Drug Dealers Did Not Kill Cecilia Gentili. Prohibition Did.
A federal indictment unsealed this week charges two men, Antonio Venti and Michael Kuilan, with supplying the drugs that killed transgender activist Cecilia Gentili. Among other things, Venti and Kuilan are accused of causing Gentili’s death by distributing a mixture of heroin and fentanyl, a felony punishable by a mandatory minimum of 20 years in prison and a maximum of life.
Gentili “was tragically poisoned in her Brooklyn home from fentanyl-laced heroin,” says Breon Peace, the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York. “Fentanyl is a public health crisis. Our Office will spare no effort in the pursuit of justice for the many New Yorkers who have lost loved ones due to this lethal drug.” The indictment “delivers a strong message to anyone who profits from poisoning our communities with illicit drugs,” New York City Police Commissioner Edward Caban adds. “It is imperative that we continue to hold distributors accountable for their callous actions.”
That self-righteous stance is pretty audacious given the role that drug warriors like Peace and Caban played in killing Gentili. If Venti and Kuilan were “callous,” how should we describe public officials who are dedicated to enforcing laws that predictably cause thousands of deaths like this one every year?
Those laws create a black market in which the composition and potency of drugs is uncertain and highly variable. They also push traffickers toward highly potent drugs such as fentanyl, which are easier to conceal and smuggle. As a result, drug users like Gentili typically do not know exactly what they are consuming, which magnifies the risk of a fatal mistake. The “poisoning” that Peace and Caban decry therefore is a consequence of the policies they are proudly enforcing in this very case.
In this context, it would be perverse to hold Gentili responsible for causing her own death. Peace and Caban instead blame Venti and Kuilan, which might seem more plausible until you consider the complexities of illicit drug distribution. As the Drug Policy Alliance notes, “People who sell drugs rarely know the exact contents of their drug supply or a given dose. Research shows drug mixing is typically done at much higher levels of the supply chain.”
It seems quite unlikely that Venti, who allegedly sold drugs to Gentili, knew exactly what the powder contai
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