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Police jail sick woman for small amount of weed, she dies in custody

BeachBumDeac

BeachBumDeac

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Well this pretty shitty

http://www.opposingviews.com/i/soci...-amount-marijuana-dies-after-two-days-prison#

The officer arrested the sisters, named Brenda Sewell and Joy Biggs, and put them in jail. While in jail, Sewell was unable to take her medications. She had the pills in a daily pill container rather than in their original prescription bottles. County officials say they were unable to determine what each pill was, and, because of this, could not allow Sewell to take her medications. She’d been taking medicine for hepatitis C, fibromyalgia, and thyroid problems for over a decade.

On Wednesday, after being off her medications for two days, Sewell fell ill in her jail cell. She was reportedly foaming at the mouth before passing out. Biggs and another inmate alerted authorities of the emergency while trying to revive her.

According to Biggs, jail authorities responded slowly to the emergency. Sewell was eventually transported to the hospital where she was soon pronounced dead.
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That's awful. Hopefully the county will have to pay loads of money to her family.
 
Hold up. She had her pills in a daily pill container presumably because those were the pills she had to take daily and they wouldn't let her. Did they contact her doctor or pharmacist?

I'm betting the Kansas cops are doing random stops of people coming from Colorado to find just this thing.
 
Seems like they COULD arrest her for having any amount of weed since possessing any amount can carry up to a year in jail in Kansas, but the real question is WTF does it matter to anybody? Why is this an offense we want to punish. That continues to be my question about weed. It's not going to deter people from smoking who already smoke.
 
I wonder if they consented to a search of the car and if they did why.
 
"The aroma of marijuana" is probably the reasonable cause excuse I hate the most. Absolutely no way to prove it in court.

Had a case I worked on while clerking. Officer (with a history of complaints for profiling) stop four black males in a POS vehicle because one of the two bulbs in the taillight was out. That is not a crime but it would fail a safety inspection so the officer pulled them over to inform them. "Smelled the aroma of marijuana" and gets the driver out of the car.

Driver was a convicted felon (manslaughter) and had a firearm. Result was correct but HORRENDOUS use of police power.
 
Snort, so the cop is rewarded or profiling and abusing power by catching a criminal. Lol
 
I'm not contending that the police acted appropriately, but the article implies that there's a straight line between the woman not getting her medicine and her death. I'm not aware of any HCV or fibromyalgia medication that, when not taken, would result in death in 2 days. I suppose the absence of the thyroid medication, in theory, could be a contributing factor, but even that seems a little far-fetched to me. Again, not saying the cops were right, just that this could have been a horrible coincidence and the author is running with the medication angle because it was needlessly callous.
 
As long as pot busts give the police the "need" for bigger budgets, this will continue to happen.
 
DeacinBama said:
I'm not contending that the police acted appropriately, but the article implies that there's a straight line between the woman not getting her medicine and her death. I'm not aware of any HCV or fibromyalgia medication that, when not taken, would result in death in 2 days. I suppose the absence of the thyroid medication, in theory, could be a contributing factor, but even that seems a little far-fetched to me. Again, not saying the cops were right, just that this could have been a horrible coincidence and the author is running with the medication angle because it was needlessly callous.
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I wondered about that. There are not many medications out there that you die if you miss a dose or two. If so, I would assume you have one foot in the grave anyway.
 
Not sure how it makes the situation more understandable. If she had one foot in the grave, a prison isn't where she needed to be.
 
Don't get me wrong...not excusing the situation at all. Way fucked up. Just thought it was strange that she would die after missing a dose or two.
 
PhDeac said:
Not sure how it makes the situation more understandable. If she had one foot in the grave, a prison isn't where she needed to be.
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It doesn't, really, but I'm suggesting the author chose to sensationalize the story by focusing on the medication in a manner that makes it appear that the police could have prevented this by just giving her the pills. That narrative implies purposeful neglect, while I think it's possible that it's just incompetence.
 
DeacinBama said:
I'm not contending that the police acted appropriately, but the article implies that there's a straight line between the woman not getting her medicine and her death. I'm not aware of any HCV or fibromyalgia medication that, when not taken, would result in death in 2 days. I suppose the absence of the thyroid medication, in theory, could be a contributing factor, but even that seems a little far-fetched to me. Again, not saying the cops were right, just that this could have been a horrible coincidence and the author is running with the medication angle because it was needlessly callous.
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Exactly. Something is fucked up here. If she was foaming at the mouth, it wasn't because she missed a couple days of meds. The only way the two may be related were if she was taking serious painkillers for fibromyalgia (abusing them, basically), and the withdrawals killed her.
 
DeacinBama said:
I'm not contending that the police acted appropriately, but the article implies that there's a straight line between the woman not getting her medicine and her death. I'm not aware of any HCV or fibromyalgia medication that, when not taken, would result in death in 2 days. I suppose the absence of the thyroid medication, in theory, could be a contributing factor, but even that seems a little far-fetched to me. Again, not saying the cops were right, just that this could have been a horrible coincidence and the author is running with the medication angle because it was needlessly callous.
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This combined with the "foaming at the mouth" makes me think this story isn't over. Oxycontin if I had to make a guess.
 
Shitty outcome but let's see: speeding and in possession. Probably not the smartest things to do. And if you don't leave your meds in original containers, you're begging for trouble. Police should have absolutely done the right, moral, and ethical thing and contact her doctor(s) and straighten this out. They failed. It's inexcusable that someone in custody can't get basic health care in these situations. But people have to accept responsibility for contributing to the situations they find themselves in. There are a lot of people who can tell you: when you're on a drug run, obey traffic laws. Legalize it and this shit goes away.
 
it's redic hard for prisoners to get their meds.
 
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