Inquiry from Ireland about "Drug Debts"

An MOJ reader from Ireland e-mailed me with the following set of questions.  I’ll open comments, for anyone who would like to respond. 

The first e-mail explained:  “One of the difficulties facing young people in Ireland is that of drugs. Ireland has become more and more like other Western countries in recent years. Alasdair MacIntyre made an interesting comment about Ireland at the ND Fall conference about ten years ago. Ireland travelled the same path the USA travelled - in our case it was 10 years rather than 200 years.  Here is the quandary; parishioners and those with whom groups like the St. Vincent de Paul society work may have 'drug debts'. In these cases, failure to pay may mean mutilation or murder. Who pays the debts? Those who are drug addicts cannot. They either don't have the money or may buy drugs from another source. What are the obligations of the family of the addict? What of Church organisations? What of the obligation of the police?”

My Contracts Professor response to this reader was as follows:  “Of course any the analysis I can offer is only a crude one based on American common law generally; in the U.S., I think this would be entirely a matter of state law, which might vary in different states, and I have no idea what the law in Ireland is.  But, if I am understanding the question correctly, the answer really doesn't depend on what 'the law' says.  If the issue is debt to a drug dealer, presumably the transaction itself is illegal, and therefore the law wouldn't impose any sort of binding obligation on any party -- the only means of enforcing the debt would be the extra-legal methods you described -- ie, mutilation or murder.  Generally speaking, obligations incurred for the sale of anything are enforceable only as contracts -- ie, I promise to give you drugs, you promise to give me money.  But if the transaction is an illegal transaction, at least in the U.S., no court would enforce the contractual obligation.  More importantly, probably, no litigant would ever attempt to use a court to enforce such a contract; so the person wanting to collect is left to the extra-legal methods.  So I think the answer to your question is that no one has any legally enforceable obligation to 'pay the debt' -- not the parents, the Church organizations, or even the user, really.  That's the risk any dealer who is selling drugs without payment up front has to pay.”

The reader pressed me, though, and asking:  “What of the moral obligations here? I'm sure that the legal analysis will be in accordance with what you have written. The difficulty is that there is a possibility in some of these cases where a threat is made that it will be carried out. The right to bodily integrity and the right to life (either/or) of the one owing the debt and perhaps the right to bodily integrity and the right to life of some of his/her family and friends may be at stake. Whatever the law may state, there may also be obligations towards human life of the penitent drug user on the ethical level.  What of family, what of those who care for other members of the family? It's certainly a real problem. I know, from talking to a priest and a lawyer who deal with this issue, that when a debt is relatively small (some few hundred euro), it is recommended that the money be paid.”

Any thoughts?