FOLLOWING THE LINKS IN A CHAIN OF DEATH

In New Hampshire, prosecutors have opened a new front in the war on
drugs - holding even small-time drug users responsible when someone
dies from drugs they have provided.

One measure of the success of this effort is the agitation it has
caused among defense attorneys, who claim their drug-abusing clients
are being unfairly targeted. The only unfairness we see is the loss
of ever more lives to the scourge of illegal drugs.

Reporter Gordon Fraser found that prosecutors in Southern New
Hampshire are winning a number of convictions of defendants charged
with "dispensing a controlled substance, death resulting." The
statute does not distinguish between large-scale dealers and
small-time users. If a person dies of an overdose after sharing a
friend's drugs, that friend is criminally liable for providing the
deadly dose. As is the dealer who sold the friend the drugs. As is
the person who drove the dealer to the place where the sale was made.

The new approach began in 2006 with the death of Caitlyn Brady, 18,
of Kingston, N.H. Brady died after injecting heroin with her
boyfriend, Dante Silva of Newton, N.H. Silva was sentenced to 10
years to life in prison for giving Brady the heroin.

Jay Simes, 24, was convicted of selling the heroin to Silva. The
Kingston man earned a sentence of five to 10 years. Robert Drew, 23,
also of Kingston, drove Simes to New Hampshire with the heroin. He
got 31/2 to seven years.

Arturo "Juan" Sanchez, 43, of Lawrence is fighting extradition to New
Hampshire, where if he's convicted of selling heroin to Simes he
could face life in prison.

Silva's lawyer, Mark Sisti, told Fraser prosecutors are going after
the wrong targets. Silva was only convicted of using heroin with
Brady, not selling it.

"Name 10 people that Dante Silva sold drugs to," Sisti said. "Is that
the kind of guy you want to make an example of? I guess if you want
an easy straw man to beat up."

But critics of the war on drugs have long complained the effort is
too one-sided, focusing on suppliers while ignoring that they are
only meeting the demands of a drug-craving nation. Here is an effort
that targets all in this deadly trade, suppliers and users alike.

It wasn't just the needle in her arm that killed Caitlyn Brady. It
was a chain of drug supply and demand. And for the first time in a
coordinated way, prosecutors are going after that whole chain link by
link.

The prosecutions will continue. We hope drug users get the message.
If the risk of their own lives isn't enough to get them to quit,
maybe life in prison for the deaths of their friends will be.