In this case It certainly appears that this sentence was...

In this case It certainly appears that this sentence was incredibly light . There was a young guy I knew here in Melbourne , his sister rented a house from me , seemed a very nice young guy at around the age of 16 , you could sense he had some problems , and he was attracted to drugs even then ..starting with drop smoking , the Meth just pushed him over the edge and he committed a very similar action against an Older gent who was also helping him , plus he knew this guy well ... However , he was convicted for murder , not manslaughter even though the described situations were so similar .

Its been an intersting thread to read though , Drugs are a huge problem in our society . I smoked a lot of dope when I was young , In two stints , for about 18 months from the Age of 17 , and a second wind around the age of 25 for two years . I wouldn't smoke anything Now ..no way , I despise cigarettes , and would never touch dope again because I believe its incredibly harmful , even though I did consider these periods " Fun " ..and being honest they were . I can still recall catching my first Wave stoned , It just put all in a different perspective ..But , I was lucky , I saw the evil side also ...and a girlfriend who had quite incredible mental problems at the Age of 22 .

Whats happened since for young people , well Its obviously become far worse , everybody including young professionals are using party drugs ..Drugs are Kool ( they were in my time also ) .

I dont have answers unfortunately , but its a never ending problem , we certainly in our western culture are far too accepting of Alochol . In the true sense of definition , there would be many Alocholics here at hotcopper , many who drink well outside the guidelines . Safe consumption levels have certainly decreased over the years , I think I drink far too much and have built up a resillience over 30 years of use ...but its an incredible problem for our society also .

A cocktail of mental illness , heavy use of Alochol to self medicate , progressing to the use of other drugs ..Meth , and " e's " , coke ...you name it , one thing for sure its a rescipe for Diaster .

How Can these problems be seriously addressed ?
Well , I now one thing ..topping a few drug couriers certainly wont make even a tiny impact . You will never win on the supply side ..then what do we do With our Legal " Habits " ?