Shocking: a white collar criminal had a “drug-abuse” record, and a teenage alcoholic remembers little of his escapades. Classic quotes of the month.
Quotes of the month:
“Inside Trader At Nasdaq Had Drug-Abuse Record”—Headline of a June 10, 2011 story in The Wall Street Journal on Donald Johnson, who pleaded guilty to a criminal charge of insider trading, raking in $750,000 in illegal gains while working at Nasdaq’s market intelligence desk. No surprise to those who know that where misbehaviors of either the blue or white collar variety are evident, alcohol or other-drug addiction will usually be found, Mr. Johnson was discharged from the U.S. Army Reserves in 1986 for stealing narcotics and using them while stationed in an Army hospital. Within a year, at a private hospital, he faked medical records 73 times in less than a month to get drugs for his own use and subsequently had his nursing license revoked.
In the same story in describing his illegal conduct, Donald Johnson told people close to him, “There was ‘no good reason’ for the illegal trades;” after all, his job paid $300,000 per year. There may be no good reason, but the explanation that he relapsed and he was doing what addicts do—inflating his ego by flouting rules as if he were invincible and seeing what he could get away with—will suffice.
“The teen says he’s sorry for what happened. He told a judge he was under the influence of alcohol and doesn’t remember much of it.” So explained a 17-year-old Ohio teen after leading authorities on a 50-mile three-county chase in a stolen dump truck, during which he struck numerous other vehicles, including police cars. While many may not believe him, the addiction-aware know better: he may well have been in a blackout, during which time events don’t enter the memory banks, leaving nothing to remember. By pure dumb luck, there were no deaths to not remember.