MOBILE, Alabama – After being signed into law, a new bill in Alabama charges people with killing if they sell fentanyl and that kills someone.
State Representative Chris Pringle (R-District 101) pushed for House Bill 10 because he knew people who overdosed on this drug.
Pringle said, “The drug dealers are mean, mean, mean people.” “My bill only says that you can be charged with manslaughter if you sell a controlled substance and cause someone to die while not being a doctor or pharmacist and not being allowed to do so by law.”
This is what the National Center for Drug Abuse Statistics says: Every day, opioids kill more than 136 Americans.
One mother whose son died of an overdose on heroin thinks this bill doesn’t go far enough.
“I’m just afraid that they will be, that the police will be able to say, “Well, we can’t look into it.” Ann Cheshire said, “There is no fentanyl.”
Lori Myles, who is in charge of public relations for the Mobile County Sheriff’s Office, lost her son to an overdose of fentanyl in 2022. She thinks this bill is a big step forward for the state.
“People who sell drugs know what they’re doing when they mix fentanyl with other drugs,” Myles said. “Because they put other people in danger, I do believe they should be held responsible.”
Myles said that things like this need to be talked about, even though it’s hard.
Virginia Guy, who is the head of the Drug Education Council, thinks that the drug dealers will pay attention to the new rule.
“Death dealers will know that if they sell any kind of fentanyl as a drug, they can be charged to the fullest extent of the law,” Guy said. No guns or knives are being used; fentanyl is being used instead.
Manslaughter is a class B felony, which means that people who are found guilty will spend up to 20 years in jail.
Myles, Guy, and Pringle all agree that it is important to get the word out about fentanyl because the number of deaths from it keeps going up.
Pringle and Guy want to change or make a new law that would require people who have had an accident or are in jail for drug crimes to take a saliva test to see if the drugs they did contain fentanyl.
Source: Fox10tv
