IGRE
So you’re willing to tax the populace to stop them from taking drugs, but not for health care?
I’m willing to allow them to smoke taxed pot. How did we get from that to taxes for health care? I support you paying for your healthcare through whatever agency you desire or for that matter not paying for health care as long as I don’t have to bail you out. Btw, the SCOTUS says Obamacare is a tax but that don’t make it so.
I’m willing to allow them to smoke taxed pot.
——
How about taxed meth?
Click on my link – pot is the moral equivalent of liquor, meth is the moral equivalent of playing Russian roulette with an automatic.
“meth is the moral equivalent of playing Russian roulette with an automatic.”
Then we should pass a law against that too, right?
We already have that law, it’s called the law of probability.
Not an answer…but funny none the less.
Let me repeat my question then – you’re willing to tax the populace to keep them from taking meth, but not for health care?
Yes, if you mean an I willing for my tax dollars to be spent on police who among their many duties, bust drug dealers and illegal drug manufacturers. I don’t think I should pay for your health care, assuming you aren’t handicapped in some way or destitute through no fault of your own.
“playing Russian roulette with an automatic.”
Used to be called “playing Polish roulette.”
I’m trying to be PC these days, not…
The cognitive dissonance you display in contrasting the manufacture and sale of illegal drugs that destroy the lives of both young and older people and that of child pornagraphy is simply stunning.
He worked for Mark Sanford because he thought he was smart.
What can you expect?
I have too Bingo that
Will, methamphetamine is a very dangerous drug, are you stupid or just willfully ignorant to this fact?
Let’s outlaw the drinking of Draino so as a society we are consistent.
It is Drano not Draino. If you can show that purposely drinking Drano is a numerically significant problem then pass a law. Most are considered suicide attempts. Laws are to address a problem. If there is no problem, no law.
So what’s statistically significant in your book?
Well, they banned lead paint, because kids were putting paint chips in their mouths and eating it. It was a few isolated cases.
It’s banned, not banded.
:)
No statistics yet though.
I’m not a statistician. I can’t even spell ‘banned’.
lol…that’s ok…I screwed up Drano…but in my defense I do know how to spell “drain”.
:)
Don’t be so eager to jam so many laws down everyone’s throat. With 45,000 on the books the problems haven’t gone away.
Government fines and jail don’t help people fix themselves or make victimless crimes go away. If the meth head kills someone, then use “the law”, otherwise why kick a man/women when they are down?
Let’s outlaw the drinking of Draino so as a society we are consistent.
As soon as they start marketing their product for human consumption, sure.
You mean, like alcohol/?
I’m really surprised Liz wasn’t the one that broke this story.
Nikki can say she’s bringing more manufacturing jobs back to the state.
We need to hire a big shot in the business to oversee manufacturing jobs, though. There’s this chemistry teacher in New Mexico I’ve been hearing about that might be up that alley.
“It’s OK officer, we were just sharing! You know, like T-Rav!”
T-Rav is all for creating jobs.
Selling crack of all kind I suppose!
I participated in the Lexington County Sheriff’s Citizens Academy a number of years ago and in one of the classes they showed the affects of some of the people they arrested. One was a woman who was fairly attractive in a mug shot close to the start of her time using meth the other picture was a mug shot shortly before she died approximately 8 years later, it was horrible what that shit did to her.
The whole drug thing needs a review but legalizing drugs is wrong by far. I read a study of Portugal’s decriminalizing marajuana use and that looked very promising but to legalize drugs would be the final nail in America’s coffin (if 0bama doesn’t finish her off first). There was a time in our history that drugs were legal, bought and used fairly openly, and that was a massive anchor dragging on America’s march into the future. To advocate legalizing drugs, wholesale, as this article does ignores that horrible past or shows an indifference or complete disregard of history.
Yea, did they talk about what they do to meth users in Lexington’s county jail? Whether you wear a badge or not, these people are citizens of Lexington. They deserve far better than to be thrown in a padded room to wallow in their vomit and feces until they come off the drug. Then they have after effects that need medicine from the mental health officer in charge. Shoot, medicine? at LCSD County Jail? They cut that program a long time ago to pay for their underfunded retirement accounts. Then they put our citizens in one bunk cells with two people sleeping on the floor after they deny them bond and an attorney if they can’t afford one. Bet you are proud of that, huh. Are their crimes so bad as to treat them as pieces of shit? Time is their punishment if convicted, time lost from family, jobs, society. Subhuman treatment, lack of any acknowledgement that they are people, citizens, Americans is not how we spend tax dollars to enforce draconian laws enforced by fucking psychopaths with a badge. Is it.
You are full of shit. I have been in the Lexington County jail and witnessed nothing like you describe. There are times when the inmates behave terribly and are isolated, sometimes without clothing but that is only under certain circumstances and strictly following policies and procedures.
These are the comments I was referring to.
Bovine sewage. There are citizens charged with a crime sleeping on the county jail floors because citizens like you do not give a damn. Citizens are denied mental health services due to a variety of reasons least of which citizens like you go along with it ’cause you don’t give a damn. “Suicides” in county jails are routinely swept away because citizens like you do not give a damn. Costly phone services, exorbitant canteen fees, visitations by camera only, unsecured attorney visitations, even guard abuse of inmates go to the wayside because of citizens like you. What do you think the Constitution is anyways?
Again, bullshit.
I bet they strolled you around that nice federal holding center with the plastic buckets to sleep in and the spacious center with a picnic benches. The rest of the facility is one or two bunk cells with one or two people sleeping on the floor! Ability to pay for an attorney is an arbitrary decision made at the bond hearing without any financial statements. The U.S. Constitution provides that you are entitled representation by an attorney if the state is trying to deprive you of your liberty. This means that a court may be required to appoint a lawyer to represent you for free — or for a fee you can afford — if the crime you are charged with carries a jail sentence. You speak from ignorance. You can’t handle the truth. You don’t give a damn.
Nice act, trying to channel Jack Nicholson are you?
I visited the Lexington County jail on Ballpark Road, twice, once during the Citizens Academy and once during Leadership Lexington County. We toured the whole facility and we didn’t witness anything like you describe. I would think if anything like you describe were actually going on someone on the inside would be talking to the media (this Web site in particular). There are too many lawyers (of which there is an overabundance) that would like to make a name for themselves and would love to get a hold of something like this. Also with the elections Mr. Metts has been through I haven’t heard a peep about these criminal acts. But that brings a bigger question, you say I don’t care, about something of which I have no knowledge, but where were/are you? YOU have all this information, YOU have all the details, why haven’t YOU done something. We don’t read of complaints, lawsuits or any of the other things concerned citizens do to correct bad government with regards to your accusations. Where were/are you, instead of accusing me of not caring why aren’t you demonstrating how much you care, because YOU are the one that doesn’t care. Do something yourself before you accuse others. Whatever the truth is I’m sure it isn’t anything you spew.
I work with a guy from Lexington County. Professional, white, could easily been content as a “privileged” class in Lexington County. When I mentioned that Metts seemed like an educated professional sheriff (this was several years ago and I was simply going by the news stories I read) boy did he ever open my eyes. He especially described the degrading to inhuman unprofessional treatment of prisoners, notably poor minority residents (though the examples he gave were Hispanics, not blacks). I KNOW this guy was not lying.
Mr. White, yo, you Better Call Saul.
So sad, The price for T-Roid’s enterteinment just went up.
http://www.rehabs.com/explore/meth-before-and-after-drugs/infographic.html#.VAjWU2R4Yag
They’re just being adults, right? Fascinating.
Lexington Co. has been losing these manufacturing jobs? Hard to call it “offshoring” though, albeit it is across Lake Murray.
This ain’t weed we’re talking about ,you FUCKING IDIOT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
These meth busts are a joke. Law enforcement in SC is pulling double duty in accepting military armaments from the 1033 Program then honing their combined forces during inter-county multi-agency police actions practicing for the day they see any South Carolinian as the enemy. See Ferguson, MO.
Methamphetamine abuse in South Carolina is currently well below the national average. The primary users of methamphetamine in South Carolina are Caucasian. Commercial truck drivers use the drug to increase alertness, crack abusers switch to methamphetamine for its longer-lasting euphoric effects and lower cost, and young people use the drug at rave parties. Among high school students in South Carolina, females (7.2%) were nearly as likely as males (8.8%) to report lifetime methamphetamine use, similar to national averages of 8.4 percent for females and 9.9 percent for males.
Speaking of cowardice, you are a sorry piece of shit to hide behind a fake name and slander South Carolina law enforcement in the manner in which have. Of course you slander them this way but when some jacked up druggie puts a knife to your throat you will be begging for them to save your sorry ass. I wouldn’t blame them if they let the miscreant off your dumb ass but they wouldn’t, they would save your pathetic ass because that is their job.
And your real name is EJB? Sure, it might be initials. I don’t disagree with your support for law enforcement. But let’s go easy on the insults. Especially when there’s a plank in your eye.
You are seriously trying to show equivalence between his slanderous diatribe and my calling bullshit on it. What’s your next feat, defending ISIS?
Not trying to show equivalence. Again, I support local law enforcement, as well. I merely read your comment, and in plain language, the comment stands for the position of calling Thomas out for hiding behind a screen name. I simply thought that was ironic since your name is not broadcasted, either (no one on here, for that matter).
That said, I saw Thomas’s later comment with respect to such torturous conditions at the detention center. I will say, those comments certainly warrant less respect for any position he takes on the matter.
I completely and unequivocally refuse to believe that inmates are abused and denied legal representation, etc. That is ludicrous, to even make such a claim. §1983 claims would be flying left and right (and prevailing).
So, I’m in agreement with you. I merely called out a small irony in your comment. No need to get hostile and make silly assumptions, such as, defending ISIS. Rather, I’ve had the distinct pleasure of sending a few radicals to judgment day.
I should not have used ISIS with regards to your comment, my apologies.
@EJB751:disqus
Law enforcement in SC is corrupt. The judicial system in SC is corrupt. The prisons in SC is corrupt. LE has military grade weapons and tanks and go after the low hanging fruit. Solicitors routinely engage in prosecutorial misconduct against the low hanging fruit. Prison guards routinely set up prisoners by releasing their judicial files or look away when an inmate has pencils put into his eye sockets. To not speak out is the sin of omission. To go along with them is the sin of commission. Mexican Narco-Terrorist are not only operating in the Midlands, they are using our highways as pipelines to traffic potent drugs up and down the Eastern Seaboard. Refute the facts or stfu.
My guess is you were pulled over, started smart mouthing the cop, they tried to arrest you, you tried to resist and they reminded you why that is a bad idea. My advice, use a suppository, nurse your bruised ego and do what the cops tell you next time. If anything like you allege had happened there would be innumerable lawsuits and Mr Metts would not have won so many elections. Sweet dreams delusional person.
There is a logic problem going on here. People who are addicted to meth are empirically killing themselves. When someone is a threat to themselves or others, we put them in a mental hospital, involuntarily if need be, because we recognize that someone with schizophrenia for example, going through a psychotic episode, is not in their right mind obviously and we don’t allow them to make their own decisions, such as killing themselves, or killing others. Would you extend your attitude towards meth use to the merely psychotic? What about the person who is psychotic from meth use? We prevent people from hurting themselves and others, but only in an immediate sense even for the mentally ill. If meth users have progressed to the point where they are creating mini-superfund sites with chemicals they are also ingesting, we need to stop them from hurting themselves, and others, which they most certainly do when they are running a meth lab. I don’t know how you can reconcile the pollution and danger to others meth labs create, not to mention the clean-up cost we all sustain, with allowing adults to simply do their thing. We don’t arrest meth addicts walking down the street, just like we don’t arrest someone who is mentally ill, they are only arrested when they are caught red-handed…in the act of hurting themselves and/or others, like children or neighbors who are close enough for it to pose an immediate danger. I just cannot understand your rationale here. It seems to be based on ideology rather than rational quantifiable thought. Something I thought you were in favor of, but perhaps not.
OMG.
You thought FITSNEWS was capable of “rational quantifiable thought” rather than just blind adherence to juvenile, immature Libertarian ideology?
What do you think drew him to the likes of thick as a brick, intellectual wannabe Mark Sanford, another pathologically rigid ideologue?
The ONLY times these people deviate from their straight and narrow is when ideology conflicts with their own personal self-interest. That means FITS will be up an arms over meth when the haz mat team shows up next door and only then.