Meth addict sues dealer and wins;
She suffered a heart attack from an overdose of crystal meth. She says the man who supplied the drugs wasn’t held responsible so Bergen filed a lawsuit.
| Because he didn’t provide the |  |
Heart Healthy meth she ordered, one presumes. |
Why in hell wasn`t this scumbag dealer charged? A charge of attempt murder would be in line!
Now the Sask government should sue her for the cost of treating her overdose.
“There have already been similar cases in the United States, where more than a dozen states have passed a Drug Dealer Liability Act.”
-Regina Leader-Post
It reminds me of going after Capone for income tax evasion. I guess when all else fails, but it irks to see druggies managing to profit from an OD.
Now she’ll should be able to afford the enormous dental work that a meth head require.Or not.
I agree, Kate. Why can’t the government sue meth heads for the cost of treating them for an OD?
And while we’re at it, sueing the driver of the getaway car that crashed is a good one, and then there’s the company that made the knife that was used in a hold up and later in a murder, they should pay and then……
Give it a rest!!!
On the other hand, do we know that the scumbag dealer isn’t the one that got her hooked in the first place?
I don’t know much about the drug world – do dealers force people to use their drugs? If they don’t, you can’t blame dealers for voluntary addictions and any medical problems that may arise. And the courts shouldn’t, either.
Canada is insane. And I mean it.
Any word if the money she wins will be applied to the cost of her no-doubt copious social services?
Alcohol is a drug.
Government of Ontario sells alcohol.
If someone dies because of alcohol, can the government be sued?
I do not see that there is a distinction, and this could become a very expensive precedent.
Very bad decision by an idiot judge!
“Since her overdose about four years ago … she’s been clean of drugs and alcohol.”
How about opening government run free overdose clinics right next to the free needle clinics? They both might have the same rate of success. The former could lead to a quicker conclusion than the later without the years of degradation and misery that the free needles make possible. Of course there might be some layoffs for the non-judgmental preeners that earn their living by facilitating the self destructive behavior of others.
This could start a precedent. If you’ve been a recent victim of a crime, the perp was caught and happened to recently come into gov’t money – ie residential school payouts – then maybe it would be worthwhile to sue.
I’m not I lawyer, so correct me if I’m wrong, but ‘double jeapardy’ applies to criminal convictions. Couldn’t you still sue under civil law?
Great comment, Kingstonlad. How nice it would be to sue Alberta for my father’s addiction and
have them pay us for the lack of many personal
needs, like food.
I sometimes think we are insane, we put in all
the laws about drugs, smoking and alcohol goes
happily on, destroying homes and killing people
on the road and in murders done by a drunk
person.
Is this sane? Really? Mr. West, I do very
much wonder about a country that allows the
people to drink until they hurt someone or
kill someone, but they cannot have a smoke
in their own cars.
So if I was to take too many Tylenol could I then sue the company? WTF over.
how about we cut back on the practice of suiing all together? Seems like this is one trait that we need not adopt from our southern bretheren.
Carole;I echo your sentiments exactly.The govt in the business of selling alcohol is worse than the dastardly whiskey traders of by gone years.They did it to flim flam the indians,maybe the govts do it for the same reason but decided to expand their horizons to include every body.
“So if I was to take too many Tylenol could I then sue the company? WTF over.”
Sure you could. Providing it was laced with some poison like stychnine!
Horny Toad
Mark:
Why can’t the government sue meth heads for the cost of treating them for an OD?
No expert, but my guess is that most meth heads are, in the legal venacular, turnips. Not much to sue them for. The costs would vastly outweigh the return.
And suppose such a program was successful? Meth heads would then be reluctant to get help if they thought they were OD’ing. Call me a bleeding heart, but I would rather have them treated at my expense than to die.
Besides, just getting them to turn up in court – any court – must be a challenge.
Utterly ridiculous! This is a product known to be harmful, whatever the amount taken. It is also an illegal substance. Unless this woman was tied down and forced to ingest this drug, the only person responsible is her. That our courts have once again condoned, and rewarded, both irresponsible and criminal behaviour is no surprise. As much as it would be wonderful to see the government of Sask. send her a bill for her medical services, the liklihood of that happening is next to nil. On the other hand, it would be good fun to watch the response from the self-appointed and self-righteous bleeding hearts!
I say we legalise all drugs but write into law a proviso stating that the costs of medical treatment needed to treat their ill effects be borne by the user. We rid ourselves of drug dealers, and all the crime that goes along with the illicit drug trade, and give the government something new to tax that isn’t an essential – unlike our incomes!
If this meth-head sued her dealer in a court of law, she used the services of a LAWYER- to defend himself in court, her dealer used a LAWYER. too. That provides employment for two LAWYERS- the system is functioning as it is intended to do………
These pot-headed idiot card-carrying Liberal judges have now completely burned “profiting from one’s own stupidity” into the common law.
There is no limit now to what one may be sued for simply because the “aggrieved” party was too stupid to even know how to wipe their own hind-end.
For the judge and the asshole who appointed the judge, and those of the same ilk, you would think the populace would be motivated to form lynch mobs.
Nice to see the checks and balances of the free market system working so beautifully.
Kingstonlad was right on with his comment. As far as I’m concerned anyone who takes a non-prescribed drug should bear all risks associated with their decision. That’s why non-Rx drugs are so cheap; I’ve had patients with ADD who have a legitimate reason to have a dexedrine prescription tell me that they’d much rather buy methamphetamine on the street since it is about 1/10 the cost of the pharmaceutical dexedrine. The only responsibility of the dealer is to ensure that the product he sells is what he advertises it to be.
I wouldn’t be surprised if someone did sue over tylenol. It turns out that acetaminophen is actually quite a dangerous drug and people have sustained liver failure from just taking the maximum recommended dose on the package for 3 days if they haven’t been able to eat because of a viral gastroenteritis, for example. The govenment is responsible for licensing acetaminophen for sale without a prescription and also mandates what health warnings are required on the package. I tell my patients to take N-acetylcysteine with acetaminophen if they’re going to be taking it for any length of time as this very significantly reduces the chances of liver failure.
Don’t they just put drug dealers in jail? I guess the devil made her do it.
Don’t people who rat on drug dealers end up dead. I thought it was against the law to use drugs. I am so confused – is “Illegal Drugs for Dummies” out yet?
I thought this was crazy too-until i heard the whole story. 1) the drug dealer was not held to any account through the justice system, so she thought this was the next best thing.
2) the dealer never filed any sort of defense against the lawsuit… that is why she won the case. After knowing those two facts, I see nothing wrong with what has happened, in fact I applaud it.
If this meth-head sued her dealer in a court of law, she used the services of a LAWYER- to defend himself in court, her dealer used a LAWYER. too. That provides employment for two LAWYERS- the system is functioning as it is intended to do………
Want to bet it was legal aid footing the bill. Maybe she should also file a human rights complaint while she’s at it.
Kate got it right — sue them both.
I think I’ll sue my mom and dad because the sperm and egg I could have been spawned from belonged to John Wayne and Marilyn Monroe.
Ohhh….what could have been.
Syncro
The warning label must have worn off.
Although this is a clear case of WTF?, I am wondering how she proved the dope she OD’d on came from that drug dealer. Does she have a receipt for it? Did it not come with instructions for use? A moneyback guarrantee? This crap boggles the mind…
So personal responsibility for ones actions go out the window. Disappointing judgement.
I nominate this lady for the Chutzpah Award for January
“Meth addict sues dealer and wins”
You want more of this insanity?
Vote Liberal.
idiots, morons, fools, i could go on and on.
“voluntary addictions”
Kathryn….
I nominate you for the gold ribbon for best oxymoron of ’08.
The problem,as I see it anyways,is that we refuse to either legalize all drugs OR prosecute fully anyone found breaking our drug laws.
Right now we are caught is some bizarre ‘limbo’ where nothing is being accomplished,it actually is slowly getting worse.Just take a quick cruise down to Vancouver’s eastside for proof of that statement.
Anybody caught as a user should be offered the option of treatment or jail time…mandatory…their choice(of course judges must be made to be onside).
We need secure’drug prisons’with suitable available services to warehouse these people until they can prove they are fit to reenter society as opposed to this hopelessly endless revolving-door situation we are currently trapped in.
Eliminate the users….you eliminate the market for the pushers.Because the war on drugs has proven that if you make chucking dealers in prison your priority,there’s an endless line-up of punks willing to replace them.
One more thing….
Our own governments are the LARGEST dealers of dangerous drugs by a freakin’ mile!When do we address the lives they are destroying?
Only one analysis missing from the above comments; how will the girl collect on the suit? Mr. meth dealer probably has no income taxes filed, or if so they are only minimal. most likely has no job, no fixed address, yadda, yadda, yadda.
*gah* the insanity of it all has to be to create humour in our lives. What other reason could there be for this?
IgnoranceABOUNDS hasn’t a clue about methamphetamine. There is nothing particularly addicting about meth and it is still available in the US on prescription as Desoxyn. Methamphetamine is more lipid soluble than dexedrine and thus gets into the brain faster than dexedrine but that’s about the extent of the difference. 2.5 mg of methamphetamine is equivalent to 5 mg of dexedrine (roughly).
Methamphetamine was synthesized first in Germany in the 1930’s and quickly became a staple of the Wehrmacht. It was exported to Japan where it became an essential means of keeping up production in factories. The allies relied on Dexedrine and Pemoline as their stimulants of choice. After WWII ended large stocks of meth were dumped onto the Japanese market and there was a wave of methamphetamine addiction which ended when methamphetamine was made illegal in Japan. The pattern since then has been one of periodic outbreaks of meth popularity almost always accompanied by mass hysteria among police and then the drug vanishes into obscurity for a few decades.
Like any other drug, methamphetamine is toxic when used in huge doses. Being a particularly clean stimulant, it is possible to take many times the recommended dose without significant cardiovascular complications. I’ve seen people 30 years ago take 1 gram or more/day which is 10-20 times the recommended maximum dose. At this point it is starting to become neurotoxic although no-one seems to have been inclined to do a study which looking at very heavy meth users from 30 years ago to see if they had fried their brain dopamine and norepinephrine systems. The few I’ve had a chance to do neurologic exams on in my practice seemed completely normal.
The one crucial point that the hysterical drug warriors aren’t mentioning about methamphetamine is that only about 1 person in 20 is likely to get addicted to it after a single use. This, not coincidentally, is the fraction of the population that is bipolar. In lab experiments when people are given an intravenous dose of an amphetamine euphoria is rarely seen and people often find that they are wide awake and irritable; not the profile of a drug people would take recreationally. Bipolars, on the other hand often experience extreme euphoria in this setting and one of my ways of diagnosing bipolar disorder in a patient is to ask them if they’ve used amphetamines. If they launch into an extended description of how absolutely ecstatic they felt when they first took speed, this is a very strong hint that they are bipolar. Bipolars are also more likely to get addicted to alcohol, food and gambling also but I have yet to see the narcs raid a bakery or other food lab.
The reason police seem so hysterical about methamphetamine is that the users are noticeable. Cops much prefer junkies who spend most of their time comatose. The speed user, on the other hand, is wide awake and has a strong urge to do something. In students, this takes the form of marathon study sessions which only get noticed by the police if someone stays awake for too many days and becomes psychotic. The average street meth user, on the other hand, may use his new-found energy to break into one vehicle after another or perform other crimes which he can do for days without sleep assuming a steady supply of methamphetamine. These users also tend to up the dose substantially to try to recapture the rush they got with the first dose and this leads into the realm of amphetamine psychosis. These are the people that make the news.
There’s nothing unusual about amphetamine psychosis and studies done years ago in volunteers found that anyone given enough amphetamine for a long enough period of time will become psychotic (as long as they stay awake until they become psychotic; a nap will prevent the psychosis). My gut feeling is that someone who is bipolar will become psychotic more readily and more floridly so than someone who isn’t bipolar.