Eureka, CA Mother and Son Love Their Drugs!

If a family duo is arrested in Eureka, CA you can bet it either has to do with prostitution or drugs.  This time, as reported here by the Times-Standard, it was drugs.  GerriAnne Schulze and her son, Damon Patrick Wright, were busted in their motel room with items typically used for drug consumption and sales.  The article even cites "meth pipes."  Why this even made the news is beyond me since when it comes to Humboldt, drug use never falls far from the tree.

I'm a firm supporter of the legalization of all drugs.  I don't care what someone puts into their body.  If they are breaking into people's cars to feed their addiction, then I care.  Otherwise, I think legalization puts people on the recovery track and frees up resources to fight other crime (like white collar crime that led to our financial meltdown).  Yes, drugs are insidious, addictive and are far from good from you, but so is Pepsi.  Of course, I don't know the last time someone prostituted themselves for a 2 liter, but some things are more addictive than others.

Eureka, as is most of Humboldt (at least until harvest season) is a depressed economy.  The blight we see in Eureka is partially the result of this depressed economy.  Fishing is about dead.  Logging is dead.  Nothing has replaced those things.  (Not saying they should come back in full force, either, but the economy is an ecology in and of itself, too.  Take one thing away and it must be replaced or the imbalance becomes too great.)  When the economy fails, people do what they can to make money.  That's capitalism!  They will fill a need.  Drugs are profitable.  Just ask the makers of Viagra, a legal drug (such distinctions mean little to me).  This mother and son team filled a need.  It's not how I would make a living, but it is so common here in Eureka that I'm surprised it warrants a mention even in the terror-filled Times-Standard.  (Almost every day you can read some AP piece of horrible child sexual abuse or murder.  It's almost like those Mexican death magazines.)

Humboldt has many newsworthy things happening every day.  Familial drug dealers is not one of them.  Taken out of context, with no background, this story just feels exploitive.  There was no delving into the duo's past.  No mention of what brought the police to the motel room initially.  Nothing other than the facts.  In this case, the facts are no different than what goes on every day in motel rooms throughout the county.  What the paper thought was special was that was a mother and son team.  What those of us who keep our eyes open know, is that the only thing different about this one is that they got caught.