Friday morning, a few days before the Maryland presidential primary, and I'm a little grumpy. I'm not getting what I wanted. It's a lovely day, and my plans had included catching up with Kal Penn, the young actor from the Harold & Kumar film and the TV show House, as he campaigned for Barack Obama among college students here. I had imagined an inspiring atmosphere - youth, energy, humor, hope - all good stuff seldom real in an election year.

Instead, I have jury duty.

I have been picked to be on a jury - a personal first in 20 years of summonses.

And it's a dope case.

So I sit among my peers in a courtroom with high ceilings, grand windows and an oil painting of a dead judge who looked like Teddy Roosevelt.

Instead of Kumar for Obama at Hopkins, I get State of Maryland v. Joseph Holdaway in the Circuit Court for Baltimore City, Room 464.

This Mr. Holdaway is 20 years old. He is not a city kid. He is from Harford County. He has a shaved head, some tats, and for his court appearance he chose long-sleeved polo and baggie trou.

He is accused of having been transported to the 2700 block of E. Preston St., a notorious open-air drug market, on the fourth day of January for the purpose of purchasing a controlled dangerous substance, to wit, heroin, also known by various brand names (Killer B's, Dinky, Strong As Steel, 911, Spiderman).

Heroin is the predominant, multigenerational narcotic in Baltimore. Thousands of men and women are addicted to it. Over the years, thousands have died from gunfire related to heroin commerce, and from overdoses, and from infections and diseases related to the use of syringes for its injection. Heroin is one of the things that keep the city from attaining greatness. It is one of the things worthy of civic hatred.

It is still illegal to possess heroin.

This is why Mr. Holdaway was arrested during lunch hour on Jan. 4 by Duane A. Weston and James E. McShane, young police officers of Baltimore's violent and drug-infested Eastern District.

In court, Weston apologizes to the judge, Emanuel E. Brown, and to the jury for his appearance. He's wearing a hooded work jacket because he's on duty. He's a plainclothes cop who has made hundreds of drug arrests. Same with McShane. In just three years, they've become experts in drug trafficking.

When Weston and McShane saw a black car driven by a white female, with a white male passenger, pull up to a sidewalk on Jan. 4, they suspected something.

Their suspicions were confirmed when a black male approached from an alley and handed something through the passenger-side window to the white male.

Weston and McShane followed the black car to a red light, where they performed a legal traffic stop. As they were doing this, they noticed the white male passenger squirm, lean back and hand something to the driver.

Weston and McShane summoned a female officer to perform a search of the female driver. The female officer found a plastic sandwich bag with 10 gel caps of a white substance that, testing later showed, was heroin.

The whole time I'm sitting here, wondering what you're probably wondering: This is a misdemeanor; why are we having a trial? What's Mr. Holdaway's defense?

The defense goes like this: Weston and McShane made mistakes in the handling of the evidence. One said there were nine gel caps, when there were 10; and the official criminal complaint number on the various documents associated with the case was off by a digit.

I listen, reflect and think: Is that all you got?

I missed Kumar and Obama for this?

My fellow citizens - the 11 other jurors and two alternates - sat in this courthouse all day Thursday, then through a two-hour voir dire, and have come back for 4 1/2 hours of testimony and closing arguments because the cops made minor errors on paperwork?

The state admitted these mistakes from the outset and explained them. So did Weston and McShane. A police property number, used to identify the evidence from its seizure to its testing to its release for court Friday morning, was consistent all the way through.

While the defense made a good effort to raise doubts - and this carried into deliberations for about 30 minutes, where three jurors expressed concern about the conflicts - it was not enough to negate the state's case.

Mr. Holdaway was in a car in a drug neighborhood, and he took something through the window and it turned out to be heroin, and the law says that's possession.

We found the guy guilty.

While I had done my duty as a citizen, it bothers me that precious time and treasure is spent on this. I don't support the decriminalization of heroin, but it's a waste that valuable resources go into the prosecution and defense of such cases. I don't know if Mr. Holdaway does dope, but if so, the state would be better off sending him to a hospital instead of jail.

Of course, I doubt Mr. Holdaway will see either hospital or jail. He's likely to be roaming the good earth soon, if not already. Do us a favor, Baggie Trou: Take care of yourself, and stay away from Baltimore for a while. We, its citizens, would appreciate that.

dan.rodricks@baltsun.com