Tales & Trails of a Traveling Wiseguy

One little bit that may have gone ignored in a previous episode of Breaking Bad, S1E4, was where DEA agent Hank remarked to his team that drug dealer Crazy-8, who was missing and presumed dead at that point, had been a confidential informant. And in exchange for Crazy-8 ratting on other drug dealers, the DEA was letting Crazy-8 continue being a gang boss himself. Even worse, Hank acknowledged that every time they arrested another drug dealer whom Crazy-8 ratted out to them, Crazy-8 absorbed that other drug dealer's territory. This is a problem from a law enforcement perspective because it means the police aren't actually reducing crime, they're just rearranging who's committing the crimes. Moreover, they're choosing who's allowed to commit the crimes— and they're helping promote a chosen small-time drug dealer into a big-time gangster.

The issue came up again in S2E2 when Hank and his DEA partner were briefing the local police on drug dealer Tuco. Hank compared Tuco's criminal enterprise to Crazy-8's and mentioned it he was glad Crazy-8 had been "eliminated". The local police didn't know the DEA was purposefully ignoring— perhaps even protecting— Crazy-8's crimes.

Look, I get it that policing against crime gangs means working with bad people. Cops have to get evidence and leads from people who themselves are criminals who are cooperating. And prosecutors have to get cooperating witnesses to get eye-witness and other evidence. In both cases "cooperating" generally means overlooking or under-prosecuting crimes. This is an unfortunate reality that must be accepted. But it is also a moral hazard that must be examined. Does overlooking crime A to prosecute crime B genuinely serve the public interest?

A lot of police-procedural shows show this kind of deal-making. Most even tackle the issue of Does overlooking crime A to prosecute crime B genuinely serve the public interest? directly. For example, when the plot has a DA offering leniency to a person who committed a murder in exchange for testimony to convict their boss who ordered multiple murders, we see the DA and their colleagues weighing this arrangement on the scales of justice. It's a grisly calculus, but at least it computes: go lightly on one murder to convict on multiple others.

In the situation in Breaking Bad with Crazy-8 I would argue the answer was No. Just as many drugs were being supplied as before, all that was being changed was who's the supplier. Worse, the DEA was creating a public perception of success in the War on Drugs to justifying its budget and police powers without actually making the public any safer.

This evening I watched episode 7 of Breaking Bad,  the end of season 1. One point the story has been making throughout much of the season is the hypocrisy of the War on Drugs. Yes, drug dealers are bad people. They're violent. And they're peddling dangerous products. But they exist because people want those products. Lots of people want those products.

In S1E3 Hank, Walt's brother-in-law and a DEA agent, drives Walt Jr. to a skeezy motel where he knows lots of meth addicts hang out. He is there to scare Walt Jr. out of using the "gateway" drug, marijuana. Except Walt Jr. is not using marijuana. And it's not really a gateway drug, anyway. Not any more than alcohol or nicotine are. As Hank is asking Walt Jr. rhetorical questions about what a gateway drug is and why it's a gateway drug, I jokingly answered "Alcohol!" every time Hank paused being filling in the word "Marijuana". And every single time, it fit.

In S1E5 Walt Jr. gets busted by a cop... for asking him to buy beer for him and 2-3 of his friends, all underage. Yup, literally a gateway drug right there. Alcohol. Walt Jr. is let off with a stern warning when Hank shows up to vouch for him.

In S1E4 Jesse shows up at his parents' house while high on drugs. His parents take him in but fret over how to set boundaries with him. They love him but do not approve of his drug use. We meet Jesse's much younger brother, Jake. Jake is 10 and is like everything that Jesse is/was not. He's intellectual, he's well spoken, he's an excellent student, he studies music. His parents love him. A day or two the parents' housekeeper finds a joint in the bedroom. She takes it to Mr. and Mrs. Pinkman. They confront Jesse and throw him out of the house. In the next scene, when Jake says goodbye to Jesse as he's getting into a taxi, Jake thanks Jesse for not telling them the joint was his. A 10 year old boy is a pot head. But he's still an excellent student. And his parents don't even know. Edited to add: Jake's joint did not come from Jesse.

In S1E6 Hank and his DEA team arrest Hugo, a janitor at the school where Walt teaches. Hank has traced the respirator mask found near a crime scene in the desert to missing inventory from the school's chemistry lab. Indeed, Walt stole those items. But Hank arrested the janitor on suspicion of the theft because he had a history of minor drug convictions. Then they searched his car and found a joint. They never did find any evidence linking Hugo to the thefts or any crimes related to methamphetamine manufacture, drug dealing, kidnapping, or murder; but just the drug convictions far in Hugo's past were enough to get the DEA to arrest him in front of the whole school and destroy his career.

In S1E7 Hank pulls out a few Cuban cigars to share with Walt outside at the baby shower for his daughter. Walt points out, accurately, that Cuban cigars are illegal in the U.S. Hank, the DEA agent, shrugs it off and completely fails to see the irony that he, a drug enforcement officer, is possessing and distributing contraband. "It's all arbitrary" what's illegal and what's not, Walt argues. Hank is completely unable to see that, too.

I'm not saying right now that any specific drug should be legal or illegal. That's a whole 'nother issue. What I'm calling attention to right now is that the status quo is pretty arbitrary. We need to recognize that first in order to move forward in making it make more sense.

Los Cabos Travelog #7
Downtown Los Cabos - Sun, 5 May 2024, 12pm

Today we're out and about in Cabo San Lucas, wandering the streets and shops in the city center. Yesterday we were here late in the afternoon on a day when there was a cruise ship in port, so all the merchants seemed tired out. This morning things are a lot quieter, and the merchants are fresh-eyed. Oh, and today drug dealers are out. Every second person we pass on the streets is a tout who asks me if I want to buy weed.

I thought marijuana was illegal in Mexico— and heavily punished, compared to the increasingly liberal laws in many parts of the US. Well, a quick search shows that weed is now legal here, albeit only in small quantities. I don't know if the dealers on the street are legit sellers offering legit quantities. The fact that they're all men dressed in ordinary clothes and whispering their offers as they pass strongly suggests to me it's not on the up-and-up.

Another form of drugs that's surprisingly legal here in Mexico are prescription drugs— or drugs that, in the US, are only available with a script. But here all kinds of pain killers, even opiates more powerful than Oxycontin, are sold at streetfront pharmacies. And pharmacies are everywhere. Here in the downtown core there's literally at least one on every block. The implication that there's a huge tourist drug trade— the hotel concierge even encouraged us to visit the town's many pharmacies as tourists— is alarming.



But when in Rome... right? I bought a small bottle of Flexeril pills. It's a muscle relaxant I've used before (with a prescription) when I've had a pinched nerve. The nerve pain I've had in my elbow for a few weeks now has getting worse. I figure instead of gobbling ibuprofen and acetaminophen on this trip I'll take something stronger that I know works for this kind of pain.

Oh, and speaking of gobbling things, we just ate lunch. Instead of another very-bougie $133 lunch at the hotel cafe we stopped a street cafe a few blocks from the marina.



What attracted us here was the overall casual vibe, the al fresco dining, and a menu that skewed toward inexpensive a la carte items. We got a few tacos (one arrachera and one al pastor), a dish of guacamole, and a basket of fries. Oh, and a beer and a glass of piña. All this set us back barely more than $20. Not only was that price less than one-sixth yesterday's lunch, the food was way more flavorful, too!

Australia Travelog #27
Valley of the Waters, NSW - Fri, 29 Dec 2023, 10:30am

The first part of our hike down into Valley of the Waters was not exactly fun. The sky was gray, casting a pall over everything. And there was lots of descent— which not only ached my injured ankle going down but made me dread the pain I'd endure climbing back up. That cast a further pall over things.

The pall of pain I couldn't do much about except grit my teeth in determination. There is no "back", only forward.

As for the pall of the gray sky... well, that's actually good for visiting waterfalls. The dimmer sky creates a more intimate atmosphere down underneath the tree canopy. Moisture on the leaves from fog or light rain makes everything glisten. And the dimmer, more even light from the overcast sky makes waterfall photography more vibrant. ...That sounds paradoxical; dimmer equals more vibrant? It's because, technically, the dimmer light makes it easier to capture the the contrast of the scene with a camera's limited range of brightness sensitivity.

Now about those waterfalls....



Empress Falls (above) was the nominal star of the trip. She's the tallest on today's trek, with the upper set of cascades being about 80' tall. I thought this lower vantage point, showing the wider, shorter lower tier made for better composition. Update: I'll come back to the upper part in my next blog.

Below Empress Falls the trail kept going down, down, down. I wasn't sure how well I could make it back up but... in for a penny, in for a pound, as they say. Or, there is no "back", only forward.



I was glad I kept going forward, as Sylvia Falls is quite beautiful. At less than half the height of Empress Falls I found it more enchanting, partly because it's right there next to you. And the gentler flow of water makes it even more intimate.

Trail reports had warned us that the trail is blocked below Sylvia Falls by a landslide. We didn't see any signs of closure of danger, though, so we continued forward.



We found one more falls (above) before the trail was blocked. This falls was much smaller than the others but even more intimate. Intimate, as in you could sit right next to it.

We weren't the only ones here. A family had arrived just ahead of us. An adolescent girl posed for pictures in the water (we waited for her to finish) while her older brother snapped lots of pictures with his DSLR camera.

Keeping Australia's Kids Off Drugs

I noticed the boy balancing his camera on his dad's shoulder. "I see you've got an impromptu tripod there," I ventured. "Are you using with a neutral density filter to take slow-exposure pics?"

"Nah, I need to buy one of those next," he answered.

"What filter size does your lens take?" I asked, seeing already that it was likely the same as mine. Once we confirmed it was the same size, I offered him my 6-stop ND filter (some technical discussion in this blog and another blog it links to) to try shooting some silky water pics. He enjoyed capturing several frames and then passed the filter back to me. Well, if he got some Amazon gift certificates for Christmas, I know one thing he might want to buy now. 😅 There's an old saying, "If you want to keep your kids away from drugs, get them interested in photography. Then they'll never have money left for drugs!" 🤣

Update: On the way back up we saw an amazing sight— climbers rappelling down the face of Empress Falls!

I've seen a few articles in my newsfeed today that cigarette smoking is down and marijuana use is up in the US... so much so that the latter now outnumbers the former. Rather than cite the articles here I figured I'd go the the source. The source is a Gallup publication, "Americans and the Future of Cigarettes, Marijuana, Alcohol" published 26 Aug 2022 from a poll conducted in July. I read that study and the more detailed breakouts it links to. (Yes, I just cited primary source documents to support my opinion online. That's how I roll!)

One Gallup survey question was, "Have you, yourself, smoked any cigarettes in the past week?" A record low of 11% answered yes. That's a big drop from 16% a year earlier and rates of 40%+ five decades ago.

Some news articles reporting this Gallup release cross reference it with another recent publication, "Global Smoking Report" from NiceRx, to show how smoking rates vary by state within the US. (It's not a primary source, per se, but it does disclose its methods and sources— which include the World Health Organization and Our World In Data.) This report finds that, globally, the smoking rate is 22.3%. Within the US it breaks down smoking rates by state. The smokiest state is West Virginia, with a smoking rate of nearly 24%. Kentucky is only a hair behind at #2. The least smoky state is Utah, at 7.9%. Gotta love the Mormon faith that abjures alcohol, tobacco, and even caffeine! The second least smoky state is California, with a smoker rate of 10%.

Back to the Gallup poll and the headline about pot use overtaking cigs. While cigarette smoking has dropped to 11%, the same survey found that 16% have used marijuana recently. And that's despite marijuana being not only illegal at the federal level but also classified as a Schedule I drug— nominally the most dangerous and addictive drugs, with a "high potential for abuse". 🙄 I'm not a marijuana advocate, but there's no medical evidence pot belongs in the same category as heroin. I mean, even fentanyl, about which there's been much wailing and gnashing of teeth the past several years for its highly addictive nature and mortal danger, is only a Schedule II drug (primary source document again).