{"id":43873,"date":"2013-06-20T22:26:55","date_gmt":"2013-06-20T21:26:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/breaking-news\/9-politicians-busted-for-drugs-even-staunch-drug-war-supporters\/43873\/"},"modified":"2013-06-20T22:26:55","modified_gmt":"2013-06-20T21:26:55","slug":"9-politicians-busted-for-drugs-even-staunch-drug-war-supporters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/breaking-news\/9-politicians-busted-for-drugs-even-staunch-drug-war-supporters\/","title":{"rendered":"9 Politicians Busted for Drugs (Even Staunch Drug War Supporters)"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Photo Credit: Shutterstock.com\/Nikita Starichenko<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

June 20, 2013<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>
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Toronto Mayor\u00a0Rob Ford has recently found himself struggling to shake off reports that he featured in a home video \u00a0smoking from a crack pipe<\/a>, but he\u2019s far from alone. From the rural South to major US cities and beyond, countless lawmakers\u2013even those who have happily backed draconian drug policies\u2013have landed in legal and political trouble for drug-related reasons. Here are 10 varied and mostly recent examples. <\/p>\n

1. Willie Gandara Jr., Texas County Commisioner <\/strong>–\u00a0Just months after Gandara declared that drug legalization was bad for America, a possible ulterior motive emerged: profit. He was arrested in February 2012 on federal drug trafficking charges<\/a>. DEA spokesman Diana Apodaca confirmed that the arrest was part of a multi-agency investigation involving the IRS and the FBI. Back in September 2011, Gandara had said he couldn\u2019t possibly back former El Paso Rep. Beto O\u2019Rourke in his congressional bid because O\u2019Rourke had advocated legalizing marijuana to take money away from Mexican cartels. \u201cLegalizing drugs is the coward practice of combating cartels,\u201d said Gandara. \u201cIt is an insult to our men and women in law enforcement, and the laziest form of parenting our children and youth about the effects of drugs.\u201d He was sentenced to six and a half years in prison<\/a>\u00a0in November 2012. <\/p>\n

2. Steve Katz, New York Assemblyman<\/strong> – Talk about practicing what you preach against: Despite voting against the legalization of medical marijuana last year, Katz was arrested for pot possession<\/a>\u00a0in March. The Republican was pulled over for speeding by a state trooper, who smelled marijuana in Katz\u2019s car. Katz was obliged to turn over a small bag of weed. He called the arrest \u201can unfortunate incident,\u201d but declared that he would not let it \u201cimpede my public service and my calls for real mandate relief, a better economic climate and better services for those in need in New York.\u201d He\u2019d previously been arrested for a DUI back in 2000. His challenger in the Republican primary, Dario Gristina, called for him to step down: “This is not the behavior you would expect from an elected official,\u201d she said, \u201cespecially from a conservative county like ours. We have enough kids abusing drugs, and the last thing we need is for our elected representative being caught handing marijuana over to a police officer.” <\/p>\n

3. Ted Vick, South Carolina State Representative<\/strong> – The Democratic former candidate for Congress was arrested<\/a>\u00a0in May, after being spotted \u201cstaggering side to side\u201d and \u201cstruggling to maintain his balance\u201d around the House of Representatives parking garage, before trying to drive away. A nearby cop witnessed the lawmaker \u201chaving trouble driving a straight line\u201d and running over a flex cone.\u00a0Vick refused a breathalyzer, although the officer noted \u201ca strong odor of an alcoholic beverage\u201d on his breath. The politician maintains he\u2019d only had two glasses of wine and that his swerving was actually caused by \u201ca rock\u201d in his shoe. The married father of two was also arrested for DUI and unlawful possession of a gun back in May 2012; there was a 21-year-old college girl in the passenger seat that time. \u201cTed Vick needs to seek help for what seems to be a very major problem,\u201d said Alex Stroman<\/a>, director of the South Carolina GOP. \u201cHe should resign his seat so he can finally get the help that he so clearly needs.\u201d <\/p>\n

4. Mike Crapo, Idaho Senator<\/strong> – Despite identifying as a Mormon, fighting a war against meth in his state and publicly declaring himself teetotal, Crapo was \u00a0arrested for DUI<\/a>\u00a0in Arlington, Virginia last December. After he was brought to jail, his blood alcohol was recorded at 0.14\u2013nearly double the legal limit of 0.08. He later told CBS that after drinking vodka with tonic water, he took a drive to \u201ctry and wind down\u201d and was pulled over by police on his way home. He also acknowledged having \u201con occasion having alcoholic drinks in my apartment\u201d and apologized to his family, his constituents and his fellow Mormons for his \u201cpoor choice.\u201d After pleading guilty to DUI, he was sentenced to 180 days in jail, all of them suspended. He also paid $250 in fines and court fees, had his driver\u2019s license suspended for 12 months and was required to take a DUI course. <\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on: AlterNet<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Photo Credit: Shutterstock.com\/Nikita Starichenko June 20, 2013 \u00a0| Like this article? Join our email list: Stay up to date with the latest headlines via email. Toronto Mayor\u00a0Rob Ford has recently found himself struggling to shake off reports that he featured in a home video \u00a0smoking from a crack pipe, but he\u2019s far from alone. From […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[487],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-43873","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-breaking-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43873","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43873"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43873\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43873"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43873"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43873"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}