My two arrests

First off, both of my arrests were trivial and I was a minor for both of 'em. This is important to remember. As Offspring says "If you're under 18 you won't be doin' any time....Come out and PLAY!!"

OK, a little background to show how naive I was about all this. I was 17. Working as a server at Friendly's. Not a glorious job, but it paid pretty well for a 17 year old. Anyway, while working there, I find out that co-worker's boyfriend is a drug dealer. I float the idea that I want to try weed. A few days later he shows up and asks me how much I want. I have no clue, I ask what's normal. Anyway, I give him 20 bucks, he leaves to get it. Comes back, tosses it to me, say's "It's grass". Well, OK, grass is slang for weed....I take it home and try to smoke it. No high. Big surprise. I'd never really seen weed before...turns out it was grass. Like the grass that grows in your front yard. Also, I've heard that pot doesn't affect you the first time, for some people. So I didn't really worry about it, and it took several months before I really thought about it and realized that I tried to smoke.....grass. Anyway, a few days later we try again, I explain my troubles, in that I have nothing to smoke it in, and don't know how to roll a joint. We go driving around smoking out of his bowl (essentially a pipe for smoking pot). Great time. I become a regular pothead, spending large amounts of money on the drug...

Fast forward a couple of months....I've developed the habit of being high whenever possible, and I'm also buying larger amounts of it....You get a 'discount' when you buy more at a time. Not a huge amount, still enough to be well within 'personal consumption' limits. Anyway, I like getting high alone, then playing computer games and/or listening to music. Escaping, and all that. One night, getting ready to go home from Game Parlor, my favorite haunt, I want to pack my bowl (I got my own) and smoke up on the way home. Paranoid about all the people in the parking lot, I drive around to the other side of the shopping center, and stop the car there. I do not, however, turn off the lights or the engine. I'm not really thinking about it, and am listening to music anyway. OK, I finish packing the bowl, ready to go. I shift into drive, ready to pull away. THE EVIL THIRD LIGHT OF DEATH APPEARS in my mirrors. I don't really know what it is, so I start to pull away. That's when the blue flashers turn on. Oh fuck.

Frantic, I hide the bag and bowl inside my shoe. I shoulda hid 'em in the car, not on my person, but you know, I was high and stuff. The cop comes over, asks for ID. This is a problem, I'd lost my license a couple of days before and didn't know where it was. I do give him the registration, but that doesn't do much good without ID. He asks me to step out. Obviously. The car reeks of mary jane. About 10 minutes go by, I'm confused. No sobriety tests, just me and him standing there, pretty much, him asking the occasional question. Oh, did I mention that this was a holding lot for a nearby car dealership? It's where they stored cars they couldn't fit in the lot. Row after row of new cars. That looks a bit suspicious, I'm sure. Finally, he has me empty my pockets. Small problem here, I've got about 10 bucks in change in my coat pocket. Looks like I've been stealing out of cars. I haven't, but that's how it looks. I know this. Anyway, he doesn't find the pot or bowl there because it's not in my pockets. I'm smart enough to know that. Then the bastard asks me to take off my shoes.

Fuck. Next thing is handcuffs, and I'm tossed in the back of the police car. He searches the rest of my car, finds my ID under the seat (I'd been stoned almost constantly for the last week, no real suprise, just embarrasment). Going through my backseat, he finds ANOTHER BAG OF WEED. I didn't know this was there. Incidentally, the first bag had cost me about $50, and I'd just bought it earlier that day. So all in all I lost my $40 bowl, and about $70 of weed. As well as being arrested, and all that. Takes all my cigarettes away, too. They're not easy to get if you're not 18. Then, after seeing my car towed, he gets in. The jackass hums and sings the whole way back to the station. This is just not cool. Scared kid in the back, this pig humming like all is well with the world. Anyway, it's easily 1:30/2:00am by the time the booking and stuff is done. Time to call the parents. At 2 in the morning. The station is about 40 minutes away from home. I sit there in a room all by myself, handcuffs still on. Anyway, lets just say the next few days at home were not plesant. At all. OK, that about does it for the first arrest, Parents take the car away and make me quit at Friendly's.

Fast forward about 7 months. I have a the car back, new job, this time at Factory Card Outlet, convieniently right next to Game Parlor. I can get off work and go play games :) I'm on a suspended license, only allowed to drive to and from work, so this is perfect. One night, we're working late. Some bigshot corporate guys are coming from the home office in Chicago to see the store. Me and two other people decide to work through the night to make the store look presentable. I plan on leaving around 2am, as I have to be back in to work at 9. Right before midnight, the assistant manager runs out to buy a six pack of Zima. I have a bottle, around midnight. Can't stand the stuff. Don't even finish the bottle. Around two, I leave to drive home. I'm going quite fast, seeing as I'm tired as hell. I want to go to bed.

Suddenly, blue lights behind me. Fuck again. Pull over, cop comes out and walks over....IT'S THE SAME GUY THAT ARRESTED ME THE FIRST TIME. No joke. He asks for ID and registration....I left my wallet in my other pants....So again, I have no ID. This is not good. Has me get out, perform sobriety tests. I'm not very co-ordinated, I'd have trouble doing them stone sober after a full nights sleep. Instead I'm tired and nervous as hell, shaking like crazy. Needless to say, I can't balance on one foot. He has me empty my pockets. For some insane reason that I will never be able to remember or understand, I put the bottle cap in my pocket. Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck. I take the brethalizer....0.007. Mind you, this is about 11 times below the legal limit for alcohol in the blood. But I'm not 21. The shaking has him convinced I'm on something else. My car is a mess. But he doesn't find anything else, nothing else to find. So finally, after seeing my car towed again, we go to the station. He gives me a blood test, he's CONVINCED I'm on something else. I really need a smoke, but since I'm not 18 he confiscates them too. Again.

Same deal, call parents in the wee hours of the morning to come get me. I permanently lose the car, have to quit, can't get to this job without the car. Screws my boss too, since he needed me there at 9. End of story.

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