Early in the last decade of the last century, I was working at the DEA’s Mid-Atlantic Lab, in The Nation’s Capitol. We provided analysis of FBI’s drug exhibits. One evening just before quitting time, a couple of agents came by. They needed some “crack” cocaine to use in a “sting” operation. I identified an exhibit which was no longer needed for prosecution (the bad guys were serving time). I was careful to document the sampling to preserve its utility as potential evidence. The agents told me that they couldn’t tell me who it was to be used on, but it would knock my sox off when I found out who, yadda yadda. At the time, we had two kids in college and several jobs between us to pay the bills. I went off to work at the lumber yard, and got home in time to watch the nightly news.
They were right ! The stingee turned out to be the Mayor of the District of Columbia, one Marion S. Barry. He was offered the stuff at a downtown hotel in the city, where he was staying with a woman not his wife. Imagine that! Mayor Barry was educated as a chemist at Fisk University. After a stint on the City Council, he was elected mayor. He had served about a decade as the city’s mayor when all of this went down. After being found guilty, and serving a prison sentence, Barry was reelected for another term as mayor in 1995. Sound familiar?
These events took place during the crack cocaine epidemic in cities throughout the country, a time period which seems, in retrospect, almost quaint when compared to the fentanyl/opioid scourge we are currently suffering through. Fentanyl, it turns out, is easily made from relatively simple chemicals. Much like the “French Connection” heroin, one does not need a rocket science (metaphorically speaking) expertise to be trained to make fentanyl.
Years later, after the voters had finally retired Mr. Barry, Flo and I attended a luncheon for some educator she had worked with. In walked the mayor-for-life. Flo, as she does so well, chatted him up for a pleasant discussion. He had no idea that I was part of the means for getting him out of office and into the slam. Ain’t it a small world, indeed!
Rogernarc 