CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) - There would be stiffer prison sentences for trafficking in fentanyl, a powerful synthetic opioid that’s sometimes added to heroin and is blamed for many recent overdoses in West Virginia, under a bill approved Thursday by the state House.
It would establish a felony for possession with intent to distribute less than 5 grams of the narcotic with a minimum of two years and up to 10 years in prison. Penalties increase for larger amounts, reaching 20 to 45 years locked up for 500 grams or more.
“This doesn’t target users,” said Judiciary Committee Chairman John Shott, who characterized fentanyl as “a super poison …100 times more powerful than morphine.”
He said the bill targets traffickers “by enhancing the penalties against someone engaged in the manufacture, delivery or transportation of that poison.”
West Virginia recorded 717 overdose deaths last year, including 615 involving at least one opioid, according to health officials. That compares to 731 the year before, and 629 the year before that.
Two previous health crises that killed IV drug users turned out to be from HIV infections and Hepatitis C, said Del. Matthew Rohrbach. The Huntington Republican has been a physician for three decades.
“Now we’re plagued by another epidemic: IV drug users mysteriously dying in large numbers,” Rohrbach said. “I’m embarrassed to tell you that we had an episode of that in my city back in the fall: 27 people overdosed in a span of about four hours.”
“It’s the fentanyl mixed with heroin,” he said. Americans can go on their computers and order it from China, or to avoid possible detection they can order the components needed to make it along with instructions, as well as a pill press, he said.
According to the National Institutes of Health, the drug is typically used to treat patients with severe pain, including post-surgical pain. Effects include euphoria and drowsiness. It can cause people to stop breathing.
The House approved the bill, 95-3. It now goes to the Senate, where a companion measure has been introduced.
The House also passed legislation establishing a state office of drug control to collect and analyze crime and overdose data, including non-fatal overdoses, and use that to apply for and disburse related federal and foundation grants.
The office’s research, planning and support would aid prevention, treatment and other efforts to fight addiction and trafficking.
“There’s grant funding out there if you have the data to back up your requests,” Shott said. “One of the largest hindrances to obtaining any type of grant money, whether federal or outside funding such as foundations and so forth, is that lack of actual data to back up the severity of our problem.”
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