Human Addiction Permeates Canadian Double Murder

Kawku Grimpong is accused of shooting Ziad Ahmad and Phillip Salmon two years ago in Ottawa, Canada. The CBC is highlighting the fact that the weapon used by Grimpong was a “straw purchase” smuggled into Canada from the United States. The second paragraph of the story tells the reader what type of weapon was used and points out that the “pistol costs less than a base-model iPod in the U.S. The only inference one can draw from this is that Americans like cheap guns over cheap music players. What the story doesn’t highlight is the fact that human addiction, some state sponsored, runs rampant in this tragedy.

Grimpong burst into a hotel room where the victims were staying in a botched robbery attempt. Both men were smoking crack and Grimpong fired a single shot that killed both Ahmad who was hit in the head and Salmon, who was hit in the chest. No doubt Grimpong has a desire for some crack of his own.

Lawrence Sears, the original resale buyer who bought the weapon in Maine sold it to smuggler Andrew Porter. Sears sold the firearm to Porter to cover gambling debts.

“I thought I’d get lots of money,” Sears said. “I ended up getting screwed. But I had a gambling habit at the time and that’s how I spent the money. I spent it all gambling.”

Smuggler Porter, a property manager, was addicted to video slot machines, which are legal in many U.S. casinos. His lawyer says Porter is sickened to hear about the murders but wasn’t thinking strait because of his addiction.

And that’s what this story should be about, addiction. Getting hooked on drugs or gambling for an easy high will cause many to break the law in an attempt to regain the feeling of pleasure such activity elicits. It doesn’t matter what weapon was used or where it came from. The fact is the human brain has flaws and if we are going to tolerate behavior that leads to addiction we have to accept a certain level of violence from those who can’t control their primitive pleasure responses.