A) Flour
B) Fraud
If I was selling a bag of flower and sugar to a CI who thought it was meth or coke can I get in trouble? How or why when I am selling a legal substance?
Submitted 2 months ago by Don_Dickle@lemmy.world to [deleted]
Comments
BlameThePeacock@lemmy.ca 2 months ago
Nurse_Robot@lemmy.world 2 months ago
One Google search later,
Selling counterfeit illicit drugs is illegal even if the substances used to make the imitation drug are not illegal on themselves
SomeAmateur@sh.itjust.works 2 months ago
I imagine that’s only if you market it as drugs.
“Hey you got the good drugs?” “Yeah here”
But what if you played the long con, started…say a salt distribution ring. Have a run down house full of it, sell it in baggies, make it look as suspicious as possible only for them to do stakeouts, get informants in there, just to find you are not doing anything illegal at all, it just has all the signs without the actual law breaking
“Hey you got the good salt?” “Yeah here”
goes back to the police lab
“wtf? It’s just salt?”
Then they would just think the informant got compromised and have to raid the house lol
MutilationWave@lemmy.world 2 months ago
The moment someone saw salt they’d be out. Do you guys really think “drugs” look like flour and salt?
Fuckfuckmyfuckingass@lemmy.world 2 months ago
I enjoy this idea immensely.
Brewchin@lemmy.world 2 months ago
As with every legal topic on the Internet: depending on your (international) jurisdiction.
Nurse_Robot@lemmy.world 2 months ago
In which jurisdiction is it legal to sell fake cocaine? :)
lvxferre@mander.xyz 2 months ago
As people answered it mostly for USA, I gave it a check for other countries.
For both Italian law (article 640 of the Penal Code) and Brazilian law (the famous article 171 of the Penal Code), this behaviour falls neatly into fraud laws, and leads to a few years of reclusion. I couldn’t find any law specifically for selling it as if it was a drug though.
For Portugal I actually found a paper about the topic. It claims that it isn’t a crime per se, but it’s usually filled under other crimes, and the paper proposes the creation of specific laws against it.
AdNecrias@lemmy.pt 2 months ago
Just want to add that the Portuguese document there is a scientific paper, not legislation. Not sure on how proposals might have been changed the law in the 4 years after it but it’s become more pertinent because the increase of tourism was accompanied by these scams (my source for this is word of mouth, take it with a grain of salt)
lvxferre@mander.xyz 2 months ago
I added it to the comment - thank you!
it’s become more pertinent because the increase of tourism was accompanied by these scams (my source for this is word of mouth, take it with a grain of salt)
Yup, and the paper confirms it: “Esta atividade é regularmente realizada nas grandes cidades do nosso país, mormente nas zonas de grande afluência turística” (this activity is regularly conducted in the larger cities of our country, mainly in the zones with great touristic affluence).
Rivalarrival@lemmy.today 2 months ago
There are laws against selling fake drugs. Why does he think your product is a drug? Has it been represented to him as a drug by you or by someone with whom you are conspiring to sell fake drugs?
jeffw@lemmy.world 2 months ago
What kind of flowers are we talking about?
InternetCitizen2@lemmy.world 2 months ago
I suppose it is fraud. If they do hurt themselves after trying to consume they might end up in an ER and a hospital might be required to report (even if user would not have for obvious reasons)
FuglyDuck@lemmy.world 2 months ago
CI? Criminal Informant?
If you’re law enforcement or part of the DoC, you probably have better places to ask. I you’re caught in an undercover sting, you can talk with a public attorney at the very least. eitherway, there’s more reliable sources of information.
fulcrummed@lemmy.world 2 months ago
They’re confidential informants where I’m from - regional differences isn’t surprising, wonder how it’s abbreviated for other languages.
FuglyDuck@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Confidential informants are a bit different, here.
One is a low level perp you let slide because they nark on bigger fish, the other is just a random person who may have information that’s sensitive, not necessarily themselves criminal.
Either way, though, that probably goes to entrapment. And if OP’s not a LEO, and still trying to get some one jammed up, there’s probably a slew of charges there- especially if the motive is leverage.
meco03211@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Depends on the state. I imagine over the years, enterprising drug dealers have done just that to dupe unsuspecting buyers. It wouldn’t be far fetched that a state would write laws to capture just such an instance.
foggy@lemmy.world 2 months ago
You can get arrested, you could be detained under a reasonable articulable suspicion of having committed a crime.
As to whether or not that would ultimately lead to trouble? No. Could it still cost you money, time, etc? Yes.
bizzle@lemmy.world 2 months ago
I used to have this friend we called Blaster Taylor. He was cool as fuck until he started abusing Adderall, and that Adderall addiction turned into meth pretty quick. Started shooting it, that’s when I stopped kickin it with him.
Anyway a couple years after that he got busted selling a bag of rock salt to an undercover cop saying it was meth, and he did a couple years for that as I recall. I don’t talk to any of those dudes anymore but last I heard he’s out by now, complete with swastika face tats.
To paraphrase John Darnielle, selling fake meth was a bad idea; but selling it to a cop was a worse one.