Drug Delivery Resulting in Death May Not Apply to Users

The Third Circuit has decided the case of United States v Semler, which holds that when two heroin addicts jointly acquire a small amount of heroin for their mutual use, there is not a “transfer’ within the meaning of the statute and therefore the 20 year mandatory minimum cannot be imposed under federal law. While this case does not directly resolve this issue in state court, the rationale may be persuasive when state court judges review the issue of whether mutual users can be convicted of Drug Delivery Resulting in Death when one of them succumbs to drugs that were mutually obtained. This addresses an inequity in the application of such laws, which are designed to punish drug dealers but often end up impacting mutual users instead. What do you think? If two drug users obtain drugs for their mutual use, and one overdoses on the drugs obtained, should the surviving drug user be charged with Drug Delivery Resulting in Death for the death of the other person? It will be interesting to see if there is any change in the handling of these cases in state court in light of the Third Circuit’s decision.