Coffee with Paul: a chance meeting DRUGS.

Dear Internet,

I ran into one of my hard core Boulder heroin addict friends Paul at a coffee shop. He's been a using addict on and off for over 30 years. I first met him on my radio show in the 1990's. He had been part of a major drug cartel bust and lived to tell about it. He became the US governments star witness and was anxious to talk about drug pushing in Boulder. And so the conversation started again at Vics. First of all everybody knows that Boulder has been a city with a large part of its' economy off the books grounded in drug trafficking. Boulder has not only been a community where drug use made it famous, it has been a city of secrets that only a white educated community would support. That secret is commonly referred to as Boulders' Mafia....well heeled waspish drug traffickers. Drug trafficking in Boulder has gone largely untouched by the police for over 40 years. One reason is that the code of silence of the Boulder Mafia is honored.
The other is that it is an official city and police policy to not target drug dealers. I have been told this point blank: As long as people are not fighting in the streets or shooting each other we aren't going to intervene. Our policy toward drug use or trafficking is much the same as Aspen or Key West. Hands off.
What troubled Paul at Vics goes beyond the civil liberties of personal choice of drug use. We are all aware that Boulder has become the countries number II city for opening medical marijuana dispensaries. We are second only to Boston. This is with full support of our city government which has a few drug users...also common knowledge.
What people don't know is that Boulder has at least 5 so called "pain management"clinics whose primary function is to sell narcotics by the boat load to anyone with $150 for a Doctors office visit to the clinic. Just like the marijuanna clinics. Pain is the buzzword. Narcotics trad is the business. The way it works according to Paul, is that a heroin addict will go to the Pain Clinic, pay $150 for a Doctors office visit, get a prescription for Percocette, delodids codeine, Oxcecodone, Vicodin etc for one month.... approximately 90 pills or ampules. Some addicts stop right there. Others Then take the drugs down to the Boulder creek path by Boulder public library and sell each pill at an inflated rate to high school or college kids. You then take that money, walk up the path and buy "black tar heroin and meth" The problem with this is that we have a drug addiction epidemic in Boulder with kids getting hooked on narcotics at younger ages each year. And nobody cares. I find that disturbing....and completely unacceptable. I'll be talking about just that on my Channel 22 show next week. I am sure responsible parents don't want their kids to fall prey as they walk the creek path to school. I am hoping they'll do something about it. Like make the city and library clean up the park. Sometimes this is my job in life....to out the secret....... Children don't know any better.........if it is the norm, They will kill themselves with toxic drugs.
from Americas most famous small city
Jann Scott
Boulder Colorado Day 353