Doing Versus Buying

Obligatory statement that addiction is real and serious, and most drug use should be decriminalized if not necessarily entirely legalized, but 'the alcoholism made me do it' works for doing some of your buddy's coke at a party after a bender, it doesn't really work for 'having a dealer.'

A Drug Enforcement Administration official said Radel bought cocaine from an undercover agent in the city's Dupont Circle neighborhood on Oct. 29. Later that night, federal authorities went to his apartment and informed him that he would be facing criminal charges related to his purchase of cocaine.

The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release details of the case in his own name, said Radel was identified to authorities as a cocaine buyer by his suspected dealer. The dealer had been previously arrested as part of a separate drug investigation led by a federal task force.