METH AND BADNESS

Sandra Bergen was introduced to crystal meth at the age of 13. She
became an addict, stopped using for eight months and just before her
20th birthday, she went to a party and later took some meth.

She had a heart attack, ended up in a coma for 11 days and nearly
died. In both cases, the same acquaintance offered her the meth.

That's the sad and bad part.

Now 23, the young woman from Biggar, Sask., is clean and sober, runs
a website to help others get off drugs and visits schools to speak to
kids about the dangers of drugs. That's the good part.

Here's the questionable part. She's suing her drug dealer, whom she
has evidently known since nursery school. According to Bergen,
Clinton Davey got her addicted to crystal meth by offering her a free
sample, a time-honoured sales pitch for everything from perfume to pizza.

Note that Davey must have also been around 13 at the time, a fact
that makes him a victim, initially.

They were both around 20 when they met again at that party and he
again offered her some meth and she again accepted. By that time, it
was a little too late for either of them to stand under the victim banner.

It seems that Bergen has won her case, largely because Davey, who
denied all charges, suddenly stopped contesting the lawsuit when he
was ordered to name his supplier. No kidding. Small-time drug dealers
are likely to end up dead on those rare occasions when they rat out
Mr. Big. Or even Mr. Medium.

So Bergen may indeed be awarded the more than $50,000 she's asking
for, although she says she's not after money - a good thing since
Davey, a man of no fixed address, may not have any.

Instead, she wants to send a message to drug dealers that they'll get
hit in the pocket if they keep peddling the stuff.

And referring to the damages which will be decided at a future
hearing, she said: "But I do know of one family that's awaiting the
verdict on this case so they can go ahead with a similar one and find
a lawyer to take it on."

This is indeed a case that could lead to any number of similar
lawsuits across Canada. In fact, Bergen's lawyer, Stuart Busse, says
he's already spoken to a woman from Nova Scotia who'd like to sue the
drug dealer responsible for her son's overdose.

And that's the question. Do we want to spend time suing penny ante
drug dealers while the big guys sit in their penthouses laughing? Or
do we want to put all our resources into education, into stopping the
drug lords?

This controversy is comparable to the one over responsibility for
drinking and driving. And who's responsible for the lung cancer
people get either from smoking or breathing in second-hand smoke?

Remember the tragic impaired driving case in 1999 when Desmond
Desormeaux left an Ottawa New Year's Eve party dead drunk, got in his
car and crashed head-on into a car, killing a young man and turning
Zoe Childs into a paraplegic? The Supreme Court of Canada ruled in
2006 that Childs could not sue the hosts of the party. Desormeaux was
jailed in 2000 for 10 years.

As for the effective use of education as a means of combatting
smoking, take a look at the scientific evidence which has led to the
outlawing of lighting up in all public places in many countries.
Including France, where smoking until very recently, was almost a religion.

In the end, Bergen may be doing far more good through her anti-drug
website and her speaking engagements at local high schools than
through her lawsuit.