Lawsuit could be a first in Canada
By CP
REGINA -- Sandy Bergen has never had a problem wearing her troubles on her sleeve.
Ever since a crystal meth overdose almost killed her 18 months ago, the 21-year-old recovering addict has told anyone who will listen about the perils of the dangerously addictive street drug.
She's spoken with school kids and other addicts - she's even told her story to politicians at the provincial legislature.
It's with that same determination that Bergen has undertaken her next crusade against crystal meth.
She and her parents have filed a negligence lawsuit against the person she says sold her the drug, hoping it will make dealers think twice before they peddle a substance they know has the potential to ruin lives.
"It's not so much for the monetary gains," Bergen says from her home in Biggar, Sask., a small community west of Saskatoon. "It's just to kind of take control. I think it's a good way to get the victim to have a voice in all of this."
It's a suit that is believed to be the first of its kind in Canada. In the U.S., several states have passed laws that allow for drug dealers to be held financially liable for their crimes, but there is no such legislation in this country.
Annalise Acorn, a law professor at the University of Alberta, says a case such as Bergen's is not necessarily frivolous.
"The difficulty arises because you are trying to engage the legal system around an activity that is illegal, but at the same time obviously a wrong has been committed against the woman and I think there are a good number of legal ways in," Acorn says.
"The classic statement of negligence is where you know harm is reasonably foreseeable to your neighbour, there is a standard of care for you to act so that the harm doesn't take place."
Bergen says she started doing crystal meth when she was 18 and was hooked the first time she tried it. She had thought she had kicked the habit until a relapse in May 2004.
She alleges that it was her dealer who forced that relapse because he did the drug in front of her only days before Bergen was to testify in a sexual-assault trial.
Bergen says she was powerless to resist, given the stressful state she was in.
But after doing the drug, she says she knew immediately something was wrong.
"It felt like someone stuck a pencil in my brain," she says.
She began sweating and throwing up. Her legs and arms turned blue. She was taken to the hospital by her mother hours later, where it was discovered she had had a heart attack.
Over the next few days her condition worsened. Her heart, liver, kidneys and lungs all failed and she lapsed into a coma.
Miraculously, Bergen was able to recover after only 14 days in the hospital, but she has permanent damage to her heart.
She says she sleeps a lot more than she did before and can't work a regular job because she gets tired too easily.
The man's grandmother is included in the lawsuit because that is where Bergen overdosed. The person who sold the drugs to her dealer has also been included, though Bergen doesn't know who that is yet.
The statement of claim contains allegations that have not been proven in court. A statement of defence has yet to be filed.
I thought this was an interesting situation from a legal standpoint because what is not clear is whether the drug dealer forced the more recent encounter and coerced Bergen into taking crystal meth again, or if she was in his presence voluntarily.
Now.. my own take on this is that if the woman returned to the drug dealer's of her own accord the lawsuit holds no water.
Thoughts? Okay.. I know it's a bizarre topic. But it caught my attention, and I was curious to see what the minds here would make of it
