BATON ROUGE — Heroin-related deaths in East Baton Rouge Parish have reached a record high this year, prompting the region’s coroner to call for tougher laws targeting heroin dealers.

Thirty-eight people have died from heroin overdoses so far this year, about an 8.5 percent increase from Baton Rouge’s previous record of 35 such deaths in 2013, Coroner Beau Clark said in a news conference Monday.

Clark said he will push the Louisiana Legislature this spring to stiffen penalties for heroin dealers.

“Anyone who sells heroin should go to jail forever,” Clark said.

Heroin dealers differ from other drug dealers because their product too often kills the user, Clark said.

“A heroin dealer is a violent offender,” Clark said. “Their weapon may not be a gun or a knife.”

The victims of this year’s heroin death toll range in age from their teens to their 60s. Clark said the drug has affected all races, though most deaths have been among white males.

State lawmakers passed a bill last year that increased the maximum prison sentence for second-time heroin dealers to 99 years. First-time dealers can be imprisoned for up to 50 years.

Some legislators and community members opposed the law, saying it meant people convicted of selling heroin could stay in jail for longer than some killers or rapists. Instead, they questioned whether the state should invest more in treatment.

State Sen. Dan Claitor, R- Baton Rouge, was the lead author on the 2014 bill. He said he plans to meet with Clark, local district attorneys and criminal defense representatives before deciding what kind of legislation to pursue in the spring.

Baton Rouge’s biggest spike in heroin-related deaths came between 2012 and 2013, when the number shot up from five deaths to 35 deaths. The number dipped to 28 deaths last year before breaking the record this year.