Message to Pushers

Drinking drivers are not the only ones who need to think twice. Now, drug dealers who prey on the weakness of the addicts they supply also are on notice. Last Wednesday, a defendant who admitted selling cocaine to a man who later died of an overdose was convicted of second-degree murder in Orange County Superior Court.

The case is believed to be the state’s first murder conviction based solely on the sale of drugs. It has drawn national attention.

Prosecutors see the conviction as a deterrence to some drug sales. The message: Pushers will be prosecuted for murder and face life terms if people they sell to die of overdoses. That message should be on the street. The main battle in the war against drugs and drunk driving must be to discourage people from using the substances in the first place. Murder convictions and sentences like those coming out of Orange County courts help focus attention on the seriousness of the problem, as well as removing from the community the most dangerous offenders.