This morning we have a sad story of a young man with limitless potential who is now heading to jail. Georgetown law student Marc Gersen was Phi Beta Kappa at Georgetown and a champion debater who secured a scholarship to study at the University of California, Berkeley. He then entered Georgetown law school and worked with prisoners in the D.C. jail. That work however may have been a bit too close. Gersen was arrested and accused of using a social network to sell methamphetamine.
Gerson, 31, was arrested selling methamphetamine outside Beacon Hotel in Northwest Washington. In his exchange with the court in his sentencing hearing, Gerson said that he was using the drugs himself and that his sideline as a drug dealer took over his life. He appears to have become addicted to drug while in graduate school at Berkeley and later began selling methamphetamine. While he earned a master’s degree in economics, he dropped out of the doctoral program.
He was arrested for felony possession of ecstasy in California in 2009 and then later charged again with drug possession in 2010. It is not clear if these arrests were disclosed to Georgetown.
While at Georgetown, Gerson went to California several times to purchase methamphetamine and worked with others to distribute the drugs. Then the operation collapsed during Thanksgiving when Gersen was back in Florida with his family. Gersen learned that D.C. police had searched the 18th Street apartment he shared with his then-roommate and co-conspirator, Michael Talon. They found a small amount of methamphetamine, packaging materials and chemicals used to manufacture the drug GHB. Gersen returned to D.C. and withdrew $70,000 in cash from a safe-deposit box and transferred it to his mother. It is not clear where his mother thought this money came from but she was not charged. Gersen however did not do the logical thing and stop his operation. Instead, police got a tip that he was dealing at the Beacon Hotel. Police found more than 500 grams of methamphetamine.
Louis Michael Seidman, a Georgetown professor, wrote to the court on Gersen’s behalf, asking the court for mercy for “an extraordinary young man who has made some extraordinary mistakes.”
Gersen will now go to jail for four years by U.S. District Judge Reggie B. Walton.
It is a sad case of wasted talent.
In terms of a different form of talent, the “Wingador” eating champ has been indicted on drug charges. Five-time wing-eating champion known as “El Wingador” has been indicted in New Jersey on cocaine distribution charges. William Simmons is charged with four counts of possession of a controlled dangerous substance and one count of manufacturing or distribution of more than a half ounce of cocaine.
Source: Washington Post
Dry drunks are more so…. But do is apt as well…
AY,
I’m interested to hear what you think.
Besides drugs and alcohol take the best of any addicts character…. No bd there is nothing much else to say….dry drunks are more do than sober drunks
Bd,
Is there really a need to respond to your post…. ?
AY,
So Gerson is a victim to be pitied? Such a mental giant could not find a legal or ethical means to success? He was ignorant that meth is addictive and hurts people? The argument is peer pressure and that society should be ashamed of itself?
Despite my disgust at drug dealers I acknowledge that our prohibition on drugs doesn’t work. I have long felt that marijuana should be legalized. There’s no logical argument for keeping it illegal. Any argument to keep it illegal could be used to advocate the criminalization of alcohol, which is no less a drug. I cringe at the thought of decriminalizing meth because it is so insidious but I find it difficult to come up with the logic for keeping any of these drugs illegal. Alcohol is insidious as well. It has harmed my family as has meth. Our war on drugs is simply not working.
The argument that decriminalizing a drug makes it easier for children to get is backwards. If pot were legal and sold in controlled venues, like alcohol beverage control licensed stores, then it would actually be harder for young people to get.
Legalization would not change the number of pot smokers who get behind the wheel. Legalization of alcohol did not keep drunk drivers off the road, did it?
The percentage of prisoners who are jailed for violent crimes is considerably higher for people who were under the influence of alcohol than it is for those who were under the influence of pot or for any other drug. That’s drug use, not drug sales. If you don’t believe me then find the stats yourself on DOJ’s website.
We need to start treating drug use and abuse as a health issue rather than as a crime issue.
One need only disclose on the law school application…. If not then its nearly impossible to get a license….. This is a sad story…. A mental giant taken down by a substance…. Because of societal pressure to succeed…..
Taking meth, even once, is stupid. Dealing meth is morally criminal, as is the making of the date rape drug. This guy got a good deal.
nick spinelli
1, February 1, 2013 at 6:04 pm
Actually, there are quite a few “upscale” meth dealers since it is the drug of choice for the gay community. Got to stay skinny if you’re gay, otherwise you’re in the lower caste.
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stay classy,bro
p.s. several motorcycle clubs are heavily invested in the meth trade. most wouldn’t qualify as being upscale, skinny, or gay.
and most gay people i know that use/have used drugs use pretty much the same as anybody else.
Nothing like an article like this to bring out all the pro drug types with all their idiotic rationales.
Apparantly it is not bad enough that 12 and 13 yo kids get access to and use achoholic drinks and then go on to wreck their lives. All other drugs should be legalised too so your children will have much easier access to them as well. Yeah. Good idea. The more wasted lives the better.
This guy is just another low life drug dealer who would not have cared one iota who he sold drugs to or what havoc they caused to the lives of people using them. There is nothing smart about this guy. He got addicted to drugs because he is a fool and then he sold them to make money just to prove that he is an even greater fool.
Meth is one nasty drug which requires little to get addicted and then wreck your life. So yeah. Lets make it legal. Morons.
Meanwhile, banks that launder many millions of blatantly obvious large scale drug profits do not suffer any legal consequences.