Bill would make sale of drugs leading to death a felony
A bipartisan pair of Colorado state senators want drug distributors to face felony charges if the end-user dies from the product.
State Sens. Kyle Mullica, a Thornton Democrat, and Byron Pelton, a Sterling Republican, teamed up to introduce SB23-109. Both say it brings all drug sales in line with fentanyl law. Under the fentanyl law passed last year, it is a specific crime by the distributor if the end-user dies from using the drug.
“That lack of consistency struck me,” Mullica said of differences between selling fentanyl and heroin or methamphetamine. “That loss for our community is no different, the loss for those families is no different.”
Mullica and Pelton said they hope the bill will further deter drug use and sales in the state. A harm reduction group worries it would in effect deter people from calling for help if there is an overdose.
Under the proposal, a person convicted of selling or otherwise transferring drugs that leads to the user dying could face between eight and 32 years in prison.
Pelton called it “common sense.” Both senators said they heard from constituents and local district attorneys on the matter while campaigning this summer. Pelton, a former Logan County commissioner, said he saw too often through his county’s human services department how drug addiction tore apart lives and families.
The bill as written makes no special cases for instances such as people sharing drugs that result in one person’s death. Pelton said whether to bring distribution-resulting-indeath charges would be up to district attorneys to determine.
“This is actually to target the dealers, to get it off the streets,” Pelton said.
Lisa Raville, executive director of the Harm Reduction Action Center in Denver, characterized the effort as trying to arrest away the drug crisis. The Harm Reduction Action Center advocates for treating the overdose crisis as a public health matter, not a criminal one.
“We’ve tried stigma, shame, incarceration, DARE and all that’s brought us is this overdoes crisis situation with more potent drugs,” Raville said.
She juxtaposed Mullica and Pelton’s proposal against a recently announced bill by state Rep. Chris degruy Kennedy, a Lakewood Democrat. Degruy Kennedy’s bill would give Good Samaritan protections to people who report drug overdoses.
“In the worst overdose crisis we’ve ever been in, we need someone to be calling 911 and we need a paramedic response, not a law enforcement response,” Raville said.
Mullica, an emergency room nurse by trade, said he hopes his bill will be a deterrent to selling drugs, but is also just part of trying to tamp down on drug deaths.
“I think mental health, I think harm reduction, I think addiction treatment, all that should be part of this,” Mullica said. “But this is also something we need to look at. Our communities are saying hey, this isn’t all right. There need to be consequences when people come into our communities and deal drugs that kill people.”
Democrats have a supermajority in the state House of Representatives and a near-supermajority in the Senate. The party in recent years has steered toward less criminalization for drug use and toward treating it as a public health problem. Mullica said he hasn’t yet looked at Kennedy’s bill or talked with him about the effort.
“When you get into criminal justice, there’s a wide range of opinions, and I look forward to working with them,” Mullica said of his fellow Democrats. “But No. 1, I’m down here to represent my community.”
The bill does not yet have a hearing date.