What Do You Do if You Find a Big Bag of Crystal Meth in Your Backpack?

This article originally appeared on VICE UK.

What's the most surprising thing you've ever found at the bottom of your bag? Is the answer "rotten fruit"? The answer is definitely "rotten fruit" and not "several grams of crystal meth," unless you're my friend Gillian*, for whom, as of last week, the answer is "several grams of crystal meth."

Having never done crystal meth, she was quite perplexed by the whole thing. Why did she suddenly have several grams of it in her possession? Whose was it? Did they put it there on purpose? And just what the fuck are you supposed to do with hundreds of dollars worth of crystal meth if you're not the sort of person who enjoys taking crystal meth?

These aren't the sort of questions you tend to consider until, out of the blue, you have a lot of crystal meth thrust upon your person without your consent. I decided to sit down with Gillian and ask her a few of these questions in order to better understand the situation.

(*Not actually her name; just playing it safe.)

VICE: Hey Gillian. Congratulations, I guess? Or maybe not. How and when did you realize you were now the owner of several grams of crystal meth?
Gillian: I was getting ready for uni [a.k.a. "college"] on Thursday morning and had gone out the night before, so I was moving stuff over from my purse backpack into my uni backpack and I noticed there was a baggie of something at the bottom. I pulled it out and saw it was a huge amount of either meth or very pure MDMA—I wasn't sure at the time. I immediately started thinking when and where this might have shown up in my bag, but had no idea. I'd gone to a party on Saturday, but knew everyone there, and no one did meth—certainly not that much. I had to run to uni so I shoved the bag in my bedside drawer and figured I'd deal with it later.

You weren't sure initially if it was MDMA or meth—how did you conclude it was the latter?
I analyzed it and it was odorless, which MDMA usually isn't. It was also white and translucent, and usually MDMA has a yellowish tinge to it. It stayed pretty solid and there were relatively large chunks, so I figured it was probably meth. I know more people who do MDMA, but no one I know would buy that much or carry it with them so I figured it couldn't have been anyone's I knew, which also ruled out Saturday night. I went to my friend's after uni—she happens to be a criminal lawyer—and we looked up crystal meth, and that is exactly what it looks like.

It's hard to judge from the pictures, but it does look like there's more than a personal amount there. Do you know how much it weighed?
I'm not entirely sure. I wish I had a scale so I could measure it, but a kitchen scale wouldn't quite give the numbers I'd need. Based on pictures of amounts it looks like I had more than an eighth, possibly even a quarter… so around six or seven grams.

That's quite a lot of meth. I take it you weren't tempted to try some?
No! I mean, I had no idea what it was and no idea where I'd got it from, so no. I do have some friends who are a bit more adventurous, and I was considering getting them to try some and tell me what it was, but then I realized if I killed them I'd have a lot more problems on my hands.

Killing your friends can be quite problematic.
I was even scared of touching it in case, in some weird infomercial-type way, I forgot how to control my hands and arms and ended up taking a bunch.

It sounds like a pretty troubling situation to be in.
At first, I was a bit more relaxed about it, actually. I thought it was crazy, but pretty funny. I texted some people to see if they had accidentally lost a large amount of drugs, but no one had. Eventually, as I started to realize it was meth—and it was a large amount of it—I was getting more worried. What if I had entered a court accidentally with it? I sometimes go with my friend to court, and had recently been to one to fight a parking ticket, so it's not a completely crazy thought. What if I'd been stopped and searched? All the what ifs just kept going through my mind. There would be no way to justify it and no one would believe me that it wasn't mine.

I was also considering selling it to those adventurous friends to make some cash, but because it was such a large amount I would have got months in prison if anyone found out, which is not in my five year plan. Eventually I needed a couple of beers to calm down and then it became funny again. Like, how does this even happen?

That's a very good question. How did this happen?
I'd been in an area that's sort of known for meeting up with them, but it also has police trawling through, especially at night. This isn't certain, but I'm 99 percent sure this is what happened: a dealer was meeting up with someone, or someone had just purchased it, but then saw the police and had to get rid of it fast and found my backpack as the perfect place. Police can look through bins and can tie you to drugs if you just throw them out, so putting them on someone else is a better option. I do remember, at one point, my friend told me my backpack was open and she helped me snap it shut. It has two snaps so it's not easy to reach into and pull something out, but there are certainly openings where someone could stuff something in. I feel bad for the person who lost all that product. The day I found it, all day I just kept thinking, "Why couldn't this have just been weed?"That would have been awesome.

Yeah. Also, weed wouldn't have been as big a deal if you were caught with it. Walking around with several grams of meth, I wouldn't fancy your chances if you'd been caught with it. "It's not mine, honest!" is the oldest excuse in the book.
Oh for sure. I hate to say it, but I'm a young, white female student; my chances of being stopped are far lower than almost anyone else. Imagine someone had dropped it into the bag of someone exactly like me, a young student, but it was a man and he was black. When I think about that, I'm almost happier that it was me. My friend's dad is a judge and she was telling him about this, and he just said he would never believe it, and nor would a jury. There is literally no way to get out of that.

Did it change your mind about how the justice system treats drugs at all?
I mean, I already have pretty rigid views on police, the justice system, and certainly drug laws. I think, for the most part, drug laws are pretty stupid. I'd rather have a regulated market and tax it so the government can then also take care of those who have addiction issues. There are also class issues with drugs that I don't even want to get into now. Because of my lawyer friend, I'll hear a lot of awful stories of police brutality or arrests without suspicion or warrant. I hate the police, to be honest. Like I said, I'm pretty sure that was the reason for the drop—someone else was about to encounter the police.

The whole thing seems like it was a bit of a burden, to be honest.
Yes, in two ways. First, it was a burden to figure out what to do with it. Should I sell it and take advantage of this "opportunity," or flush it and get it out of my life and not risk anything else? But I also had the burden of thinking of whoever had to get rid of it. Were they a dealer who would get beaten up or worse because they lost this? Was it someone who had prostituted themselves for this and then had to ditch it? Clearly someone was missing a large amount of meth and I wished I could have just given it back to them. Held it safe for a bit and then given it back.

What did you end up doing with it in the end and why?
I decided to flush it, unfortunately. I mostly just wanted it out of my life, and selling it—even to close friends—was highly risky. Plus, I wouldn't have had someone to sell it all to, which would mean breaking it up into smaller amounts, and I have no idea how long I would have had to hold onto it for. Most of all, I find dealing just super inconvenient. The fact that it was crystal meth played a big factor. I probably would have done something different with cocaine or weed. There are enough people I know who would have bought those.

Any regrets?
It was sad hearing it fall into the toilet and watching it all swirl away. Oh, the money.

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