Attorney General Maura Healey has filed legislation that would make the trafficking of the drug fentanyl illegal.
Advertisement
The legislation, which must still go through a hearing and a vote at the State House, is part of a broader push by law enforcement officials to reduce the opioid epidemic across the state.
Healey’s act, announced Monday, would specifically criminalize the trafficking of fentanyl for amounts greater than 10 grams. Those convicted would be sentenced to up to 20 years in state prison.
Healey said the state must balance offering treatment to those addicted to opioids with a tough approach to those trafficking in the substances for profit.
Because fentanyl is not a narcotic, it is not covered by the same criminal laws that apply to heroin and prescription painkillers that have fueled the state’s drug addiction crisis. Healey said in many instances heroin addicts are unaware that they drug they are using has been spiked with fentanyl.
“It is killing people”. “We need to do everything we can to get fentanyl off our streets”.
State and local police crime labs reported 3,334 fentanyl submissions in 2014, up from 942 in 2013, according to the National Forensic Laboratory Information System.
Healey wants to give law enforcement the ability to charge fentanyl distributors with trafficking to add consequences to dealing the drug. The Massachusetts State Police says the amount of Fentanyl turning up in drug samples has skyrocketed in the last 2 years-from 5 to more than 400 so far this year.
Cathy Fennelly, a South Shore mother who lost her 21-year-old son to a heroin overdose that included fentanyl, also attended the press conference and said she supported the legislation. “It is you, me, a judge, everybody”, she said. Dealers can add fentanyl to their products without alerting users which elevates the chance of a unsafe overdose.
” I watched my son Paul suffer for 8 long years”.
Advertisement
At her announcement, Healey was joined by state Rep. John Fernandes, D-Milford, who co-chairs the Legislature’s Judiciary Committee, Northwestern District Attorney David Sullivan and Middlesex County District Attorney Marian Ryan.
