UNC student cleared of methamphetamine trafficking charges

CORRECTION: The original incident report for the drug violation stated that police responded to an incident of methamphetamine trafficking. The police now say that the arrest report for Alexander Joustra should have stated that the incident involved trafficking MDMA, more commonly known as ecstasy. Police later determined that the substance under investigation was mephedrone. The Daily Tar Heel apologizes for the error.

Although his charges have been dropped, UNC student Christopher Potts is still reeling from the consequences of being falsely accused of possessing methamphetamine.

He failed the latest semester of classes because he missed his exams and was nearly kicked out of the University.

He lost his job at the local Bank of America parking deck.

He spent three weeks in the Orange County Jail, even though the drug he was in possession of — mephedrone — is legal in North Carolina.

But that won’t be the case for much longer.

“There was a lot of guns being pointed at me, and I was kind of mad,” Potts said. “The package should have had a data sheet in it that said what it was.”

Mephedrone, also known by the slang term “meow-meow,” is a synthetic stimulant that produces effects similar to methamphetamine or cocaine.

Effective June 1, mephedrone and other synthetic drugs including fake forms of marijuana will become illegal in the state.

Potts and his housemate Alexander Joustra were arrested April 18 by Chapel Hill police after U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials intercepted mephedrone the men ordered from Tanzania.

A Chapel Hill police officer posed as a FedEx delivery person, and Potts and Joustra were arrested after they retrieved the package.

The men were charged with trafficking methamphetamine and possession with intent to sell and distribute the drug.

Lt. Jabe Hunter, who works in the Chapel Hill Police Department narcotics division, wrote in an email that a false field test led officers to mistake the mephedrone for a kilogram of methamphetamine.

“After the delivery and arrest, we got a better look at the substance and had our suspicions on what the substance might be based on its appearance,” Hunter wrote.

Potts and Joustra were released from jail May 9 after rushed state lab results revealed the substance’s identity.

“One morning they came and got me and said charges was dismissed,” Potts said. “They wrote me a check for the money I came in with, and they sent me out the door.”

Hunter said even though mephedrone is legal in the state, it is a schedule I controlled substance under federal law.

Because of this, immigration and customs agents are following up on the case and federal charges against Potts and Joustra are still possible, Hunter said.

State Sen. Wesley Meredith, R-Bladen, co-sponsor of the bill banning mephedrone and other synthetic drugs, said the level of abuse the drug is seeing sparked renewed interest in passing a law against its use.

Meredith said a similar attempt to ban the drug failed two years ago.

“That drug is being abused on a regular basis, and it needed to have more regulation so we could rein in the use of it,” he said.

“It’s being used for a lot of unintended purposes.”

Potts said when he returned to his hometown of Grover after being released, he found mephedrone being sold as bath salts in a head shop half a mile from his house.

“I’m mad that they knew what it was, and they kept me locked up for three weeks,” Potts said. “I’m mad at the way the whole thing was handled.”

Hunter offered caution to anyone using mephedrone since the drug is not being regulated.

“Who knows what the people are putting in it? And there are no long-term studies on its effect on the body,” Hunter said.

Contact the City Editor at city@dailytarheel.com.