DRUG DEALERS BEWARE

We would like to offer our hearty congratulations to Sandy Bergen and
her family. Bergen, as reported in Wednesday's Herald, has launched a
civil lawsuit seeking damages from Clinton Davey.

According to Bergen's statement of claim, Davey is the man
responsible for dealing drugs that sent Bergen into a coma in 2005.

The Biggar resident is bang on when she says the suit "sends some
sort of message."

We concur.

Further, we wonder what might happen if more people had the same initiative?

For many reasons, not the least of which is our nation's increasingly
ineffective revolving-door justice system, our society is being
shattered by a whole host of toxins.

Heroin, cocaine, crystal meth and more lie at the heart of a complex
social challenge that - in the absence of a justice system with clout
- - law enforcement officers alone cannot solve. Some slow movement
toward a better social support mechanism will likely make some
inroads on solving addictions, but the real core of the problem lies
with the individuals making and delivering drugs.

The users are merely the victims, albeit due to unwise actions.

By pressing this civil suit, the Bergen family may trigger a
landslide of similar suits. Civil law can do what criminal law
cannot, in many cases - and in this particular case, maybe the
alleged dealer can be held accountable in a way that has far more
meaning than the typical home sentence, probation or token incarceration.

The Bergens could well obtain a settlement that would hold Davey
accountable for a sum of money it might take half a lifetime to repay.

If more dealers were faced with that threat, perhaps a few might get
the message and consider a more honest line of work.