METRO CREATIVE CONNECTION PHOTO

Though drug dealing crimes are viewed by some as “victimless crimes”, Chief Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Tami Napier said that the impact can be incalculable. Napier believes that people can recover from addiction and hopes that they do. She holds that belief because individuals have successfully recovered and gone on to lead healthy lives. For those who use or abuse substances; the law makes no provision for voluntary intoxication as a defense for offense; addiction does not diminish responsibility for criminal behavior. “We know what methamphetamines does to a community. If you look at a community that has methamphetamine use and abuse in it; it’s much more unsafe for members of the community to live amongst meth dealers and meth users because you get into more burglaries, and thefts and robberies and batteries. But, the most concerning thing is truly the effect on children. You can see an absolute correlation between meth use in a community and its rise and neglect and child abuse and its rise. Those are connected. So prosecuting meth dealing is really trying to prevent all those things in your community that you don’t really want which is neglect of children, abuse of children, dropping property values because the community is unsafe to be in and nobody wants to live there anymore, overdoses, the costs on the healthcare system — it’s just far reaching. So dealing meth is a crime against the community in general, but against the family in particular. Somebody has to take care of these kids.”