Heroin is Bad; Fentanyl is Worse

                Today overall wasn’t too interesting, but I did learn a few things. I spent a majority of the day checking through deputy files to make sure they hadn’t expired. A majority of the Marshal’s deputies are actually officers on loan from other bureaus (local, state, and federal) and so the officers have to be “deputized” every two years. Being “deputized” isn’t like being knighted by the Queen of England, its actually just filling out a bunch of paper work. But it is seen as a promotion for government employees. The only interesting part of checking the files was that I found a file for an officer who the computer system said didn’t exist. I asked Susan about the non-existent existent file and she told me a sad story. The officer had been working as a policeman for well over twenty years. If you googled his name you would find countless articles of dangerous criminals he caught and victims he helped. About a year ago he started dating a girl who was an ex-heroin addict. They moved in together. A few months later he caught her shooting up, and kicked her out of his house. A few weeks later, she overdosed and died. In January, the police started an inquiry into the circumstances surrounding the death. Even though the officer was a good guy, and no one suspected him of foul play; he has been put on leave until after the investigation is finished.

Heroin

                After I finished the files, I talked to a Marshal’s Deputy named Josh. Josh is in charge of all the criminal files, along with other normal deputy responsibilities like attending court hearings and transporting inmates. Josh kindly showed me an inmate file and explained all of the different forms and approval needed to sentence, incarcerate, and transfer prisoners. The file he was using in his explanation, was for a man who was just sentenced to over fifteen years for felony possession of a weapon. I knew that people found with illegal firearms could end up in prison, but I thought that over fifteen years seemed excessive. Josh explained that felony possession meant that the criminal was either on parole or probation which disallowed owning firearms. There is also a three strike law in Ohio where if you’re convicted of three drug related crimes, it is illegal to ever own a weapon once you’re released. The criminal was also sentenced to over fifteen years because he had an extensive criminal history; he would have gotten significantly less time if this was a first offence. Josh also explained that federal courts give longer sentences than local or state courts; what crimes specifically that get longer sentences are up to the federal judges.

Fentanyl

                Josh told me that lately the federal courts have been giving harsh sentences for fentanyl. Fentanyl is a drug that was synthesized in China; its cheap and over fifty times more potent then heroin. A piece small enough to fit on the tip of a pen is enough to kill the average person. Marshals in NYC arrested a man with six pounds of fentanyl; that is enough to kill everyone in the city. Heroin dealers mix fentanyl in with heroin they sell because customers still receive a high and the dealers are able to make more money. Josh said that every day in Cleveland three people die of an overdose. What the federal courts are doing, is if they find a dealer, they try to connect the drugs the dealer sold to an overdose death. Then the dealer is charged with murder in addition to dealing. A few weeks back, a twenty-one year old dealer was sentenced to twenty years in prison. Hopefully the long sentences will work as a deterrent.