THE CRIMINALIZATION OF ADDICTION: Recent Episodes
G. D'Anne Weise, Ph.D.
I was so naïve about the U.S. criminal justice system until my son was arrested on a charge of Drug Induced Homicide and sentenced to 20 years in federal prison. The purpose of this podcast is to inform the public about the REAL system of justice operating in the U.S. by using actual prisoners’ (and their families) stories of dealing with drug charges in the US criminal system.
FYI: This is the first podcast I have made and I just learned that I cannot upload my own transcript to this podcast! I attached a reference list on the podcast Facebook page under 'Files.'
I did not believe that someone could be sentenced to 20 years in prison with no previous arrests, no weapons, and no drugs in his home or on his person. Considering the complicity of the deceased in their own death in overdose cases, it never occurred to me that such a punishment would even be considered over $20 worth of fentanyl.
The purpose of this podcast is to explore my family’s experience with the criminal justice system and to provide current research findings in the areas of mandatory minimum sentences, prosecutorial misconduct, and due process.
This podcast is designed as a 4-episode educational series.
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All three of them took the drug, and two of them died. There is no doubt that BJ and PP paid the ultimate price for their individual choices to:
1. request the heroin,
2. pay for the heroin,
3. determine how much of the heroin to ingest, and
4. Determine the method of ingestion to use, i.e. injection, swallow pill or snorting.
It makes no sense to say that because Vinnie did not pay the ultimate price of death, he should be punished for the rest of his life because his friends were not as lucky.
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All three of them took the heroin laced with fentanyl, and two of them died. There is no doubt that BJ and PP paid the ultimate price for their individual choices to:
1. request the heroin,
2. pay for the heroin,
3. determine how much of the heroin to ingest, and
4. Determine the method of ingestion to use, i.e. injection, pill or snorting.
It makes no sense to say that because Vinnie did not pay the ultimate price of death, he should be punished for the rest of his life because his friends were not as lucky.
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Prosecutorial abuse in my son's case went beyond manipulating the facts, to threatening his family. The power the prosecutor held over his precarious situation belatedly sank in for Scott, as did the impotency of the judge. Prior to this encounter with the law, Scott believed judges held all the power and prosecutors were truth-seekers. Nothing could have been further from the truth.
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“I hadn’t slept in 3 or 4 days from smoking meth/crack but the day of my arrest I shot-up some fentanyl, took some clonazepam and smoked some weed to help bring me down. By the time I was arrested in front of my house on February 11, 2019, I barely knew my name. I only remember bits and pieces of the hours-long interrogation and the rejection of my request for a drug test. I was sitting on a bench in a hallway, handcuffed and passed out..."
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...Then came Feb. 11, 2019, two months after my son, Scott, turned 29 years old. Scott and I had lunch that day and went to the grocery store to buy food for his house. It was a miserable day for me. I could tell that Scott was very high on something, probably on multiple drugs, who knows. His life was out-of-control, he couldn’t keep a job, he no longer had a car because he totaled it. He never had the money for bills or rent. I had been looking forward to talking to him that day (yet again) about voluntarily going into a long-term treatment program we found in Colorado. But, from the moment he walked in the door, I could tell that would be a pointless conversation...
If you know of anyone imprisoned for a drug offense, please have them or a family member contact me!
e-Mail: gdweise@umsl.edu
Facebook Page: The Criminalization of Addiction
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This Episode explores the medical literature on the impact of advanced opioid addiction on the brain and body. I also explore a topic no one wants to talk about: What about the culpability of the deceased in overdose cases?
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