Charging drug dealers for manslaughter? What are you thinking?
The people selling the drugs are usually the same people using them – Addicts. Anyone who knows an addict knows nothing will stop them. Do you think that making the consequences graver will help? The angry parents of lost souls are lashing out, and we get it this disease is evil and it hurts the ones we love most. The loss of a loved one is unbearable, but let’s look at this rationally. The Florida senate approved SB 150, by a 7-0 vote, meaning selling scheduled I controlled substances could = manslaughter. Guess what! This new law isn’t going to deter addicts from selling drugs, because they don’t care about consequences.
“Addicts are going to be less likely to call police now during an overdose, because even more fear of getting arrested. In GA there is a law where if you call 911, because someone overdosed, the officers on site can’t lock you up if you’re high or in possession of dope for personal use. The reason they did this is because they realized that it will help save lives and encourage people to get police involved during an overdose. Even with this law it is hard to get people to call when it happens because they are scared. While other states like GA try to do everything they can to save the lives of people that suffer with addiction, FL wants to penalize them.” Quoted from Bob Moheb and addictions professional and a long-term member of recovery.
Drug dealers are still going to sell drugs regardless, and we are going to be putting more people in jail. Putting people in jail cost the tax payer more money while making big businesses rich. The amount of people in prisons is already an issue in itself. The united states has the largest incarceration rate in the world. Our prison system is still based on the same principles that made slavery legal after it was illegal. The broader definitions of crime results in more free labor or “nearly free” under the U.S prison system. We put people in prison for non violent crimes for 25-life and then have them work for free. And in case you don’t believe me “The Thirteenth Amendment (Amendment XIII) to the United States Constitution abolished slavery and involuntary servitude, except as punishment for a crime. In Congress, it was passed by the Senate on April 8, 1864, and by the House on January 31, 1865″. ”Ratified at the end of the Civil War, the amendment abolished slavery, with one critical exception: Slavery and involuntary servitude actually remain lawful “as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted.” In other words, according to this so-called punishment clause, if you get pulled over with the wrong controlled substance in your trunk, there’s nothing in the 13th Amendment to ensure you can’t be considered a slave of the state.” (Reference) To learn more click here or here, and if you wanna see a list of companies that profit from our prison system click here. We were fed this thought that “putting the people who provided our loved one a substance in jail will make it better”, but the person selling could easily be the person who lost their life. More Jail = more taxes and less members of 12 step programs. The addict isn’t going to get treated in jail, and your loved one will be behind bars instead of trying to get better.
Here’s a thought, we wanna stop all these overdoses right? What if drugs were legal so when an addict goes to buy them they know it’s clean heroin not fentanyl ? Would that help end all these deaths, and if it was legal wouldn’t that hinder the illegal market and the violence that goes with it? I know some of you are wondering “what’s wrong with this person she’s talking about a serious drug how could we make that legal?” Well, I guess the questions is does making a drug legal change the perception of it ? Will more people use it if it’s legal, and I think we all know the answer. Just think about prohibition, the use rate increased. There’s something about wanting what we can’t have, it makes us want it even more. So let them have it we are already in a state of emergency !
It’s peculiar how people operate, no action gets taken until everyone’s in a state of emergency, and then no one can think clearly. The people were putting in jail aren’t the ones guilty of manslaughter. The chain of command with selling drugs looks a little like this: We need poppy seeds to make opiates, and most people believe the drugs are being grown in Mexico, but poppy doesn’t grow in Mexico, actually, according to the United Nations, Afghanistan provides 90 percent of the world’s supply of opium- poppy. Poppy is cooked into morphine base, and then cooked again with other chemicals to create heroin, that ships out at quantities of 20-100 kilos. Someone than distributes it at 1 kilo increments valued at 100,000$, and the chain of command continues down to the person who gets charged with manslaughter for distributing a 10$ bag. The amount of hands in-between that kilo and 1 gram raises the question “how do they know its been cut (a term defined as mixing drugs with other substances) and how many times has fentanyl been added to it?” People working the streets have no idea what’s in the stuff their selling, and they’re the ones that will be serving the time. Seems a little messed up right? We are depriving this person who is probably an addict a chance at sobriety, and a chance to save even more lives. Just so you get the idea I had some anonymous people share their experience.
“My addiction began after I saw the doctor for having back pain. The doctor immediately put me on narcotics. As I went back for check ups he continued to raise my dose and I ended up on roxicodone and oxymorphone. By this point I was addicted to the pain pills, and would get sick if I stopped taking them. The pills were very expensive and I started using heroin because it gave me the same feeling and took away the pain. I started selling the pills the doctor prescribed me because they weren’t working anymore, and the heroin was doing a better job. I would sell all my pills to just have the cash to buy heroin. I never pictured myself being an addict or selling drugs to other people to supply my habit. Looking back on everything now that I’m sober since 5/15/15 I should have never been prescribed that high of dose of narcotics for back pain, but I was. I was a junkie doing whatever I needed to do get my fix.
I don’t know how the pills were made and couldn’t make them myself. I think they should take a look at everything else aka the doctors and the laws to prescribe certain medications because a lot of this heroin epidemic could be solved. Most heroin addicts began at the point of taking pain pills and found out heroin was cheaper. Instead of charging people who have a disease with manslaughter, how could we all come together to help these people and show them that there is a better life in recovery. To me I feel I think its all a money scheme from the government. They make money from the doctors who prescribe these meds, they make money by busting people on the street, or they make money from people going to treatment. There is other ways to get out on the streets and help clean them up other than charging people with manslaughter.”
-Anonymous
“I started selling drugs when I was 16 in Camden NJ. My close friend had an uncle that cooked crack and cut dope, and since we were already around it a lot he brought us on. By the time I was 17 I was pulling overnight shifts on a few blocks and the stuff sold itself. I’ve seen crack cooked A LOT. The methodical process of it always fascinated me. Since I was involved with my friends family, I was directly getting the work from the supplier and pushing it that way. For every $500 I sold I kept $200. I would hit that mark a couple times in a shift. As far as charging dealers with manslaughter I mean, I’m all for it when it comes to heroin. If there’s a way to even prove who sold the person the work that killed them, then by all means that person should be charged. I knew what I was selling could potentially kill people. Multiple. And its something that still haunts me to this day every single night. I try to push it in the back of my mind that I could be responsible in way for deaths, but its always there.
-Anonymous
Question: So can you explain the chain of command that gets the “work” to the person who ODs . If we charge the person who sells to the user do u think they would know there is fentanyl in it?
“Most of the time only the person cutting the dope would know whats in it. I personally was never present when the dope was cut and was always told it was never cut which I knew was a lie. Or it would be cut with vitamins that blend with it.”
Question: So u think it’s okay to charge people manslaughter if they don’t know what’s cut in it?
“I think that if you’re selling dope you know deep down its going to be cut with something. And these days its most likely fentanyl. So in my opinion now that I have a clear head and have been clean for some time, I’m not against charging with manslaughter.”
Question: But do u think you would of gotten clean if that were the case? Did u ever get arrested ?
“I’ve been arrested but never for selling anything. I had a gun charge and assault case. But honestly no, I never would have gotten clean If I was charged for selling.”
Statement: My concern is we are just going to be making private prisons more money and charging tax payers more money and not helping anyone get clean
“You’re absolutely right now that you put It that way. I didn’t think about that. I guess it was more of turning a blind eye to the situation. Like I used during the time and I could tell it was cut with something like fentanyl and still tried to convince myself it wasn’t.”
Yea that’s a good example for the justification of addiction for ya.
