Drug Blogging

Last night, I was updating my wife's Voice of the Victims blog, which reports breaking news about designer drug deaths, rapes and laws, and was amazed at all the interesting news I found, including:

Drug Law: A law that allows prosecutors to charge people with murder if they supply drugs that end up killing someone is being challenged in PA. An earlier version of the law has already been thrown out as unconstitutional. I liked this passage from the Pittsburgh Post Gazette story:

Patrick Thomassey [who is challenging the law after his client's conviction], sees two problems with the charge against his client.

First, [his client] didn't sell the Ecstasy to French [a 16-year-old girl who died after taking the drug]. Second, there is no way the prosecution could prove malice, a required element of third-degree murder.

"You can't have a murder without malice," Thomassey said.

Malice, under law, is described as a "hardness of heart" and a complete disregard for differences between right and wrong.

"In a consensual drug transaction, there cannot be malice," Thomassey said.

Not true, countered John Burkhoff, a law professor at the University of Pittsburgh.

"We don't have the defense of consent to homicide crimes," Burkhoff said. "That defense simply doesn't exist for homicide."

What a great line: "We don't have the defense of consent to homicide!"

Love Drug: We often hear that Ecstasy is the "love drug," so my wife's blog frequently runs stories that paint a different picture:

A Wisconsin man has proved once again that Ecstasy is hardly the "love drug" that many think it is.

Gregg Phillips, 25, has recently found guilty of two counts of murder committed while he admittedly was high on Ecstasy. He faces life in prison at his sentencing on June 22.

Prosecutors said Phillips fatally shot his girlfriend in their hotel room last November. After that murder, Phillips ran into a hallway and randomly shoot at guests who opened their doors, killing a German businessman and wounding two other guests.

Phillips testified that he had been drinking and taking Ecstasy that night. The love drug, indeed!

For more information on Beth's work to protect the vulnerable from designer drugs, see Voice of the Victims.