Drug Induced Homicide Defense Toolkit
crimes through judicial decisions rather than legislation.320 The result was to vacate the defendant's conviction for involuntary manslaughter. Of course, the most sensible approach would be to avoid the convoluted arguments about what sorts of behaviors count as "reckless" and to instead make the drug supply safer by regulating it. G. Better approaches to the overdose crisis Prosecutors are under intense pressure to demonstrate that they are “doing something” about the overdose crisis. There are much more effective approaches to solving the crisis than these counterproductive DIH enforcement efforts, and they are far more cost-effective. Numerous cost-benefit analyses have found that treatment outperforms punitive measures; it reduces demand.321 Yet only around one in ten people with substance use disorder receive any type of appropriate evidence-based treatment, 322
320
Commonwealth v. Carrillo, S131 N.E.3d 812 (Mass. 2019). See also Section III.A.2.
321
For example, a 1997 study found that treatment was 15 times more effective at reducing drug-related violent crimes than incarceration; and a 2006 study found that Wisconsin could reduce prison expenditures by $3 to $4 per additional dollar spent on treatment. See Przybylsk, Correctional and Sentencing Reform for Drug Offenders at 29-32 (describing studies). 322
See Marc R. Larochelle et al., Medication for Opioid Use Disorder After Nonfatal Opioid Overdose and Association With Mortality: A Cohort Study, 169 Annals Internal Med. 137 (2018), http://annals.org/aim/article-abstract/2684924/medication-opioid-use-disorder-after-nonfatal-opioid-overdo se-association-mortality#. See also U.S. Surgeon General, Facing Addiction in America: The Surgeon General’s Report on Alcohol, Drugs, and Health (2016), https://addiction.surgeongeneral.gov/sites/default/files/surgeon-generals-report.pdf.
Version Date July 2021 – Check https://ssrn.com/abstract=3265510 for most current edition
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