Did bad heroin kill two coeds?

New York Daily News and lastnightsparty.com ^ | 8/16/05 | AUSTIN FENNER, ADAM LISBERG and ROBERT F. MOORE

[Lancey Howard]

Police believe a bad batch of heroin may have contributed to the deaths of Mellie Carballo and Maria Pesantez, both 18 and with promising futures.

No. Clearly these two did not have "promising futures". Why do reporters write things like this?

[jer33 3]

See post of heroin cases in Chicago.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1465330/posts

[coloradan]

I agree, the girls bear some responsibility. But I hold Prohibitionists partially culpable in the methanol deaths ... and I hold drug warriors partially culpable in the same way for OD deaths.

The travesty is that the girls paid with their lives, while the drug warriors can hold up their deaths and say "See, this is why we need to keep drugs illegal, they kill! Which is why you should increase my salary, because I'm fighting on the front lines of this war, and it's tough going!"

Totally unjust, at many levels.

[Know your rights]

Local families are right now mourning the loss of 3 teenagers who got smacked by BNSF. Lights flashing, bells gates but they still tried to get across.

And suppose that a train safety device could have made those deaths less likely, but government policy put the railroad in the hands of those who saw no incentive to install the device, whereas in the absence of that policy the railroad would be in the hands of those who did see an incentive to install it. Would you say the deaths had no bearing on the advisibility of that policy?

[cynicom]

Free choice, tough luck.

[Know your rights]

Just because there is one rotten situation (alcohol legalization and abuse) doesn't mean that we should try to add to it with other rotten situations (marijuana, cocaine and heroin legalization and abuse)

If those other rotten situations should be avoided, why shouldn't the existing one be ended? Do you support making alcohol illegal?

[verity]

"These girls didn't have the choice to do legal heroin, with controlled purity and dosage."

You hold the minority view in this matter and, perhaps, in many other matters.

[taxesareforever]

For the life of me I do not see how you could even surmise that my remarks were gleeful. That is the type of interpretation that a liberal would make about a conservative's statement.

[coloradan]

If you want to talk about odious things getting their hooks deeper in, you could look to the drug war with its associated corruption, militarization of police forces, erosion of civil liberties (especially including Second Amendment rights), violent actions taken against non-violent suspects, ever-increasing costs with nothing objective to show for it, etc. I would rather live among dopers who sometimes offed themselves than the ever-increasing police state brought about by the drug war.

[76834]

In an attempt to respond to both.

The drug pushers certainly are to blame here, no doubt, but are just one of millions of dangers in the world. BNSF will probly pay a huge settlement but in no way are they at fault.

Drugs are destroying out society while the railroad is doing everything it can to enhance it.

This is a tough to answer but I think it really boils down to this:

Parents need to teach their kids about the dangers in life and they are aplenty.

Government and more bureaucrats will not help in anyway. More draconian laws and more govt agents will only drive the costs of everything else up including taxes.

The only viable solution is parents to educate their kids about the dangers.
Teach them what to watch out for.

[Doc Savage]

You mean bad judgment don't you????

[BurbankKarl]

At 12:28 P.M., six pallbearers shouldered a blond wood coffin from the Frank E. Campbell funeral home, which on other days has performed the same ritual for such greats as Joan Crawford, John Lennon, Jacqueline Onassis and Peter Jennings.

Yesterday, the ritual was for 18-year-old Mellie Carballo, who died before she could become what her brains and talent and heart promised. Nobody in this city could have looked sadder than her mother, father and sister as they stood at the curb in a light rain and watched her mortal remains loaded into the back of a black hearse.

"I did the best I can," the mother had been heard to say earlier.

Carballo was a smart kid from a fine family and she had gone out partying with another smart 18-year-old from afine family, Maria Pesantez. Even thesmartest teens can suffer mystifying lapses in common sense, and they apparently ended overdosing on drugs in thelower East Side apartment of 33-year-old Alfredo (Tito) Morales early Friday evening. Also present was 41-year-old Roberto Martinez.

As law enforcement officials tell it, Martinez was one of 39 people indicted in 1998 for being part of the Cut Throat Crew. Prosecutors described the organization as "a major heroin distribution drug gang based on the lower East Side." The gang was said to take drug orders via pagers, and use couriers as young as 14.

The Cut Throat Crew's customers included another 18-year-old girl, Evalene Santana. She apparently failed to pay for a small amount of drugs. She died after three gang members attempted to rape her, then tossed her off the roof of a building just down Avenue D from Martinez's home. The killers as well as the two leaders of the gang all got heavy time and remain in prison.

Law enforcement officials say Martinez was a low-level drone who had already been arrested twice for drug sales. His first drug collar was in 1991, and he was paroled after serving the minimum of a three-to-six-year term.

He was arrested for drug sales again in 1996 and was doing a four-to-nine-year term when he was charged with conspiracy for his role in the Cut Throat Crew. He received an added three years.

In 2002, Martinez was freed courtesy of the now defunct "good time law," which required authorities to parole an inmate who had done two-thirds of his maximum sentence. He returned to the same building on Avenue D where he had lived before his second drug arrest.

In 2003, Martinez was arrested in the subway for being the modern equivalent of a token sucker, selling swipes ofa MetroCard. He was released on time served and had no other encounters with the law, save fora 2004 collar for driving with a suspended license.

In papers related to the Cut Throat Crew case, prosecutors list Martinez as "A/K/A Crazy Cat." The street spelling might just as easily be "Krazy Cat."

Yesterday, Carballo's aunt Maria Gralia was saying outside the funeral parlor that an older man known as "KC" had been inviting her niece and other teens to parties where drugs were distributed.

Nobody was saying publicly that they had seen Martinez supply Carballo with drugs. Both Martinez and Morales were insisting to detectives that they are blameless in the teens' deaths. Martinez was taken into custody yesterday, apparently for violating his parole.

Yesterday, Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly and Health Commissioner Thomas Frieden personally issued a warning that a batch of bad heroin may be responsible for the death of six people in five days in lower Manhattan. These include Carballo and Pesantez. The city is making every effort to prevent any more such deaths.

Of course, there is no good heroin. Much has been said about the injustices of the draconian Rockefeller drug laws. But consider this: Roberto Martinez was convicted twice for drug sales and once more for being part of a major drug gang, and he still managed to be in an apartment where two 18-year-old girls suffered fatal overdoses.

Carballo was just 4 years old when Martinez first went to prison for selling narcotics, and yesterday she was carried in a blond wood coffin from Frank E. Campbell's into the rain, gone before she had even a chance to be one of the greats.

[Cowboy Bob]

Police believe a bad batch of heroin may have contributed to the deaths of Mellie Carballo and Maria Pesantez, both 18 and with promising futures.

Isn't it funny that whenever a druggie overdoses, that the MSM always has to insert that these people had "promising futures." Now who's going to discover the cure for AIDS?

[BurbankKarl]

Approximately three year old handout photograph of Mellie Caraballo (L) and Maria Pesantez (R)

[G32]

They should have followed the law and had a beer then.

This is just more darwin/chlorine in the gene pool.

[ModelBreaker]

If those other rotten situations should be avoided, why shouldn't the existing one be ended? Do you support making alcohol illegal?

Were its hooks not so deeply embedded in our culture, yes.

But this is the standard shift of argument by libertarians. The standard libertarian argument amounts to: "I have a bad cut on my head (legal alcohol) so I should cut off my hand (legalize other drugs) because they are, in principle, similar situations--both represent serious injuries to my body."

One bad circumstance does not require me to embrace another, even worse, circumstance just because the the two are similar in principle. The current bad situation with alcohol should, I argue, caution us against letting other addictive substances get their hooks into our culture as deeply as has alcohol.

[G32]

Well said..

However, it'll totally fly right over the heads of pro-drug liberaltarians.

[76834]

Great.
I wish I could have said it even half as well.

[ModelBreaker]

Well said.. However, it'll totally fly right over the heads of pro-drug liberaltarians.

Thanks. I don't know why I let myself post on this topic. The legalizers want their pot and want it now and cheap and legal and nothing, but nothing, will convince them otherwise. It's called denial.

[ModelBreaker]

Great. I wish I could have said it even half as well.

That's very kind of you.