Former meth addict sues dealer
"It’s about taking responsibility", she says
Tessa Vanderhart, Staff

The first time Sandy Bergen tried crystal meth, as a “vulnerable” 18-year-old, she became addicted.

Three years later, Bergen is taking responsibility for her drug use by suing her former drug dealer.

“I’ve taken responsibility, and now we’re turning it on him to take responsibility,” she said. “The justice system works very slowly, and this way I can have a voice in this. I can make him answer for his actions.”

The resident of Biggar, Saskatchewan, and her family are involved in a lawsuit that will determine precisely who is responsible for Bergen’s overdose last spring.

Bergen’s lawyer, Warren Smith of Busse Law firm, said that the civil case will substantiate that Sandy’s dealer was negligent, and sold the drugs with intent to inflict mental and physical harm.

He compared the lawsuit to suing a toy company for negligence in manufacturing, or tobacco companies for intent to harm.

In addition to recompensing the harms done to Bergen, Smith said that the case will also recoup social costs, such as the cost to the province of Saskatchewan for Bergen’s hospitalization.

“There’s a reason why drugs are illegal: they’re illegal because they cause damage, damage that society already bears,” said Smith.

Stuart Busse, of the same law firm, said that the lawsuit is based on the dealer’s actions being careless and for personal economic gain.

Busse noted that Bergen is also suing the grandmother of the drug dealer, on the basis that she facilitated his actions.

“This isn’t just where she went and bought drugs off the street — we’re a small town here, they went to school together,” said Busse. “He caught her in a vulnerable point . . . it isn’t just a voluntary purchase by her.”

“They have all sorts of ways to manipulate you,” said Bergen. The most effective: addiction.

“As an addict, I had a diminished capacity to make the right choice. I was a very sick person.”

“Crystal meth makes your heart as hard as a rock,” she said.

Before Bergen overdosed, she had been sober for two months, and had not taken meth for eight. In May 2004, she was due to testify in court, in regards to a sexual assault that she had been subjected to a year earlier. At this time, Bergen was again approached by the dealer who had first introduced her to the drug, and she finally gave in.

“I knew it wouldn’t make anything better, but I decided to do it anyway,” she said. But almost immediately, she became violently ill.

It felt like someone had “jabbed a pencil through my brain,” she said, and she began to vomit blood and turn blue.

“It looked like I was dying — I actually was, but they didn’t know it at the time,” she said. She took the meth at 9 a.m., but didn’t make it to the hospital until 3 p.m.. Even then, it was hours before anyone realized that she was overdosing on crystal meth — she was too ashamed to tell the doctor, in case her father should find out.

Finally, she collapsed. Bergen was in a coma for eleven days. Her body puffed up to three times its normal size, a lung collapsed, and 17 bags of IVs were put directly into her arteries, as her veins had all collapsed.

“This drug just drags you down. I’m not supposed to be alive,” she said.

The first time Bergen tried the drug, it was provided free of charge by Biggar’s only dealer; she was high for five days, ending up in Saskatoon. When she started to come down, and as she watched a mother high on methamphetamine while breastfeeding her child, she was horrified by how fast and how quickly she had sunk. Still, she said, she wanted more and very quickly became dependent on the drug.

These are the experiences she shares to demonstrate the need for her to actively speak out and stop “enabling” the drug trade in her town.

Although the family stands to lose money on the lawsuit — judgments are based on the resources of the parties involved — the family’s main concern is getting their message out.

Bergen noted that the lawsuit may make it “uneconomical” for the defendant to continue to sell drugs in the town.

Bergen’s parents are also involved in the lawsuit, suing both the drug dealer and his grandmother for the adverse reaction they had to their daughter’s overdose.

Sandy’s father, Stan Bergen, said that his daughter was taken advantage of — and the dealer needs to be held accountable.

“We have to hold these people accountable for what they’re doing, not just to my daughter, but to the community,” he said.

“It’s not just about money: it’s about making these people responsible.”

He called crystal meth “a blight on society,” noting that drugs are a huge problem in the northern and western parts of the country, on reserves in particular.

“If you haven’t had anybody have a problem with it in your community, just wait.”

While Health Canada does not have the data to reinforce or refute this, new measures to combat the production of crystal methamphetamine indicate that the government hopes to be more active in fighting the drug. Territorial governments, as well as the provincial governments of Manitoba and Saskatchewan, are making some cold medications, often used to prepare meth, available only over the counter.

Due to the nature of the drug — crystal meth is very easy to prepare and uses household items like bleach and cold syrup — it is very difficult to determine how widely it is used. Carolyn Sexauer of Health Canada said that there is no indication that use is rising beyond the one per cent it is currently estimated at, but noted that the statistics available do not account for use among those who live on reserves or are homeless.

Georgina Bergen, Sandy’s mother, noted that meth is a problem in all small towns — but in Biggar, things are improving.

“The drugs in Biggar have dried up since we [launched] the lawsuit. It’s gotten a lot less safe to deal them here,” she said.

Bergen said that Sandy never had very high self-esteem — “so I could see where she could fall victim to outside influences.”

“I’ve seen her go from hell in a handbasket to somebody I can be proud of. I hate to say an overdose is a good thing, but in our case, it was.”

http://themanitoban.com/2005-2006/1109/ ... dealer.php


the dealer was negligent?.....really?.....surprising, meth dealers are usually so stringent in running background checks and ensuring the mental capacity of the people they sell to.....this guy gives all honest hard working meth dealers a bad name.......

Wouldn't happen in America.

She can sue as much as she wants, it wont change the fact she was dumb to try it.

this is not an example of taking responsibility for your behavior, missy

why not, sue everyone

for the punitive damages that they have given to you

She admitted to making the decision to take the drug herself. It was HER choice. She must deal with the consequences, period. This is a stupid lawsuit and I really hope she loses.

Wait, she "successfully sued"?

That's fucked up, imo. I'm all for legalization of drugs and allowing people to make their own choices regarding their body/mind/health, but at the same time, YOU are responsible for all consequences regarding your actions.

Why are people upset, a drug dealer got fucking sued for pushing a nasty drug on a young girl. How horrible.

People talk about "personal responsibility" but don't care to contemplate what it even means...I think it's a way for Americans to feel good about their own miserable successes in life as some corporate data collector who's barely able to hold a job. Good, you've excused yourselves from society's problems. Now shut the fuck up about it.

disclaimer: that post wasn't directed at anybody personally btw

I don't know if you can pull off calling yourself an 'impressionable youth' at the age of majority.

Really depends on what type of person you are and what you consider impressionable. Some assholes won't think twice about chastising any type of behavior at any age. And those people should be sent to internment camps.

OHHHHH!!!

You got your memo.

from the girl's perspective, she's in recovery; part of that process includes stringent assessment of your behavior and taking complete responsibility for your actions and their consequences; any 12 stepper will tell you that; suing the dealer sounds like a slippage of her recovery process; putting blame on someone else for the consequences of her behavior; not healthy

obviously, the drug dealer is a douche, and should be dealt with accordingly, but it's a separate issue

truth ruth......

*high fives*

can we really say the dealer pushed it on her, i doubt he had a gun to her head, she made a piss poor choice and cant deal with the fact that shes horrible at making decisions so is looking to place blame on someone else in order to make herself feel better

Did anyone read those lines? I fail to see the problem with this. It sounds like a decent manipulation of the legal system for a change. Can anyone really criticize a family for trying to run a meth dealer out of town?

:posts ill-thought-out, knee jerk reaction before reading article:

Not sure if that was directed at me or not. However, my gf is a federal parole officer. You can rest assured that this is by a long shot not even close to the waste of resources that some of her cases are. Not that she's ever discussed a case with me...

PS, Manitoba is a desolate wasteland in Canada. Not a whole lot going on there... I can also attest to the meth problem in Canadian small towns. The one I grew up in is overrun with it.

what a dumb 18-year-old girl! she should have known better! no matter her parents are probably horrible, she should have known better! all 18-year-old girls should know better!