Drug dealers in New South Wales will now be held criminally responsible for any deaths caused by substances that they supplied, under a new charge announced by the NSW Government today. Those found guilty of supplying lethal drugs could be charged with manslaughter and spend up to 25 years behind bars.
While the exact penalty will ultimately be decided by the Attorney-General, Police Commissioner Mick Fuller has declared that “The stronger the charge, the better”, the ABC reports.
Videos by VICE
“We imagine it would be around a manslaughter, grievous bodily harm-type charge,” he said. “I mean you drive a car intoxicated now and you kill someone, there’s a significant crime attached to that… supplying a drug to someone knowing there’s a chance it could kill them surely has to have more responsibility than just a supply charge.”
Premier Gladys Berejiklian and the NSW State Government introduced the new charge based on the recommendations of an expert panel—a panel that was commissioned to come up with ways to make music festivals safer, following the suspected drug overdoses of two young people at Defqon.1 last month. Gladys has insistently maintained that the panel will not consider the option of pill-testing, nor examine its potential benefits, since the Government doesn’t support it.
“I value human life and I don’t want to see human life taken away unnecessarily,” she said today.
“If you knowingly supply someone, even without knowledge… and that person dies, you have to be held accountable.”
It’s not clear whether someone passing a fatal substance on to a friend will be liable to face the new charges, but the Government has not ruled it out thus far.
“If it’s handed from one friend to another, this needs to be considered in the legislation very carefully—but we know hardcore dealers profile very differently to a friend giving another friend a tablet,” said Mick Fuller.
The Government announced a raft of other changes, including a trial of on-the-spot fines—rather than court attendance notices—for people caught with possession of drugs at music festivals. Fairfax has reported that those fines would be in the area of $400 to $500.
Industry body Music NSW has asked for some clarification on what exactly qualifies as “possession” of a drug before they throw their support behind the changes. NSW laws suggest that the minimum possession quantity is 0.75 grams, while other states stipulate that it is 3 grams.
“This still implicates users, not dealers, so we’d be keen to see clarification on this amount before supporting this,” said managing director Emily Collins.
