NORFOLK
For six years, Adam Slator Blackiston lived in hiding at a seaside paradise in Costa Rica.
After being a marijuana dealer for more than eight years in Virginia Beach, he tried to reverse course, living a clean life and helping authorities in the Central American nation ferret out drug dealers.
He even helped a U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agent in Costa Rica, at the same time he was wanted in Norfolk on federal drug charges.
It nearly cost him his life. There were so many attempts made to kill him, he said police there put 16 spotlights on his home and he had to cut the hibiscus hedges around his house for a clear view of would-be assassins.
The DEA here finally caught up with Blackiston and had him extradited last year. He pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court to one count of cultivating and distributing marijuana. A federal judge on Monday sentenced Blackiston to nearly six years in prison.
A portrait of Blackiston's life emerged from Monday's hearing, other court records and interviews.
Blackiston, his attorney said, is an example of how drugs can touch families in any community from any tax bracket. His father was a Navy SEAL; his mother is a substance abuse counselor. Blackiston attended private schools and, according to court records and interviews, had enough wealth without having to sell drugs.
Blackiston had been selling marijuana since at least the early 1990s. He said the death of his father, who was killed in a SEAL parachute training exercise in France in 1984, had a profound impact on him that he would not understand for years to come.
Blackiston, now 37, was 12 at the time.
"I would look outward and not inward," he said in court Monday.
Drug use and dealing, he said, "gave me an escape from the pain. My soul can only be described as wandering."
As his drug operation grew, he began growing his own pot. A friend, someone he had frequently sold to, let Blackiston use his house to grow plants.
When Virginia Beach police finally learned of the operation and raided the house on Choctaw Court in 2002, they found 177 marijuana plants inside a garage, with grow lights, a scale and more than 66 pounds of marijuana that had been bought elsewhere, ready for distribution.
Authorities estimate that Blackiston was responsible for selling more than 220 pounds of marijuana from 1995 to 2002.
Upon hearing that his friend was arrested, Blackiston fled to Costa Rica. He bought a house in the area of Playa Hermosa, along the Pacific coast. He said he worked as a general contractor, learned Spanish, excelled at Brazilian jiujitsu, and began a spiritual and health awakening.
He said he had some knowledge of Costa Rican drug dealers and contacted the local police to offer his assistance. He told them he knew who the dealers were, and he even had information on a homicide.
"I spent a lot of time openly going to the police," he said. "I was making a conscious effort to leave the drug world for good."
Blackiston's attorney, Sonny Stallings, said it's not clear whether the assistance led to any arrests by the Costa Rican authorities. He said his client was clearly trying to make himself look good to the American authorities.
As word got out about his cooperation, attempts were made on his life. Blackiston did not go into details, but Stallings and the U.S. attorney's office did not dispute his story.
In 2007, Costa Rica finally put Blackiston in jail to await extradition. The process dragged on for about a year. Costa Rican authorities insisted the United States abide by the rules of an extradition treaty between the two countries.
The U.S. attorney's office had initially tried to seek an enhanced penalty for Blackiston based on evidence that he had also sold Ecstasy. But that would have violated the treaty because Blackiston was never officially charged with the crime. Prosecutors dropped their request for more prison time.
U.S. District Judge Robert G. Doumar, however, had little sympathy for Blackiston. He denied a request for leniency, after giving a 15-minute lecture on the dangers of drugs, tying together the history of the opium trade in China with the war in Iraq and the Blackiston case.
"We're now adopting the position that drugs aren't so bad and maybe should be legalized," he said. "But I consider that idiotic.
"I don't know where we're going, but I'm gonna tell you I'm not going to be a part of it."
Besides sending Blackiston to prison for 71 months, he also fined him $15,000. Doumar noted that Blackiston has $382,000 in assets, which includes a home in Costa Rica.
Tim McGlone, (757) 446-2343, tim.mcglone@pilotonline.com
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marlin
Bayside High School the worst int he city of Va Beach??? in 1986-1990?? I think not..
Marlin
I too knew him as well as you did. He's no saint! There was no reason for him to sell weed to make money.. He was getting plenty of it from the gov't. Yeah, his father died, no excuse. The family had money, he never went with out. They all inherited money from grandma, so he didnt pay for much. Plus the benifit of being military gives you a discounted education like his mother got. His mother knew he and his brother were doing drugs,and didn't care/...I could go on but , why? He is a real peach, yeah. As for you other morons. Let him sell weed to your little brother or sister..or better yet let him get your kid hooked on something othe than pot ,.. He ran , he broke the law, I guess he's paying Sonny with his drug money.. I know I can't afford a big time lawyer..Wake up
hometown boy got lost along the way
I knew this guy growing up. He has suffered in his life, like all of us, he attended one of the worst high schools in the city – not private school. He earned a college degree. This guy was not a punk, wearing gold chains, or acting like gangbangers hanging on street corner causing trouble. He sent his girlfriend to school, always helped someone in need, and generous with his money. He loved his brother, sister, mother, and most of all his grandparents. In Costa Rica he built a gym for the locals and created construction jobs, but most importantly lived a life of regret for his past deeds. I do hope there are no repercussions from publishing his willingness to turn other drug offenders in to the authorities in attempt to reduce the impact of his own crimes. It is not for us to judge. He is paying for his crimes, and if he is sincere in being a good human for the rest of his life…….then God will clear his path. We should pray for both him and for those both here and in Costa Rica whose lives his crimes and penance impact.
YOU KNOW WHAT....
...you should appeal!!!...and Doumar should retire...America...land of the free?...too many OLD thinkers in America who don't think.
pleeeeeeeeze tisme
I don't know about you or what you do, but in no way do you own this earth! It's mine too, & I don't mind sharing it, but obviously you think you're the supreme being here. How about walk on water or perform some other unearthly miracle before you claim the earth as your own. Remember, GOD made marijuana not man & I don't know of anything in the Bible that says we shouldn't enjoy what God has provided for us. Just go ahead & admit it you're an over-zealous hard case whom has no concern for others if they're not just like you. He may have @ one time been a drug dealer, but he wasn't now. He was even trying to rehabilitate himself, & for that you call him scum & want him off YOUR earth. The good thing about people are they can see the errors of their ways & make changes accordingly. So get a life & lighten up, better yet open your eyes to the possibilities & practice some forgiveness, it can & will set you free.
Enough of this "war on weed"!
As long as we have our courts and our legislatures run by hysterical right-wing geriatrics, we will continue to see people hunted down, and caged like animals, for nothing more than growing a plant that Big Brother condemned as the vegetative spawn of the devil back in the 30's.
I don't smoke, eat or inject any drugs, unless the DEA has put caffeine and aspirin on the list since the last time I looked.
I am for the complete legalization, and taxation of marijuana, as well as the unrestricted growth and use of regular hemp in place of corn for ethanol, as well as many other applications, currently using fossil oil in their chemistry.
The Police have a lot better things to do than chase after potheads and growers. When will we wake up, unshackle our Law Enforcement agencies, and set them loose on the real criminals in our Country?
What A Hypocrite
I have several friends in law enforcement who also agree pot should be legalized allowing time and resources to be spent on more serious drugs that can and do ruin lives. However, I am glad this guy will serve time because he is a hypocrite to make his fortune selling pot only to run off to Costa Rica an live off of all the money he made while trying to draw attention away from himself and make himself look good by turning in others doing the same thing. What goes around comes around.
Maybe its just me but this seams wrong.
So I am sitting here reading the news online and there is this story and right below it is this one "Nicholas B. Ford, 23, entered an Alford plea Monday to second-degree murder and weapon charges. The plea means that Ford does not admit guilt but acknowledges prosecutors have enough evidence to convict him. He will serve a maximum of 10 years under the terms of his plea agreement, and is scheduled to be sentenced in September." Now maybe its just me but this man only got three more years for KILLING SOME ONE!!!!!!! May be we should think about making some changes in the system!
Tell It to the warden
Good riddance and have a nice time in prison. Oh, and while your at it try to take time and imagine how many lives you ruined when selling your dope. Then you can feel sorry for yourself. I sure don’t.
Unfortunately,,,
do the crime...do the time. It's a case by case basis. I can't feel emotional for someone that knowingly breaks the law, this guy knew what he was doing the whole 20 years. It was just a matter of time...I wonder what he'll do after the six years in the pen are "up in smoke"...?
Well, on to another day of freedom...it is, what it is.
Will of the People
"We're now adopting the position that drugs aren't so bad and maybe should be legalized," he said. "But I consider that idiotic."
Judges and law enforcement need to stay within the bounds and enforce current laws and administer justic according the legislated guidelines. They should never ever try and prevent or weigh in on the populace trying to change the laws. We are a government of the people, by the people, and for the people. If the people want to change the rules, enforcement officials, and courts need to respect that will. Government efforts by the executive and judicial branches to prevent or counter legalization efforts by the populace are not within the bounds of their duties, which is strictly to administer the law.
pot grower
Too bad you people didn't live around this guy yu'd have a better understanding of the damage he ensued, and the lives he damaged. Maybe if it was your kid who got hooked on some drug because they started off smoking weed, you'd be singing a different tune. Do you thnk that was the only drug he was slinging?? How would you like your quiet little neighborhood infested with drug users driving in and out all the time.?? And don't you think his mother knew what was what? Why do you think she became a drug abuse counselor in the first place?? and on the governments dime too. Believe me, there was more than 1 user in that house. You people need to wake the hell up and think.
He didn't need the money then as a child and he owned a resort in Costa Rica as an adult. Little things that the media don't include.
The number of drug deaths in
The number of drug deaths in the US in a typical year is as follows:
Tobacco kills about 390,000.
Alcohol kills about 80,000.
Sidestream smoke from tobacco kills about 50,000.
Cocaine kills about 2,200.
Heroin kills about 2,000.
Aspirin kills about 2,000.
***Marijuana kills 0. There has never been a recorded death due to marijuana at any time in US history.***
All illegal drugs combined kill about 4,500 people per year, or about one percent of the number killed by alcohol and tobacco. Tobacco kills more people each year than all of the people killed by all of the illegal drugs in the last century.
(Source: NIDA Research Monographs)
Marijuana is harmless. It's people that are the problem.
Sooner or Later
Being in Law Enforcement I might be expected to feel no sympathy for this fellow. Just the opposite. Sooner or later the Government will wise up and legalize, or at least decriminalize this harmless plant. The sooner the better. That will give us more time, money, and resourses to focus on the serious stuff.
Got off easy!!
This man obviously has been a "drug" dealer for almost 20 years - not small time at all. He deserves more than 6 years... think of all the others affected over his long stint as a drug dealer... think of all the lives he ruined or negatively affected because of his greed for money. I'm sure many have ruined their lives and even died with their involvement with this guy... trickle effect over almost 20 years is unreal. So, don't feel sorry for this cat... he knew what he was doing and lived the life of Riley for 6 years in Costa Rica. This criminal wasn't servicing the sick for medicinal purposes - he was a street dealer who was big time. I'm quite sure he has been involved in the dealing of more potent drugs than marijuana. Looks to me like he took the coward approach and bailed on his country, friends and his family in order to avoid prison time. Well... you can't hide forever, and it always comes back around. Don't feel sorry for this man because I'm quite sure when he gets out of prison in <6years he will be living high on the hog again... probably a very bright businessman who knew they would finally catch up with him -- I'm sure he had plenty of time to make arrangemen
Get this scum off of my
Get this scum off of my earth!!!
MTT
The government could be making that kind of money taxing pot. I feel much safer knowing my cookies and chips will not be raided by him.
Why?
And we're having to build new prisons at $50,000 to $75,000 per inmate, per year so we can get this dangerous criminal off the street?
Guilty? Yep. Six years? Come on!
Spend my tax dollars putting gang leaders in prison and then I'll feel safer.
Ok, are we all feeling safer
Ok, are we all feeling safer now?
When is my generation going to band together and end this madness? We can do it. It's time to take the reins.
Next we will be lookin' for the boogeyman and spend billions looking. The result will be the same as prosecuting marijuana related 'crimes.'
Pot grower......
What a waste of tax dollars to lock someone up for growing pot, heck, it grows wild on the sides of the roads here.......please folks, wake up and see the light!! Pot is not going anywhere, its here to stay, we are already using it for medical purposes to boot. Your just wasting our money and time with non-violent people being locked up for years and years, it's pure stupidity. Should be putting these people in rehab or to work somewhere and monitored. We don't have enough room as is, nor money to house people like this.