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Barry Cooper
Barry Cooper -Top Texas Cop Turned Cannabis Activist - July 19, 2013
On the 5th of September 1990, Gladewater Texas hired a Man who would become one of the most prolific anti-drug warriors the state of Texas ever saw: Barry Cooper.
A self starter and get things done kind of guy, Barry before his retirement from law enforcement, racked up over 300 felony narcotics arrests, along with 500 misdemeanor narcotics arrest, the seizure of more than 50 vehicles and millions in cash and other assets.
Barrys career began as a dispatcher for Gladewater but in very short time he was hired by the Big Sandy Tx. dept and trained his own narcotics detection K-9.
Despite the fact that Barry only had 5 miles of highway to patrol, he set seizure records and made over 100 narcotics arrests in his short stint there.
Barry's performance led to his hiring by the prestigious “Permean Basin Drug Task Force” in West Texas where he was involved in joint operations with the ATF, the DEA, the FBI, the Military and the Border Patrol.
Barry's skill at interdicting drugs was so valuable he was sought out to instruct other departments and police academies in methodology.
The standard deal was the agency would pay for 3 days wages plus expenses, with one of the days being an eight hour shift with Barry demonstrating his interdiction skills. If Barry failed to make a narcotics arrest, the seminar was free.
Barry never did a free seminar...
Somewhere during this eight year career as a drug war superstar Barry was transformed. In his own words it was an internal battle:
“My parents, the public schools and the churches taught me any person who used drugs is evil and deserves to be harshly punished. At times, I could feel I was doing something wrong but the brainwashing of antidrug propaganda, my addiction to adrenaline and my need for peer acceptance overrode my good conscience.”
Law enforcement can be very political in nature and Texas is no different. After arresting the Mayors son for possession of methamphetamine and a city councilman for marijuana possession along with outperforming the DEA, the political pressures helped Barry in his conversion to sanity and he quit law enforcement.
To atone for what he had come to believe was not protecting and serving but brutalizing and bullying, Barry created the “Never Get Busted” series of DvD’s to help make sure people know how to avoid the kind of trouble that people like he was, can bring on a citizen.
Since that time along with his wife Candi, Barry has been as vociferous a freedom fighter as he ever was as a drug warrior. Along with the “Never Get Busted” Series, Barry also ran a TV reality show and sting known as “Kop Busters” and developed evidence of corruption against the Odessa Tx police force resulting in the release of Yolanda Madden, a mother of two who had been framed into prison on planted drug evidence allegedly by the same police force.
Barry and his family suffered a lot of retaliation for those actions and Barry has had many unusual encounters with law enforcement since his change of heart.
Encounters like being arrested for a late video rental return! There is a saying, I am not sure where it comes from but it goes like this “You never know someones character until it costs them something to do the right thing.”
Barry Cooper does the right thing no matter what side he is on but now that he is on the “right” one... you stand a lot better chance of not going to jail for drugs, especially if you take his advice.
