When I picked up the two Jackson Hole newspapers last Thursday and saw the picture of the man being handcuffed behind his back, I assumed the law had caught up with someone guilty of a capital crime. Was he a killer? a rapist? an armed robber? Had he murdered, maimed or tortured a fellow human being?
Whatever heinous act he had committed, his picture plastered all over the front page conveyed guilt. He was guilty until proven otherwise. He would have to live with that picture for the rest of his life regardless of the eventual outcome of his case.
But then I saw the headlines and read the story. What a disappointment. It was the usual: another drug bust. The obssession with marijuana had brought together 55 federal, state and local law enrocement officers in a brilliant piece of under-cover work.
What is it about this substance that so motivates and inspires the long arm of the law here in Teton County?
After all, certain establishment heroes of the local variety are into cocaine, and they don't seemed to get picked up or harassed in any way. It must be the knee-jerk association: marijuana! Hippie! Pinko! Commie! Liberal! Undesirable! etc.
Yet, alcohol is the drug of choice in Jackson Hole. It kills and maims people all the time. And when it doesn't do that, it more subtly destroys human beings, their families and their careers. But what is the knee-jerk association to alcohol? Macho! Great! What a guy! OK!
If you've ever been a paramedic and seen first hand what alcohol can do on the open road, you wouldn't give drinking such rave reviews. Yet the same paramedic rarely, if ever, comes across slaughter and heartbreak associated with the use of marijuana.
No one is condoning or applauding the use of illegal substances of any kind. But it does seem to this writer that 55 federal, state and local law enforcement officials could have found something more pressing to do with their time.
05/04/1984
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