DEATH BY DISTRIBUTION?

Advocates say proposal to punish drug dealers more harshly will increase overdoses

BY TAYLOR KNOPF, NC HEALTH NEWS

With drug overdoses and deaths increasing in North Carolina, as they have in many parts of the country, a bill to strengthen penalties for illegal drug distribution is quickly moving through the state legislature.

Senate Republicans introduced Senate Bill 189 in early March during a news conference where lawmakers were surrounded by law enforcement and families who have lost loved ones to drug overdoses. Some North Carolina sheriffs and prosecutors say they need this bill to impose higher penalties and lengthier prison sentences on people who distribute fentanyl — the potent synthetic opioid that’s been added to many street drugs in recent years.

“Incarceration should also be used as a tool to help stop people from distributing, selling fentanyl and other drugs. And putting criminals who distribute fentanyl behind bars will help to disrupt the supply of fentanyl and send a clear message that this kind of behavior will be unacceptable,” said bill sponsor Sen. Michael Lazzara (R-Jacksonville) during a legislative committee meeting.

The bill sailed through the Senate with unanimous support and is awaiting a committee hearing in the state House of Representatives.

But some substance use experts say this approach to a public health crisis will likely cost more lives.

“This law feels like death by 1,000 paper cuts, because they’re all minor changes — all of which are harmful and none of which we have any reason to believe actually reduces the harms of the drug supply in our community,” said Jennifer Carroll, a substance use researcher and assistant professor of anthropology at North Carolina State University.

As the drug overdose epidemic has steadily worsened over the past decade, state lawmakers have tried several approaches in attempts to curb the problem — from legalizing syringe exchanges to funding addiction treatment to harsher penalties for drug distribution. In 2019, lawmakers passed a “death by distribution” law that allows prosecutors to charge someone with second-degree murder if they sell drugs to someone who then dies of an overdose.

Senate Bill 189 would essentially strengthen the state’s death by distribution law. Advocates for people who use drugs say these types of laws only disrupt the drug supply, which creates more potential for overdoses. Additionally, with seconddegree murder charges on the line, advocates say people using drugs will be hesitant to call for emergency services if someone overdoses.

“Funds desperately needed to bolster public health in vulnerable, and often overlooked, communities are instead funneled to outdated and fruitless tactics that do nothing to save lives,” reads a statement issued by the North Carolina Survivors Union, a community-led statewide harm reduction organization of people impacted by drug use.

Harm reduction organizations aim to reduce the negative effects of drug use by providing sterile injection and drug use supplies, testing for hepatitis C and HIV, providing an opioid overdose reversal drug called naloxone, and other supplies and resources to people in active substance use.

Drug dealer vs. drug user

In his 36 years as a prosecutor, Ernie Lee said he’s seen some of the same people cycle in and out of jails and prisons and continue to use drugs. Now he’s seeing multiple generations of people in the same families using drugs and getting arrested.

Lee is the district attorney for Sampson, Duplin, Jones and Onslow counties — rural counties in eastern North Carolina with few treatment options for mental health and substance use issues.

“There has to be punishment, but I also wish there could be more treatment while you’re being punished,” Lee said while at the state legislature supporting Senate Bill 189. “Because otherwise it just becomes a revolving door. It becomes very expensive for the state of North Carolina. Also it’s just the right thing to do. These people have problems.”

Lee said people in his area of the state need to be able to get help locally instead of being forced by lack of options to travel hours away to the Triangle area.

But Lee and many other prosecutors draw a firm distinction between people using drugs and drug dealers.

“For those people out there selling drugs, I have no sympathy for them, because they are basically profiting off of others’ misery,” Lee said. “I’ve not been hesitant about prosecuting an individual for second-degree murder, where they cause the death of someone by selling drugs to them.”

Advocates for people who use drugs say the line between dealer and user isn’t so clear cut. Some people who use drugs will sell enough drugs to support their own drug habit or to supply just their friends or family members with drugs.

People who use drugs are encouraged, for safety reasons, not to use drugs alone. So if someone has supplied drugs to someone they are using with, and that person overdoses, those folks are going to hesitate to call for help — for fear of being charged with second-degree murder, advocates say.

Good Samaritan Law

People are always encouraged to call for help in the event of an overdose. And a 2015 update to the state’s 2013 Good Samaritan Law provides limited immunity from certain drug possession charges if someone calls 911 during a medical emergency.

Senate Bill 189 sponsors say they still want people to call for help, and the bill would add possession of up to 1 gram of fentanyl to the Good Samaritan Law protections in North Carolina.

But advocates have long said the state’s Good Samaritan Law doesn’t go far enough. There are questions as to whether the victim of the overdose or others at the scene of an overdose would receive the same limited legal protections from arrest or prosecution if someone called for help.

“It’s really hard for folks to want to put themselves at risk for any type of engagement with law enforcement,” said Ainsley Bryce, executive director of Holler Harm Reduction in Madison County.

Bryce said that there were 17 overdoses reported to Holler Harm Reduction in the first two weeks of March. People at only two of those incidents called 911 for help because they didn’t have naloxone available.

“That’s 15 people who were just not willing to interact with law enforcement because they were afraid of arrest,” she said.

“These laws don’t offer protections, and they’re