The San Mateo District Attorney’s office will most likely chargea suspected drug dealer with murder this week after he allegedlysold ecstasy to a 14-year-old Belmont girl who overdosed anddied.
The potential manslaughter charge has ignited some discussion inthe Bay Area over how culpable drug dealers are in the unintendeddeath of their customers. The district attorney will most likelyargue the suspected drug dealer, 20-year-old Antonio Rivera,knowingly put the girl’s life in danger by selling her apotentially life-threatening drug.
Rivera should be prosecuted to the fullest extent on the chargesof selling and posessing drugs and endangering the life of a minor,but he should not have to pay for the accidental death of thegirl.
According to police, she willingly took the ecstasy pill withtwo of her friends at a sleepover party and ultimately paid thehigest price for her decision. Teens experiment with drugs everyday, and for the most part understand that the risk of deathexiststs when they get high.
Rationally, this argument makes sense, but Belmont residents,parents of school-aged children and the parents of the girl herselfneed to point a finger somewhere, and Rivera seems to be the mostobvious scapegoat.