Florida Man Allegedly Asked Police to Test Illegal Drugs

Police officers in Florida and around the country often hear strange questions from members of the public. However, the request allegedly made by a 49-year-old Hawthorne resident to deputies from the Putnam County Sheriff’s Office on June 12 was unusual even by law enforcement standards. According to a PCSO social media post, the man told deputies that he wanted to press charges against the drug dealer he believed had sold him fake methamphetamine.

The deputies say that they responded to the strange telephone request by asking the man to bring the suspicious methamphetamine in for testing. The man is said to have told deputies that he came to the conclusion that he had been duped after reacting badly to drugs that he had purchased a week earlier. According to reports, the man then drove to a PCSO facility and handed a plastic bag containing a clear crystalline substance to deputies.

Laboratory tests are said to have revealed that the man had, in fact, purchased methamphetamine. After testing had been completed, the man was taken into custody on drug charges and transferred to the Putnam County Jail for processing. Media accounts do not reveal if the drug dealer who allegedly sold the man the drugs has also been charged.

Experienced criminal defense attorneys would likely urge individuals who may have committed crimes to consult with a lawyer before speaking with law enforcement about matters that could lead to a long custodial sentence. Police officers are permitted to use deception to elicit compromising information, and they rarely give suspects the benefit of the doubt when dangerous illegal drugs are involved. However, attorneys could seek to have drug charges dismissed when their clients may have been entrapped into committing a crime.