Ex-Medical Student From Canada Sentenced In Falls Church Woman's 2019 Fatal Overdose

FALLS CHURCH, VA — A former medical student from Ontario, Canada, was sentenced on Tuesday to one year in prison for distributing MDA — a psychedelic drug similar to MDMA, or “molly” — that resulted in the fatal overdose of a 21-year-old Falls Church woman in 2019, according to the U.S. attorney’s office.

Saad Jalal, 28, was doing a clinical rotation in D.C. as part of medical school when he met the victim and her roommates at a bar, according to court documents. A few weeks later, Jalal and the women made plans to go out together again, and Jalal offered to get some MDMA for the women from a supplier he knew in Maryland, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia said in a news release Tuesday.

Jalal obtained what he believed was MDMA but was actually MDA, or methylenedioxyamphetamine, a controlled substance of similar chemical structure.

On Sept. 19, 2019, after Jalal obtained the MDA from his connection, he went to the home of the victim and her roommates in Falls Church. The roommates and Jalal then drove into D.C. to pick up the victim from her workplace, according to court documents.

After getting picked up from work, the victim took the MDA. She became noticeably impaired. Jalal and the victim’s roommates decided to take her back to her home in Falls Church. She then became unresponsive.

The victim was later pronounced dead, and her death was ruled an accidental overdose caused by MDA intoxication.

U.S. District Judge Leonie M. Brinkema announced the one-year prison sentence on Tuesday.