Mystery solved! Mike Pence canceled his visit to a New Hampshire drug treatment center because an official there was a drug dealer.

Air Force Two. Politico/AP.

Vice President Mike Pence canceled a visit to a New Hampshire drug treatment center because one of the officials there was a drug dealer. Politico. Jeff Hatch worked at the drug treatment center but has plead guilty to transporting more than $100,000 worth of the deadly drug fentanyl from Massachusetts to New Hampshire. Hatch has been a public speaker for years, warning children about the dangers of drug addiction. Hatch plead guilty to using a telephone to commit a crime and was apparently a government witness against other drug dealers. Hatch was immediately fired by the Granite Recovery Center after the story broke. 

My Comment:

This story had set off a spate of speculation and theories when it originally happened. People thought it might have been related to the Epstein scandal, or the accident that sunk a Russian submarine. It was even speculated that there was some kind of plot against Vice President Pence and that his life would have been in danger if he want to New Hampshire. And some even believed that Pence himself would be fired or not allowed to run for VP in 2020.

None of that was true (though I bet some people will wish to believe otherwise). It was a much more mundane case of a criminal scandal that would likely blow up on the Vice President if he had appeared with a convicted drug dealer. It's a fairly big story in itself even without Mike Pence but it's not as big as it had been speculated to be. 

Mike Pence would have been very embarrassed to have pictures of himself out there shaking Jeff Hatch's hand. The media would have had a field day attacking Pence for having his anti-drug event go so wrong. It would have been a minor political scandal for a VP that has largely avoided the spotlight.

The actual crime itself was fairly sickening. Having a person working at a drug treatment center selling drugs is just disgusting. Hatch was supposed to be getting people in New Hampshire clean but was at the same time providing some of the very drugs that cause people to go to addiction clinics in the first place. 

It was especially significant that he was selling fentanyl. Fentanyl is a very addictive and dangerous opiate which is responsible for many deaths from overdoses. It is even deadly to handle and there have been cases were first responders or police officers have been poisoned just from being exposed to the drug. It's one of the worst drugs ever created and is a major contributor to the opiate crisis that has devastated middle America. 

All in all, this story was kind of a bust. That being said, it did accomplish Mike Pence's goal, which was to expose how dangerous and deadly the drug crisis is. It did that in spades and even showed that our drug treatment facilities are vulnerable.