By Andrew W. Griffin

Red Dirt Report, editor

Posted: May 2, 2012

reddirtreporter@gmail.com

OKLAHOMA CITY – In what strikes this reporter as highly unethical and likely illegal, police officers, highway patrol troopers and sheriff's deputies from across Minnesota have been allegedly preying on drug-impaired youths, getting them high and observing their reactions, not unlike laboratory rats.

Norman-based blogger Kaye Beach, with Axxiom for Liberty, informed Red Dirt Report about this disturbing program and that similar activities may be taking place here in Oklahoma.

RogueMedia.org, with help from Twin Cities Indymedia, Communities United Against Police Brutality and Occupy Minneapolis, reported that their undercover investigation, revealed shocking stories of cops offering young people drugs and taken to a secret state-owned warehouse where vast amounts of drugs were consumed by the young test subjects under the watchful eyes of interested police. The activists also witnessed, in Minneapolis' Peavey Plaza, "police dropping off impaired people" where Occupy Minneapolis congregates.

The video can be viewed here.

This appears to be part of a new "innovative training program" for police which allows them to become Drug Recognition Experts (DRE's) and that those recruited for the tests would be already "drug-impaired." As this activist video shows, several were not impaired and simply jumped at the chance of free drugs and a free meal, only to be dropped off back at the plaza in a drug-impaired state.

It would appear that this program only proves what a joke the "drug war" really is, when the cops are encouraging young people to take drugs so they can become drug-recognition experts.

Continuing, in the video it notes that the young people are offered free drugs, taken to a Minnesota Department of Transportation warehouse near the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, and observed as they ingest copious amounts of illegal drugs, primarily marijuana.

Interviewing different young people who took part in the "drug tests," they discovered that no EMT's or ambulances were on site.

“I got stoned with a couple of cops,” says one young man identified as 'Panda.' “I’m high as f***.

Panda explained he was at the local Nicollet Mall in Minneapolis when he was told the police were "doing research" to find out "how people react" under the influence of narcotics. And when the cops offered Panda to take part in the human experiment, he agreed.

Asked by the activist if it was “high-grade weed,” Panda replies: “Dude, this is some of the best s*** I’ve had in a while. Now I know what happens to the stuff they confiscate.”

Afterward, they bought the young drug user a double cheeseburger dinner at a McDonald’s. They monitored how fast they ate his meal so they could see if he had the "munchies."

Panda also said that the cops knew he was deeply involved in the local Occupy Wall Street activist movement and they asked him to inform on other Occupiers. 

Panda claims he was asked to participate some other time in the future, and Panda said "one day" he would consider it.

Another human subject, a young man, said his blood pressure was checked and that at the warehouse there were upwards of 30 cops on site. The Minnesota State Patrol website says these tests on human guinea pigs are part of certification training "where they perform 12 evaluations on drug-impaired subjects" to better train cops for field-sobriety tests and so forth. Certification training takes two-to-three weeks, according to the RogueMedia.org story.

Back to their video, another guy, who wanted heroin, said the cops gave him a big bag of weed to smoke.

Of concern is that these test subjects return to the plaza in an impaired condition and could endanger themselves or others in public gathering spaces, such as Peavey Plaza in Minneapolis.

The video notes that Minnesota's DRE state coordinator is Riccardo Munoz, with the Minnesota State Patrol in St. Paul. He is part of the International Drug Evaluation & Classification Program.

RogueMedia.org notes that "the DRE program, run by the Minnesota State Patrol, has no Institutional Review Board or independent oversight. It is also suspected that the Minneapolis City Council is secretly working with law enforcement to "discredit and disrupt the Occupy movement."

As Michelle Gross, president of Communities United Against Police Brutality noted: "I think most people would be very surprised to have our tax dollars used to get people high. These activities call into question the methods and motives of this DRE training."

We have heard these DRE programs are being used in other states, including Oklahoma. We are investigating further to see if the Occupy OKC or other activists have been approached by the police and asked to participate in similar, clandestine "free narcotics" programs. We hope to have more on this story.

In the meantime, learn more about the DRE program at Axxiom for Liberty. Kaye Beach has been closely monitoring the situation.

Copyright 2012 Red Dirt Report