Lawmakers are admitting laws designed to give heroin dealers a chance to stay out of prison are failures, bringing back harsher sentencing penalties for trafficking the drug.
A previous law differentiated between those engaged in the bulk transport and distribution of heroin and addicts who sold smaller amounts to support their addiction. The state Senate voted unanimously to classify any dealing of heroin as a Class C felony, eliminating the chance for dealers to avoid prison for a stint in rehab, reports Pauls Valley Daily Democrat.
The previous reform, enacted in 2009, made smaller amounts of heroin dealing a Class D felony, giving offenders a chance for alternative legal punishments.
“We all had good intentions, but in retrospect I think it was a mistake,” Republican Kentucky Sen. John Schickel said on the Senate floor, according to Pauls Valley Daily Democrat. “If you’re dealing in heroin, being an addict is no excuse. If you’re dealing in heroin, you’re dealing in death.”
Some advocates of criminal justice reform support reduced sentencing for so called non-violent offenders, but many criticize applying that label to people dealing in deadly narcotics. A major heroin dealer with previous drug convictions recently dodged a lengthy prison sentence in New Jersey, despite getting caught with 83 heroin bricks worth $25,000, sparking outrage from local communities.
Kentucky lost 1,273 residents to drug overdoses in 2015, a 21 percent spike over the death rate in 2014. A prescription painkiller originally pitched as difficult to abuse, appears to bear primary responsibility for propelling the surge in heroin deaths since 2010. Purdue Pharma reformulated one of the most powerful painkillers on the market in 2010 to make it harder to abuse, which forced users to turn to heroin in states with high OxyContin abuse rates.
Kentucky had an OxyContin misuse rate of 97 percent between 2004 and 2008. Heroin fatalities were on a steady decline in the state until 2010, when Purdue Pharma reformulated the pill. Heroin deaths in Kentucky have more than tripled since 2010.
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