The Senate approved the comprehensive legislative package
Tuesday. It seeks to build on existing state-level laws, programs and services
enacted over the past several years to strengthen awareness and education,
prevention, and treatment and recovery efforts.
It also takes aim at heroin traffickers and dealers.
It includes legislation (S2761) to allow law enforcement to
charge a drug dealer with homicide, a class A-1 felony carrying a penalty of
15-25 years in prison, if a person dies of an overdose of heroin or other
opiate-controlled substance sold by that dealer. The measure targets mid- to
high- level drug suppliers who profit from heroin sales.
"Awareness and education, prevention and treatment are
fundamental responses. But so are tough laws and law enforcement, especially
when it comes to heroin traffickers and dealers. I agree that we can’t arrest
our way out of this crisis, but we shouldn’t hesitate to throw the book at the
pushers and suppliers of this deadly drug," said O’Mara.
Other pieces of legislation O’Mara is co-sponsoring, many of
which have bipartisan support in the Legislature, and the Senate approved
yesterday include measures to:
- facilitate the conviction of drug dealers (S638) by
establishing a felony crime of intent to sell for possessing 50 or more
packages of a Schedule I opium derivative, or possessing $300 or more worth of
such drugs. Under current law, dealers can carry large quantities of the drug
before triggering a felony charge of possession (S638);
- add six new derivatives of Fentanyl to the controlled
substance schedule regulated by the state Department of Health. Fentanyl and
fentanyl-laced heroin have caused many of the overdose deaths statewide
(S5884);
- create new criminal penalties for heroin sales that take
into account the lighter weight of heroin. Heroin weighs less than other drugs
and, consequently, more doses of heroin are needed to trigger various, existing
criminal offenses (S880);
- make the sale of a controlled substance by an adult to a
minor under the age of 14 a Class A-II felony (S3845); and
- require health care practitioners to consult with patients
on the risks associated with an opioid prescription and the patient’s option to
have the prescription written for a lower quantity (S5670).
The Senate created its heroin task force in 2014 at a time
when local police departments and addiction centers, including many across the
Southern Tier and Finger Lakes regions, were pointing to the alarming rise in
the availability and use of heroin. O’Mara sponsored a task force hearing at
Elmira College in early 2014 and another in Yates County early last year. He
said that since 2014, while the work of the task force has helped enact
important new state-level laws and other responses, the heroin crisis has grown
increasingly urgent. Consequently, task force members are continuing to develop
legislative recommendations for preventing the drug’s spread and treating those
addicted.
O’Mara credits the local input senators have received at the
forums for driving increased state funding and new laws over the past three
years. The task force has heard testimony from regional law enforcement
officers, treatment professionals, recovering addicts and family members,
social services and mental health professionals, and other experts about the
range of complex challenges posed by heroin including addiction prevention and
treatment options, awareness and education, drug-related crimes, and other
community and public safety impacts.
O’Mara said, "This input from those on the front lines
locally have targeted the necessary responses. We need to keep working, at
every level of government, to keep our laws, programs and services ahead of
this public health crisis. We can’t let up for one second on the alarming threat
of heroin, opioids, meth, synthetic substances, bath salts and other illegal
drugs spreading throughout our communities. In particular, the growing heroin
crisis is far too great a risk to spiral out of control and overwhelm
individual lives along with local systems of health care, law enforcement,
criminal justice and social services."
