Survive an overdose with someone who doesn't and get charged with murder

[Victorian Gray]

Yeah they will definitely get them on all sorts of charges like possession, distribution, even unintentional manslaughter but zero chance murder sticks.
Are there any cases of successful murder charges in these situations?

Yes

"In 15 states where data was available, The New York Times found more than 1,000 prosecutions or arrests in accidental overdose deaths since 2015. Between 2015 and 2017, the number of cases nearly doubled. Dozens more cases were documented in news reports. In all, overdose prosecutions were found in 36 states, with charges ranging from involuntary manslaughter to first-degree murder.

In Minnesota, the number of such cases — sometimes referred to as “murder by overdose” — quadrupled over a decade. Pennsylvania went from 4 cases in 2011 to 171 last year after making it easier to prosecute.

A few cases hinged on whether one person injected the other. But in others, the accused may not have even been present when the drugs were taken. Some defendants had tried to save the life of the victims by calling 911, attempting C.P.R. or administering naloxone, an overdose-reversal medication. Prosecutors need not show that the death was intentional, only that the accused provided the drugs or helped the victim obtain them.

Many of those convicted are serving hard time: A Long Island woman whose best friend texted her from a business trip asking for heroin was sentenced to six years after he died taking the drugs she sent him. A former pipe fitter in Minnesota who shot speedballs with a mother of three got 11 years. A Louisiana man who injected his fiancée — both were addicted, his lawyer said — got life without parole."

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/25/us/drug-overdose-prosecution-crime.html

 

[Darwin333]

Yeah they will definitely get them on all sorts of charges like possession, distribution, even unintentional manslaughter but zero chance murder sticks.
Are there any cases of successful murder charges in these situations?

At a trial, no clue. As was said earlier in this thread all of these people are going to take plea deals, just like 97% of all criminal cases in the US, and I guarantee you a ton of people have been charged under these laws and taken plea deals. As I previously stated, life in jail without parole if you lose at trial versus 7 years (potentially out in 3.5) if you take a deal. What would you do, considering you would have nothing but a severely overworked public defender at your trial? Hell plenty of innocent people take plea deals because the alternative if they lose is so very much worse.

 

[Darwin333]

In Louisiana I have read a few news reports that dealers were charged with murder when the people who they sold to OD'd and this was before the whole fentanyl thing. The junkies just took too much.

 

[interchange]

As we can all see, clearly this deterrent isn't deterring anything.

 

[Victorian Gray]

As we can all see, clearly this deterrent isn't deterring anything.

It's intent is not deterrence. It's about fattening prosecution stats and giving the appearance of "doing something".

 

[Jhhnn]

It's intent is not deterrence. It's about fattening prosecution stats and giving the appearance of "doing something".

It's also about feeding the privatized prison industrial complex with warm bodies. They'll make money off your junkie ass every day you're in there.

 

[Victorian Gray]

It's also about feeding the privatized prison industrial complex with warm bodies. They'll make money off your junkie ass every day you're in there.

And there's the trifecta.

 

[zinfamous]

Holding any number of people responsible isn't going to end anything. Certainly people should face consequence for malfeasance, but I hate that we engage so much in the blame game when looking at this problem. And I hate the absolutist imperative in addressing it. "End" or "fix" the epidemic. Nope. Not going to happen that way. Reduce harm, reduce use, establish a healthy culture that orients toward recovery and reduces the conditions which promote addiction. Those should be our targets, and they are daunting ones.

The narrative from the Trumptardians and other fools is that this is a junkie problem. That punish the junkies, more and more and more, and the problem will be fixed. The point of bringing up the actual history of this current epidemic, the source of the problem, is pointing out that this was legal, sanctioned, addiction.

The point is in driving home the fact that a cascade of policy and medical decisions, mostly spurred by intentionally falsified data and greed, is what this is about. Because you don't solve the problem by going after junkies. You solve the problem by going after the legal addiction industry.

The narrative of the opiod epidemic needs to be tied to the facts, not the tired, deluded fantasies that sociopaths like Mike Pence and Donald fucking Trump want to push. We can't address the problem, together, if enough of us are deluded over what the actual problem is.

 

[Darwin333]

It's also about feeding the privatized prison industrial complex with warm bodies. They'll make money off your junkie ass every day you're in there.

I hate to break it to you or whatever message you are trying to spread but they really don't give a shit which jail, public or private, you get sent to.

 

[Jhhnn]

I hate to break it to you or whatever message you are trying to spread but they really don't give a shit which jail, public or private, you get sent to.

True. I merely point out that privatization is always the rage with the GOP. The more people they can keep locked up the greater the impetus to expand prisons & private enterprise will increasingly be there to help, both to do the job & to finance politicians who provide them with greater opportunity.

https://www.cnn.com/2017/08/18/politics/private-prison-department-of-justice/index.html

 

[interchange]

The narrative from the Trumptardians and other fools is that this is a junkie problem. That punish the junkies, more and more and more, and the problem will be fixed. The point of bringing up the actual history of this current epidemic, the source of the problem, is pointing out that this was legal, sanctioned, addiction.

The point is in driving home the fact that a cascade of policy and medical decisions, mostly spurred by intentionally falsified data and greed, is what this is about. Because you don't solve the problem by going after junkies. You solve the problem by going after the legal addiction industry.

The narrative of the opiod epidemic needs to be tied to the facts, not the tired, deluded fantasies that sociopaths like Mike Pence and Donald fucking Trump want to push. We can't address the problem, together, if enough of us are deluded over what the actual problem is.

Yeah I get that. It's also, in my view, posed in a distorted fashion by those who see it as an illness. And it is not as simple as the source being prescribed opioids. There are plenty of people who start out the illicit way. Even if it were the case, at this point, cutting off all opioid prescriptions (which wouldn't happen anyway) would not stop the problem.

 

[Darwin333]

Yeah I get that. It's also, in my view, posed in a distorted fashion by those who see it as an illness. And it is not as simple as the source being prescribed opioids. There are plenty of people who start out the illicit way. Even if it were the case, at this point, cutting off all opioid prescriptions (which wouldn't happen anyway) would not stop the problem.

While it is true that some start out the illicit way the insane rise in heroin use and overdoses is directly linked to prescription opioids. This was predicted by many people, even sheriffs and other law enforcement officials when the government cracked down on the hardcore opioid pills. Since we cracked down hard on the prescribers and forced Purdue to change the formula making it much harder to abuse they have succeeded in severely curbing the Oxy abuse. Since that time we have seen at least a five-fold increase in heroin users and an even higher increase in overdoses and overdose deaths. The overdoses continue to rise at unprecedented rates and only part of that is due to the trend of cutting heroin with cheap and extremely potent fentanyl. People who were used to taking pharmaceuticals with precise and known dosages are now taking a street drug whose strength varies, sometimes wildly, from batch to batch or dealer to dealer. On top of that heroin is actually much cheaper than buying pills on the street. Most professionals were screaming that we needed to have easily accessible treatment available but in our infinite wisdom we think we can arrest our way out of the problem and, well, the results are above. So, umm, good job government and another win for the War on Drugs?

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

How else are all those drug using politicians supposed to be "tough on drugs?"