Wednesday, August 19, 2015

AG Eyes Stricter Laws For Fentanyl


Tuesday, August 18, 2015


Legislature will debate bill to combat synthetic drug that is linked to spikes in overdoses
By Todd Feathers
 
BOSTON — Attorney General Maura Healey and state legislators unveiled legislation Monday that would make trafficking fentanyl a crime punishable by up to 20 years in state prison. Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid that can be hundreds of times more potent than heroin, and in recent years, it has increasingly shown up in the toxicology reports of those who have fatally overdosed. But those caught with large quantities of the drug are subject to more lenient penalties than heroin dealers because there is no state trafficking law for fentanyl, only possession and distribution statutes that carry lesser punishments.

“More and more, police officers and law enforcement are finding heroin laced with fentanyl and sometimes fentanyl is showing up on its own,” Healey said during a press conference.

“The reality is that many heroin users don’t even realize that the drugs they are using contain fentanyl,” she added. “It looks just like heroin.”

The state does not track how many overdoses involved fentanyl, but the drug has been linked to regional spikes in opiate-related deaths.

There were more than 1,200 fatal opiate overdoses in the state last year. In
Lowell, there were 29, at a rate of about one every two weeks.

But in January, five people fatally overdosed on heroin in Lowell during a six-day span. It was the deadliest week for opiate addicts in the city since at least 2003, and when police received the test results on drugs seized in the region around that time, they found that some of what was being sold was not heroin at all, but pure fentanyl. 
 

“It’s unfortunate,” said state Rep. Thomas Golden, a Lowell Democrat. “It’s the new piece in the heroin trade — making it more potent and more dangerous. This stuff doesn’t come with a label and purity measures, so I’d have to commend the attorney general for doing this.”

 
Under current state law, anyone found with fentanyl in any amount can only be charged with possession or possession with the intent to distribute, each of which carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in state prison or 2 1/2 years in a house of correction, and a fine between $1,000 and $10,000.

Under the bill announced Monday, which was introduced by state Rep. John Fernandes, a Milford Democrat, and co-sponsored by more than 50 others, anyone caught with more than 10 grams of fentanyl would face up to 20 years in prison.

Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan, who spoke at the press conference in Boston, said that stronger drugs create stronger addictions, and the new measures offer prosecutors and law enforcement a tool to prevent heroin addictions from becoming even more dangerous than they already are.

“Today, trafficking in fentanyl is a relatively low-risk proposition,” Ryan said in an interview. “This will change that. Is it going to stop everyone? No. But this is another tool in our arsenal.”

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