Bill to increase penalties for selling fentanyl-laced heroin moves to House

Published 11:59 am Friday, April 8, 2016

By American Press Staff

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">BATON ROUGE — House Administration of Criminal Justice Committee members on Thursday approved legislation that would increase the penalties for those convicted of distributing heroin combined with a powerful synthetic opiate known as fentanyl.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">House Bill 926, by Rep. Stephen Dwight, R-Moss Bluff, heads to the House floor with amendments. The penalties for distributing heroin with fentanyl would be 20 to 50 years in prison for a first conviction. The sentence for a second conviction would be 30 to 99 years, without parole.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Calcasieu Parish District Attorney John DeRosier testified in support of the legislation. He said fentanyl is made mainly in China and Mexico and shipped into the U.S. The medical version of fentanyl is used to treat severe pain for cancer patients and people who have undergone major surgery.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">“It is anywhere from 50 to 100 times as powerful as morphine,” DeRosier said. “It is the strongest painkiller of any kind.”</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">Mixing fentanyl with heroin, DeRosier said, makes the drug extremely addictive. Within the last two years, he said there have been about 700 overdoses in the northeastern U.S. on fentanyl-laced heroin.</span>

<span class="R~sep~ACopyBody">“It’s working its way south,” he said. “What I’m trying to do here is protect the public safety.” DeRosier said the number of deaths in New Orleans related to fentanyl use is higher than the city’s homicide rate.</span>

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