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Tag: drug deaths

  • Chicago May Begin Prosecuting Dealers For Overdose Deaths

    Chicago May Begin Prosecuting Dealers For Overdose Deaths

    The Chicago Police Department plans to create a task force to investigate drug deaths and prosecute dealers under the state’s drug-induced homicide law. 

    When someone dies of an overdose, is it their own responsibility, or should the person who provided the drugs be held criminally liable? 

    That’s the question that law enforcement and prosecutors around the country have been asking, and in Chicago the answer is beginning to change. Although the Chicago Police Department has not investigated drug deaths as homicides in the past, it is beginning to do so, according to CBS. 

    “It’s becoming an epidemic, so we need to do what we can to reduce that,” said Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson. 

    The Chicago Police Department now has plans to create a task force to investigate drug-related deaths and prosecute dealers under the state’s drug-induced homicide law.

    The Chicago Police Department has been inspired in part by the success of prosecuting drug dealers in nearby McHenry County. There, police and prosecutors target dealers in overdose deaths. 

    “Every single overdose case that happens in McHenry County, we assign a lawyer to work with police,” said McHenry County State’s Attorney, Patrick Kenneally. His office has prosecuted about 20 drug-induced homicide cases in the past three years, including 8 in 2017, when there were 80 overdose deaths in the county. The next year there were 51 overdoses, and 15 prosecutions for drug-induced homicide. 

    “This, we truly believe, is tangibly resulting in lives being saved,” Kenneally said. 

    In Chicago, only one overdose case has resulted in prosecution in the past four years. The victim in the case was the 18-year-old stepdaughter of Theresa Almanza, a police officer.

    Despite Almanza’s law enforcement experience, she was told that the city would do nothing to prosecute the people who provided her stepdaughter with drugs. 

    Almanza said, “The Chicago police department told me they don’t investigate these cases criminally. That Sydney made a choice and they weren’t going to investigate it.”

    The department said that the cases were difficult to prove, costly and time-consuming. However, Almanza didn’t give up, and eventually Brent Tyssen and Cynthia Parker were charged in connection with Sydney’s death.

    Tyssen was sentenced to six years in jail, while Parker was placed on probation. Almanza hopes that sentences like these will deter people from selling drugs, and help stem overdose deaths. 

    Now others, including police superintendent Johnson, are willing to give the strategy a try. 

    Johnson said, “I’m confident we’ll be able to model what they have out in McHenry County. Our children, their lives matter too, and these cases must be investigated criminally.”

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Deaths From Alcohol, Suicide & Overdose Reach Record High

    Deaths From Alcohol, Suicide & Overdose Reach Record High

    Suicide, drug overdose and alcohol now kill more than 150,000 Americans annually. 

    Deaths from suicide, drug overdose and alcohol have reached an all-time high in the United States. 

    Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) analyzed by two non-profit organizations revealed that deaths attributed to those causes rose 6% in 2017, USA Today reported.

    Those factors are now responsible for 46.6 deaths per 100,000—killing more than 150,000 people each year, according to U.S. News and World Report.

    In 2017, deaths from suicide rose 4%, double the pace of increase over the past decade. Deaths caused by synthetic opioids also skyrocketed, up 45%. However, five states saw decreases in deaths from suicide, overdose and alcohol. Those were Massachusetts, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, Utah and Wyoming.

    Loribeth Bowman Stein, of Milford, Connecticut, believes that social isolation is contributing to these co-called diseases of despair.

    She said, “We don’t really see each other anymore. We don’t share our hopes and joys in the same way, and we aren’t as available to one another, physically and emotionally, as we need to be. The world got smaller, but lonelier.”

    Kimberly McDonald, a licensed clinical social worker in Wisconsin lost her father to suicide, and says that she sees patients struggling with suicidal ideation and addiction every day. Often, they don’t get the support that they need to heal. 

    “We are a society that criticizes and lacks compassion, integrity, and empathy. I work daily with individuals who each have their own demons,” she said. 

    However, Benjamin Miller, a psychologist and chief strategy officer at the Well Being Trust, said that people need to avoid the temptation to explain away these alarming statistics. 

    He said, “It’s almost a joke how simple we’re trying to make these issues. We’re not changing direction, and it’s getting worse.”

    The Well Being Trust calls for policy changes, such as restricting access to firearms and medications that can be deadly for someone looking to end their life. In addition, the trust calls for more funding for programs that support resiliency in kids, address childhood trauma, and provide treatment for addiction.

    All of these efforts, Miller said, can help save lives. Progress has been made in these areas, but there is need for more work, Miller said. 

    “It is important to see hope in the slowing of rates—but it’s not nearly enough. We should not be satisfied at all. Too many of us are dying from preventable causes.”

    Overall, the suicide rate has increased 33% since 1999. Rural states including West Virginia, New Mexico, Ohio, Alaska and New Hampshire have the highest suicide rates. 

    View the original article at thefix.com