The
Jackson Walmart opened in 1985. At the time, my job required me to spend two or
three days a week in the Breathitt County seat, so I was a frequent shopper at
the new store. I typically went in to browse the newly-released records (yes,
vinyl was still the way most people purchased music back then) and check out
the fishing tackle.
After
taking another job a couple of years later, I didn’t have many opportunities to
shop there. That changed 11 years ago, when I returned to Jackson for work and
began making regular trips to the store for household supplies, toiletries, pet
food and other of life’s necessities.
It
wasn’t long before I began noticing some peculiar purchasing habits. People
would load up their shopping carts with cases and 12-packs of soft drinks. They
were buying more pop than even the thirstiest family could consume in a month,
so I thought maybe they were stocking up the concession stand for a youth
sports league, community organization fundraising effort or public event.
Then,
I observed a few other interesting things about this phenomenon. It always
seemed to occur shortly after the first of the month, and the purchasers were
buying all this pop with their SNAP cards, commonly known as food stamps. (I’m
old enough to remember when they were officially called food coupons). Also, I
started noticing that most of the purchasers had the tell-tale signs of being
drug users, particularly of prescription painkillers.
Eventually,
I learned what was going on. These people were using their government SNAP
benefits to buy large amounts of pop, and then reselling it for cash which they
use to buy drugs.
These
fraudsters originally sold their ill-gotten soda to small “mom-and-pop” stores,
because the proprietors of those businesses could buy it from the SNAPpers
cheaper than they could the beverage distributors. Lately, though, they’ve
bypassed the middleman and have started selling directly to consumers. I witnessed just such a transaction in
the Jackson Walmart parking lot a couple of years ago. Two women were loading
up the trunk of their car with 12-packs of pop when a man approached them.
Money changed hands, and the man walked away with two 12-packs.
This
practice causes feelings to run high in the areas where it’s rampant. A
Lexington television station has dubbed this “the pop train” and did an
investigative story last year. Reactions were varied. Some complained that
people should do whatever they want with their SNAP benefits, and others have
no right to complain. Many are outraged that their tax dollars are going to
support illegal drug abuse.
What
can be done? It will literally take an Act of Congress to make any changes to
the SNAP program. It’s a federally funded program, administered by the states
for the federal Department of Agriculture. States cannot exclude certain items
from being purchased. Minnesota tried years ago but that effort was shot down
by the feds.
Should
the feds try to remove pop from the list of eligible items, we can expect a cry
of outrage from the left. “Poor people don’t get to enjoy many things in life.
How dare we further oppress them by not letting them buy soft drinks?”
Some
claim that people are doing this not to fund their drug habits, but to raise
funds for other household expenses. It’s plausible, but not very likely, as
there are assistance programs for everything from landline and wireless
telephone service to electricity. Besides, when the perpetrators have the
unmistakable signs of drug abusers, that explanation becomes less likely.
The
best solution is to institute some kind of quota system. Since the SNAP cards
are part of an EBT system, it should be easy to track the amount of pop that’s
bought with one card and to disallow purchases beyond a reasonable amount for
personal household consumption. Once upon a time, at the first of each month,
the Jackson Walmart used to post a store limit on the amount of pop that could
be purchased, but they’ve abandoned that practice.
The
resale of items bought with food stamps is considered to be fraud, and at least
one law enforcement agency is doing something about it. The Hazard Police
Department is using a grant to fund an investigation. They’ve secured several
indictments and it will be interesting to watch those cases go through the
court system. Meanwhile, according to a Courier-Journal story last week, the
federal government has notified the state that rampant food stamp fraud in
Kentucky threatens the state’s funding to administer the program.
I’ve
always been infuriated at this fraudulent practice. My budget is already
stretched thin, and given the amount of my paycheck that the government gets in
taxes, I want those dollars to be spent as prudently and wisely as possible.
Plus, I’ve always been an outspoken opponent of drug abuse. So I’m doubly
outraged to see my tax dollars stolen and then used to buy drugs. I hope
something can be done to stop this wasteful, abusive and criminal practice.
