Dead at 22

When a 22 year old Surrey youth left a drug house with a supply of drugs he had no idea that his life was about to be taken from him for the crime of possession of said drugs.The RCMP,who had the house under surveillance,pulled the vehicle he was riding in over for a traffic violation.It's amazing how that always works.Once they had the car pulled over,they arrested both occupants for suspicion of drug crimes.The young guy in question had a baggie of some form of narcotic in his mouth and when he saw what was going down,he decided to swallow the dope to avoid arrest.The bag,unfortunately,stuck in his wind pipe and sent him into medical distress.Evidently the RCMP and para medics were unfamiliar with the hymlich(sp) manouever and watched him die.Another fine example of how our drug laws can be used to alleviate a drug addiction with a little law enforcement.I'm sure the parents of Brian Wittlaw are very grateful to the RCMP for curing their sons drug habit.This is another in an ever growing list of people for whom the war on drugs has proven to be far more fatal than any harm the drugs may have caused.The police were quick to blame the death on the drugs he swallowed.The fact that there was no time for them to have taken effect made no difference to the RCMP.They are now admitting it was asphyxiation that was the cause of death.I think they were the only people in the picture that were unaware of that from the beginning.