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Working on databases from prison

(turso.tech)
849 points dvektor | 10 comments | 16 Jun 25 12:32 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source | bottom
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croemer ◴[16 Jun 25 16:44 UTC] No.44291172[source]▶
Great story, I wish this inspired more prisons around the world to follow suit.

For those who don't want to hit Google, the conviction was for possessing 30g of a synthetic opioid "U-47700". A normal dose is ~1mg, 10mg can be deadly (so this was 30000 trips or killing 3000).

The drug became illegal across the US on November 14, 2016.

"Police said they found the drug in Thorpe’s apartment in Manchester in December 2016" (https://apnews.com/general-news-d68dca63e95946fbb9cc82f38540...)

"Preston Thorpe, age 25, was sentenced by the Hillsborough County Superior Court (Northern District) to 15 to 30 years stand committed in the New Hampshire State Prison for possession of the controlled drug 3,4-dicholo-N-[2-(dimethylamino)-cyclohexyl]-N-methylbenzamide (also known as "U-47700") with the intent to distribute. U-47700 is a synthetic opioid that is classified as a Schedule I drug." (https://www.doj.nh.gov/news-and-media/preston-thorpe-sentenc...)

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TulliusCicero ◴[16 Jun 25 16:47 UTC] No.44291213[source]▶
Wow, 15-30 years seems like an insane amount of time for drug possession. Even if the amount implied dealing, that still seems really high. Don't people typically get less than that for sexual assault or armed robbery?
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zaphar ◴[16 Jun 25 16:53 UTC] No.44291254[source]▶
I don't know. If you are in posession of enough of a controlled substance to kill 300 people I'm kind of okay with a drastic response. For every Preston Thorpe who turns their life around there 100s of others who will just go out and keep endangering lives like this. I think this is a nuanced topic and 10-30 years is too much for drug possession is entirely lacking the necessary nuance to evaluate. Comparison to other crimes is not particularly useful either without going into the relative harms of each as compared to the harms of the other.
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1. stickfigure ◴[16 Jun 25 17:15 UTC] No.44291412[source]▶
"enough of a controlled substance to kill" is an absurd, inflammatory metric. They guy was selling a good to willing and aware buyers and we have no reason to believe he was trying to kill anyone.

He shouldn't be in prison, period.

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2. zurfer ◴[16 Jun 25 17:27 UTC] No.44291536[source]▶
Drug dealers should face prison time. They know that they are breaking the law and potentially ruining lifes for their own profit.
3. simulator5g ◴[16 Jun 25 17:32 UTC] No.44291581[source]▶
I really doubt he told the buyers this was synthetic BS, more likely he lied to all his customers about the substance and thus could have killed them due to mis-dosing...
4. Aurornis ◴[16 Jun 25 18:01 UTC] No.44291827[source]▶
> They guy was selling a good to willing and aware buyers

In general, high-potency opioids are cut (diluted) with other powders and then sold as a different product to unsuspecting buyers.

Most fentanyl overdoses are from people who thought they were consuming a different, more familiar opioid. Fentanyl and other synthetic opioids like this one are preferred by drug dealers because it's much easier to smuggle a tiny amount of powder and cut it 1000X than to smuggle the real product.

It's nearly impossible for amateurs to properly dilute a powder like this, so the end product has a lot of "hot spots" that lead to overdose.

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5. Hamuko ◴[16 Jun 25 18:17 UTC] No.44292006[source]▶
>They guy was selling a good to willing and aware buyers

How do you know that they were both willing and aware? Just how aware is your average drug buyer on what they're buying and how upfront your average drug seller on what they're selling?

6. skeeter2020 ◴[16 Jun 25 18:36 UTC] No.44292191[source]▶
>> to willing and aware buyers

This part is really debatable, based on what we're seeing with overdoses. The dealers (probably) know what they're selling but I'm not sure the buyers do, which even for a legal good would be a crime.

7. BeetleB ◴[16 Jun 25 19:21 UTC] No.44292606[source]▶
> They guy was selling a good to willing and aware buyers and we have no reason to believe he was trying to kill anyone.

People have already addressed the "aware" part, but "willing"? Really? Do you understand how addiction works?

I'd bet a lot of money that they saved some number of lives by catching him. He was engaging in an activity that had a high probability of resulting in some deaths. I can sell knives in a store, and I have a reasonable level of confidence that no one died because of those knives. Here, the probabilities are inverted.

8. potato3732842 ◴[17 Jun 25 02:01 UTC] No.44295110[source]▶
They're sold as some other known opiod and the dealers typically try to dose them to be equivalent because that's all they're getting paid for.

There is no incentive to give out "free drugs", not least because you might kill an otherwise paying customer.

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9. lurk2 ◴[17 Jun 25 10:21 UTC] No.44297489[source]▶
> we have no reason to believe he was trying to kill anyone.

If someone gave a loaded hand gun to a small child, there might not be any reason to believe that this person was trying to kill the small child, but when the child inevitably shoots himself or someone else, the one who gave the child the gun in the first place shares at least some of the blame.

You may protest that children are not comparable to adult drug addicts; to this, I’d suggest taking a walk through any major metro area in America and deciding for yourself if “willing and aware” are appropriate words to describe these addicts.

10. lurk2 ◴[17 Jun 25 10:22 UTC] No.44297492{3}[source]▶
> There is no incentive to give out "free drugs", not least because you might kill an otherwise paying customer.

I take it you’ve never seen Runaway Jury?