Five young people have recently died under unclear circumstances in Värmland. The police suspect that the deaths are drug-related and in one of the cases have opened a preliminary investigation into drug offenses and causing the death of another.
Two convictions
It is unusual for sellers of drugs in Sweden to be convicted of causing the user’s death – so far only two cases have resulted in a conviction.
The most attention-grabbing case is the so-called fentanyl case in 2018. Two brothers were convicted in the district court, the court of appeals and one of them finally in the Supreme Court for grossly causing the death of another in eight cases, after they sold via the internet variants of the narcotic substance fentanyl, so-called fentanyl analogues, packaged in nasal spray bottles.
– The decisive factor for the outcome has above all been that the preparations have been particularly dangerous and difficult to dose. In this case, the defendant becomes liable even if the buyers themselves have chosen to use the preparations, said Justice Peter Asp in connection with the announcement of the verdict in the Supreme Court.
A similar case was brought up in the Linköping district court in 2020. Then a man was sentenced for grossly causing the death of another in three cases after he sold a fentanyl analog packaged in nasal spray bottles via the internet.
The Court of Appeal would later overturn the verdict and acquit the man completely because it considered that it could not be ruled out that “the deceased committed suicide by deliberate overdose of the preparation”.
Difficult to prove in drug cases
In order for the defendant to be convicted of causing the death of another, the prosecutor must prove that the defendant’s action caused the death and that the action was negligent, explains Magnus Berggren, deputy chief prosecutor in Uppsala.
It is not simply in drug cases, he believes.
– There are a number of different difficulties, for example what the deceased used something for: Is it only what has been handed over or is it a combination of things, i.e. several different types of narcotics. For example, you can imagine a combination of drugs and alcohol, and what significance it has for the death, says Magnus Berggren and continues:
– Then it can be more difficult to show negligence, i.e. “I have provided person a with preparation b but not with preparation c, but person a has taken both”. There are lots of complications.