FAMILIES HURT, BUT THIS WON'T HELP

The need to assign blame when a loved one dies prematurely is only
human nature. Blaming someone at least helps answer the nagging
question, "Why? Why did my (child/parent/sibling/friend) die? Who did
this?" But when it comes to deaths from self-inflicted means, such as
suicide or drugs, culpability isn't always crystal clear, even if it
seems so in the eyes of the grieving family. That's why efforts to
assign criminal or civil liability to drug dealers have met serious
legal roadblocks in North Carolina and other states.

The families of several young people who died far too soon from an
overdose of illegal drugs certainly cannot be faulted - and, some
would say, should be commended - for their efforts to hold drug
dealers accountable. Drug sellers feed so many of society's ills -
addiction, crime, poverty, prostitution, family dysfunction.

Yet recent efforts to hold drug dealers criminally or financially
responsible for a drug-related death are troubling.

Few would disagree that anyone who sells drugs should be prosecuted
to the fullest extent of the law. Judges should be allowed to
consider the death of a "client" in sentencing the dealer. And in
some cases, where it can be shown that the dealer not only supplied
the means but administered the fatal dose as well, manslaughter or
murder charges may also apply. It's another matter to try a
street-corner dealer for selling to a drug user who later dies of an overdose.

The rationale is as follows: If the smuggler didn't bring in the
drugs, if the supplier hadn't bought and distributed them and if the
dealer hadn't sold them, then my loved one wouldn't be dead. Except
that the final "if" in that scenario is always "if the user hadn't
sought out drugs ..." That's the part juries and our justice system
have trouble reconciling. At the request of the grieving parents of a
young teacher who died of a heroin overdose, state Sen. Julia Boseman
introduced a bill that would have allowed families of overdose
victims to sue drug dealers. Logistical problems notwithstanding, the
bill didn't pass largely because state law recognizes the concept of
"contributory negligence," that the victim had a hand in his or her own death.

The same concept makes it difficult for prosecutors to persuade a
jury beyond a reasonable doubt that a drug dealer is guilty of
causing an overdose. The dealer certainly bears some blame. But so
does the user. Drug addiction is an illness. But like alcoholism and
gambling, it also involves a personal choice. Once addiction takes
hold, it is often too powerful to fight off without a great deal of
willpower, professional counseling and strong family support.

But in the end, only the addict can free himself, or herself, from its grip.