A Dutch court last week found two people guilty of illegally distributing the suicide powder known as X, though they were given light sentences.
According to NL Times, Tineke B. (74) and Jos van Wijk (76), the former director of the pro-euthanasia organization Coöperatie Laatste Wil (CLW), were both found guilty of supplying the drug X in collaboration with Alex S., who was convicted last year. Despite their direct roles in the deaths of others, the two received light sentences; B. received a suspended prison sentence of one year with a probation period of four years, while Van Wijk received a suspended prison sentence of four months and a probation period of one year.
The court found that because of B.’s involvement in the distribution of the drug, at least one woman died.
“As a result of their mediation, this lady was given Drug X and an antiemetic with which she ultimately ended her life,” the court said. In a victim statement, the woman’s daughter said B. interfered with the relationship the woman had with her mother. “As a result of which, she was unable to assist her mother in the final phase of her life in the way that she wanted,” the court said.
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The court also ruled that because van Wijk was running CLW, he should have taken a stronger stance against the drug’s distribution. “He allowed a culture to continue in which drug X could be provided by the group. His intention to participate in the criminal organization can be deduced from the conscious development and continuation of a certain culture in which rules are broken and in which the man was even actively involved at times.”
The two were said to be collaborators with Alex S., who was convicted last year of circumventing the country’s regulations by selling X on the internet for profit, without verifying who his clients were. His actions were said to have led to the deaths of 10 individuals, though he distributed more than 1,600 packets of the drug.
According to a report from 113 Suicide Prevention Foundation and GGD Amsterdam released in April, at least 172 people have died from taking the drug X.
