Stoned Again In Pitkin County

Drugs (What Drugs?) Take Center Stage In Aspen

By Michael Conniff, 1-16-06

The elephant in the room is finally coming into the room with both feet Tuesday afternoon at 4 P.M. in Aspen. The room in question is in Aspen City Hall in front of the City Council, where local politicos will be holding a hearing to speak about the unspeakable—namely the notion that drug laws have to be enforced, even within the liberal if not always liberating confines of Aspen and greater Pitkin County.

That’s not really what they’re going to be talking about at all, to tell you the truth.

Most of the talk in front of City Council is likely to be about “community policing� and “communication� between the Aspen Police Department and the Pitkin County Sheriff’s Office. Aspen Police and federal drug officials had the temerity to bust a whole bunch of people in a pair of raids December 2, 2005, at Little Annie’s Eating House and Cooper Street Tavern, two heretofore sacrosanct eateries that embrace locals out front and were harboring cocaine in the kitchen. Police made ten arrests on drug charges and another eleven on immigration violations.

But Aspen Police Chief Loren Ryerson—oops!—just happened to forget to tell Pitkin County Sheriff Bob Braudis about the raids that were going down about three blocks from the Pitkin County Sheriff’s office—and no more than a block-and-a-half from Zele’s, which he favors for afternoon coffee with friends. To say the raids took place under the Sheriff’s nose would be to make an unfortunate and unintended reference.

The aforementioned elephant in City Council chambers Tuesday night is the well-known policy of the Pitkin County Sheriff’s Office to look the other way when it comes to recreational drugs. Put aside the tripe and that’s why Ryerson neglected to pick up the phone. The slight was intentional because of Braudis’s oft-repeated belief that drugs are a health concern and not a criminal matter. Worth noting is the fact that the Sheriff was a close friend of the late Dr. Hunter S. Thompson and will be the co-author of a forthcoming book about the Woody Creek writer famously associated with controlled substances. Also worth noting is the Sheriff’s untouchable status in Aspen: Aspen magazine just selected him one of its people of the year for just being Bob.

Even the local newspapers have noticed the problem won’t go away. The Aspen Daily News, notoriously friendly to Sheriff Braudis and his drug-friendly policy, stumbled upon a 13-page memorandum to City Council wherein Ryerson recommends that City Manager Steve Barwick approve any future raids—thereby undermining the Aspen Police Chief’s sworn authority to uphold the law. The Aspen Times Weekly, a complete stranger to controversy of any kind, told the long story Sunday of the history of drug raids gone awry in Aspen. Local columnists have universally supported Braudis over Ryerson and the Aspen Police Chief is still on the defensive for a drug raid that found drugs and hurt no one but the law-breakers.

So it goes in Aspen, where the fuzzy notion that drugs are really cool, man, somehow lingers on like the stench of a savory bong. Count on more talk from City Council Tuesday afternoon and absolutely no action against drugs once the elephant leaves the room.

Like this story? Get more! Sign up for our free newsletters.