We’ve all heard stories about heroin overdoses and dealers being labeled as killers. Although this has nothing to do with stimulants, it nevertheless reflects a common attitude where someone supplying and administering drugs did not appreciate the severity of their actions. It describes 2 deaths by drugs which had very unexpected consequences for the supplier. It is an extreme example, with obvious differences to above stories being that this involved heroin and intentional suicide assistance.
This was
very close to home, as I’d known both the people who died for 20 years. A member of my family was appointed executor of the will of one of the people and is godfather of the child, so that’s how close. The outcome of the case was finally published in a local newspaper yesterday, after over 3 years in court.
Before I give you the article let me first tell you how I knew these guys. Without knowing something of these characters, it could quite easily be viewed that it was the dealer who was largely responsible for this. While this is true in part, there's somewhat more to the story.
The guy who died was my gym partner for a couple of years. P was the brother of a close friend of mine, and he had known the girl who died (G) for many years in Melbourne before moving up to Qld. They weren't in a relationship and each came to this area separately. Still, P & G were mates, familiar shoulders for each other to cry on, close friends, with little in common it could be said, but their loneliness and dissatisfaction of life. But they were each other's closest friend. Perhaps they were soul mates….I think they were.
Without a doubt P was one of the best con men I've ever met. Once he had been so pissed he crashed into tree in the centre of the road. The cops found him asleep at the wheel and he had a blood sample taken which showed a blood/alcohol level of something over 0.1. But because his consent wasn’t sought for the blood test, he successfully defended himself in court, to the mouth open surprise of the prosecution. P quoted the law, etc and walked free. Before the trial he was as cocky as, seemingly without any doubt he’d get off.
That was how he
was once. P at his peak could have sold wigwams to Indians, drugs to the clergy, or condoms to the castrated. I have known no-one quite like him.
But he was also an alcoholic and previous habitual heroin user who'd been suicidal countless times in period I knew him. I enjoyed his company when he wasn’t pissed or depressive - his dry but quick wit and recounts of crazy adventures. During the worst of things, I had tried to help him through organizing counseling and voluntary rehab. But it didn't help, he'd been there before and had learned their tricks. He was too smart for therapists; depressive and destructive, yet divisive and manipulative. Still, when willpower prevailed, he possessed an amazing ability, even at 40+ with a bad liver. P could put down the bottle and work out for 2-3 days a week and within 2 weeks would look like a world class body builder. I, on the other-hand, struggled to gain an extra couple of muscle cells over the same period. But as soon as he got there he would usually hit the bottle again and gradually fade back into a shadow.
I first met the girl G in the early eighties around the same time as I met P. She and her man of the time had moved to Qld from Vic. She was quite a depressive person and after many years her and her partner eventually separated. They had also tried for years to have a baby- in-vitro and other methods- only to finds all was useless. Then out of the blue she fell pregnant and had a beautiful boy who now lives happily with his father. The separation process, bitter as they often are, left G with little security as she had lost a custody battle and much of her share of the estate in maintenance back payment. I rarely saw her during this period but feedback from my bro who was closer, indicated she was very down.
I never met the guy convicted in this story, but I could very well sympathize with statements to the effect that P had hassled him for years for heroin so he could end his life. In short, for almost all those who knew them, both these people were considered way past therapy. Both - right or wrong - were intent on taking their own lives and had been for years. I couldn’t count the times P had said that’s how he’ll go out - with a big hit of smack.
Know either of these two for any time, and chances are you’d be siding with their desires. If in ones own mind a person’s world is painted with 30 years of only dark colours, its hard for them to be convinced there's such a thing as a bright outlook. Someone, anyone perhaps, was going to serve as the instrument and vehicle to end their unbearable suffering.
So here's
(phew) the newspaper article. Because of the sensitive nature of this story for me and others concerned, I’ve abbreviated the names and places.
LOCAL NEWS, Tuesday July 22, 2003
A MAN who helped a woman he barely knew commit suicide with a heroin overdose was last week jailed for life for her murder.
W, 41, of **, had pleaded not guilty in the Supreme Court in Brisbane of to the murder of G M on March 16 2000 at **.
Justice Debra Mullins, in sentencing W to mandatory life imprisonment after a jury found him guilty of murder, said it was not a case of euthanasia.
“Your injecting of Ms M was not only unlawful but extremely foolish and tragic to all concerned,” Justice Mullens said.
“It’s not a case where euthanasia or a suicide pact is involved”
The court was told W barely knew Ms M, who suffered from depression and had tried to commit suicide six times in the previous four years. Ms M was a friend of an acquaintance of W's, a Mr P. S. Mr S had pestered W for two years to give him heroin so he could commit suicide. Justice Mullins said Mr S had worn W down in relation to supplying the heroin, and Ms M had taken advantage of the situation.
“It is tragic that she wanted to commit suicide and that you helped her” she said.
W admitted to police in an interview that he prepared the heroin overdoes and injected Ms M because she could not inject herself. He then gave a needle to Mr S, who injected himself.
W told police he wanted to help the pair end their lives painlessly. He said Ms M volunteered to go first.
He had asked her if she was absolutely sure, and she replied “Yes, just do it”
W told police Ms M's last words were “What a rush”
She then lay down and died
Although the Judge describes this as being “…tragic to all concerned” the reality is that the families of the deceased were generally relieved that it was all finally over. Family members conveyed the desperation displayed by the both these guys, even going as far as attempting to help W through speaking of this at preliminary hearings. Anyone who knew P knows how easy he would find it to talk someone into believing that notes left by him and G would ensure the supplier would not be implicated. Dumb as it may seem, whatever W believed, I’m sure it wasn’t that he’d be spending the rest of his life in prison for murder
