CHARGES ON RISE FOR DRUG DEATHS
Locally and statewide, prosecutors more often treating overdoses as criminal homicides
NORRISTOWN » Drug delivery resulting in death charges are increasingly being filed by prosecutors statewide and Chester and Montgomery counties are among the areas leading the state in charging drug dealers with killing buyers, according to statistics compiled by the Administrative Office of Pennsylvania Courts.
Filing of the charge increased 356 percent
statewide between 2015 and 2019, according to the statistics. There were 54 such cases filed statewide in 2015 and that number soared to 272 in 2018 and 246 in 2019. Over the course of the fiveyear period, prosecutors filed the charge 871 times, according to the data.
York County led the state by filing the charge 100 times during the fiveyear period to represent 11.48 percent of the statewide total and in Lancaster County, the charge was filed 99 times, representing about 11.37 percent of the state total, according to the statistics.
In Chester County, the charge was filed 49 times between 2015 and 2019, representing 5.63 percent of the statewide total. The charge was filed 30 times in Montgomery County during the five-year period, representing 3.44 percent of the total cases statewide, according to the data.
The remaining top 10 counties with the highest percentage of drug delivery resulting in death offenses were: Westmoreland (6%); Dauphin (6%); Cumberland (5%); Franklin (4%); Bucks (4%); and Somerset (4%).
In Pennsylvania, the drug delivery resulting in death charge is issued to a person who intentionally administers, dispenses, delivers, gives, prescribes, sells or distributes any controlled substance or counterfeit controlled substance, and another person dies as a result of using the substance. About 75 percent of those charged with drug delivery resulting in death statewide were male and 40 percent of those charged were between the ages of 26 and 35, according to the Administrative Office of Pennsylvania Courts (AOPC). The AOPC highlights the work of the courts with data and statistics obtained through the judiciary’s case management systems, interactive dashboards and other research. The AOPC compiles the data but does not interpret it. Using the state’s drug delivery resulting in death laws, Montgomery County detectives investigate overdose deaths as potential homicides. The charge, similar to a third-degree murder offense, carries a maximum possible sentence of 20 to 40 years in prison. Between 2017 and 2019, a total of 397 overdose deaths were investigated by the county detective bureau’s Narcotics Enforcement Team in conjunction with local police, according to county statistics. “When we can prove that someone sold the poison that killed an overdose victim, we will be charging drug delivery resulting in death, and drug dealers need to know they will be on the hook for murder,” Montgomery County District Attorney Kevin R. Steele said in July when he released his 2019 annual deaths is someone’s loved one, friend or coworker who died too early,” Steele said. “We will continue to fight this scourge in every way we can.”
Comparatively, in 2015, there were 177 total overdose deaths and in 2016, the county recorded 249 overdose deaths. In 2017, there were 245 total overdose deaths, according to statistics provided by Steele.
Overdose deaths, Steele said, continue to be connected to the presence of fentanyl. Because fentanyl is 50 times stronger than heroin, it takes very little to cause someone to overdose and die and fentanyl continues to cause the majority of overdose deaths in the county, according to Steele.
The 2019 county statistics show that 160 of the total 251 overdose deaths involved fentanyl, either alone or in conjunction with other drugs.
Part of the driving force of the emergence of fentanyl is that it’s cheap and it’s potent, Steele explained. Fentanyl is a manufactured synthetic opioid, which according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, is produced primarily in China and Mexico.
While the majority of 2019 overdose deaths were related to fentanyl, fatal overdoses due to methamphetamine increased nearly threefold, from 13 in 2018 to 38 in 2019, according to statistics contained in Steele’s annual report. Cocaine deaths also appeared to be on the rise according to the 2019 data, representing 52 of the total overdose deaths, up from 42 in 2018.