Man Steals Meat to Feed Drug Addiction
A drug addiction drove a Saint John area man to shoplift at a local grocery store, taking mainly meat and chicken, according to a report in the Telegraph Journal. Derrick Richard Green pled guilty in front of Judge William McCarroll and was sentenced to six months in jail.
Courts are more and more hearing counts of individuals stealing meat to satisfy an addiction. Mary Ann Campbell, the director of the Centre for Criminal Justice Studies and an associate professor of psychology at the University of New Brunswick Saint John noted such thefts happen when moral boundaries are stretched to a breaking point and beyond.
"It's the kind of thing that you don't know what you're capable of doing until you're in desperate circumstances," Campbell said. "We all like to think, 'I would never do that. There's something different about me than them.' But once you're put into that situation, some of the moral boundaries may become more flexible because it's what you see as your only option."
Duty counsel John King told McCarroll that Green’s shoplifting was an activity conducted in an effort to help him buy more pills. The need to feed an addiction can be great and stolen meat and other items can be sold for a fraction of the original price and the funds used to buy pills.
King also pointed out that such activities are about much more than just getting high. For an individual with a severe addiction, they are simply trying to prevent becoming deathly sick.
Consider an addict and what he or she may deal with if they go too long without the drug. When taking OxyContin or Dilaudid – synthetic heroin – withdrawal can begin as early as six hours after the last hit and can mimic those of a heroin addiction: restlessness, insomnia, diarrhea, vomiting, cold flashes with goose bumps, kicking movements and muscle and bone pain.
