Heroin, Murder, and the New Front.. (VICE)

[neversickanymore]

Heroin, Murder, and the New Front in the War on Drugs
September 28, 2015
by Daniel Denvir

Sean Harrington has been in jail for more than 16 months. He was extradited from Philadelphia to Polk County, North Carolina, to face a second-degree murder charge. But he didn't shoot or stab anyone. Instead, he allegedly mailed heroin and cocaine to a friend and fellow addict named Elisif Bruun. She ingested them, probably as a speedball, and was found dead on February 11, 2014, lying face-down in her room at the CooperRiis Healing Community in Western North Carolina.

She was 24, her latest go at recovery her last.

Like Bruun, Harrington, now 26, is, a white kid from a middle-class family. He faces a possible 15 years in prison, according to the local prosecutor.

"My philosophy is if you're going to be out peddling the drugs, you're going to have be accountable to what happens on the receiving end of those narcotics," says Greg Newman, the North Carolina district attorney prosecuting the case. "If you give the narcotics to someone, or you sell them to someone, and they end up dead... well, you got to be responsible for that too."

But the victim's father, Peter Bruun, is an outspoken opponent of the prosecution.

"They're the predators, who are after victims like Sean," Bruun, an artist in Towson, Maryland, outside of Baltimore, tells VICE. "Sean is the victim of an illness... He's not the predator. He's the prey."

Cont here http://www.vice.com/read/heroin-murder-and-the-new-front-in-the-war-on-drugs-928

 

[Jabberwocky]

Well, it's good to see that the our government's priority when it comes to non-violent drug offenders is their death. Deterrence my ass, just like any other draconian sentencing policies we've, had like mandatory minimums, these new "laws" won't have any effect on stopping those sharing personal amounts of drugs. I like how the article pointed out how humane drug users are, how they're willing to share their drugs with a user they're close to when their fellow user is in need.

It really sickens me how these sentencing policies seem to be gaining momentum. If anything this is just going to exacerbate thing and make life even more deadly for users and addicts, regardless of circumstance.

 

[manboychef]

This is yet another waste of taxpayers money that makes the hard life of an addict even harder. I was fortunate I got out, and none of the people I ever sold to or helped out died. This type of political tough on drugs grand standing sickens me. It is already hard enough on an addict losing a friend, now to be punished even more for it is outrageous.

We need to stand up and start being more active about changing these laws. We elect these people. They work for us. It is time to make them represent us.