Judge
Accused
of
Heroin
Use,
Corruption
10/29/99
A Pennsylvania District Judge was stripped of her duties last week (10/23) after being charged with using heroin and improperly dismissing charges against her dealer. Judge Gigi Sullivan, 38, allegedly took drugs in exchange for dropping charges against Donald Geraci and others within his illicit operation, as well as tipping them off to arrest warrants and searches. Judge Sullivan's attorney, Patrick Thomassey, told reporters that his client had developed an addiction to prescription medication following an injury. "She managed to keep a handle on that, with help," said Mr. Thomassey, "but apparently something happened and she ended up in this position." Al Robison, retired professor of pharmacology and current president of the Drug Policy Forum of Texas, told The Week Online that the allegations point to the increase in the destructiveness of a particular substance based upon its legal status. "For all intents and purposes," said Dr. Robison, "addiction is addiction is addiction. It is not surprising that this judge was able to 'keep a handle' on her problem when the drugs she was abusing were available through legal or semi-legal channels. Assuming these allegations prove true, it is apparent that once she began using a substance available only in the black market, she became subject to the corrupting influence of prohibition. A medical problem then became a much broader problem with much broader consequences. We see this in the fact that the abuse of prescription medication generally leads to treatment or health-based intervention of some sort, while our prisons are full of people who find themselves addicted to drugs that, while no more dangerous than many prescribed medications, are distributed only illegally."
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