Yeah, it's conceivable that LE might break the law during an investigation. The NSA is doing a lot of illegal shit. But I don't think it's standard practice for drug investigations. Distributing drugs carries a big liability, if people overdose and die. In all of the CDs I've heard about, they make sure to bust the person before he can get away or consume the drugs, and in sting operations they often use fake drugs. Purdue Pharma makes blank OC80's. They look just like the real thing, since they are made in the same presses, but contain no oxycodone. They provide these blanks as a "service" to LE and the community, to stop prescription drug abuse. LE will allow drug dealers to operate for months while conducting an investigation, because in that case the dealer carries the liability if someone is harmed. There's a difference between allowing someone to distribute drugs and distributing the drugs yourself. More importantly, I have never heard of a case where someone received real drugs from LE and was allowed to keep them, consume them, etc., and only later got busted. If anyone has evidence this happened, that an actual LE agent distributed real drugs, and not just a drug dealer under investigation, I'd love to see it.