Are Drug Dealers Murders?

Pubdate: Thu, 08 Feb 2007
Source: Burlington Free Press (VT)
Webpage: http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070208/NEWS/70207026
Copyright: 2007 Burlington Free Press
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Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/632

BURLINGTON MAN PLEADS NOT GUILTY TO MANSLAUGHTER CHARGE IN MAY 2006 DRUG OVERDOSE
A Burlington man pleaded not guilty Thursday to two charges, including manslaughter, in connection with a May 2006 drug-overdose death of an acquaintance.Jesse J. Davis, 35, was ordered jailed on $35,000 bail during his arraignment at Vermont District Court in Burlington.

He faces up to 18 years in prison if convicted on charges of manslaughter and delivery of a narcotic drug.
Police say Davis provided a fentanyl patch to Michael Delphia, who later overdosed and died. Delphia ingested part of the patch containing a painkiller and became ill. Davis then drove Delphia home and left him on a couch, where Delphia later was found dead, police said in court papers.

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How far should the criminal liability of a drug dealer go? Under the doctrine of felony murder, if a person is killed during the commission of a crime, then the perpetrator of the crime can be convicted of murder, even though he did not directly cause the killing. As an example, a robber is engaged in a shootout with the police at the scene of an attempted robbery and one of the police bullets kills a bystander. The robber could be convicted of murder, even though he did not shoot the victim.

But does the same reasoning apply in the quoted story? The dealer delivered a fentanyl patch to a purchaser. The patch carries on it a label stating the contents. It is designed to be applied to the skin, through which the drug will be absorbed over several hours.

Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid, several times more powerful than heroin. The purchaser was probably aware of this and was experienced enough to know how to open the patch to get at the total contents all at once. Wasn't it his responsibility to measure the size of the dose he was taking and to know of the consequences of overdose? Hadn't the dealer's involvement ended when he delivered the intact patch?

This case is different from one in which a dealer, facing a shortage of heroin, mixes some fentanyl in with a little heoin and some inert ingredient, and sells it as straight heroin. In this case, the dealer would be knowingly selling a deceptive product that he should know would be dangerous to a typical user; and he should be responsible for the consequences.

The other part of this story is that the death was preventable. Opioid overdoses rarely, if ever, should result in death. As in this case, death is not immediate and can take up to several hours. All emergency rooms and many EMTs are equipped to administer opiate antagonists, which immediately counter the effects of the overdose. However, fear of arrest means that few overdosers or their friends are willing to seek medical attention. If the dealer in this case had driven the customer to an emergency room instead of home to a couch, the death would have been prevented.

Accountability for this death should rest with the legislators and police, who have prevented reasonable medical care.