Merritt to Seek Longer Sentences for Fentanyl, Repeal-and-Replace of Synthetic Drug Ban
Senator says soaring opioid epidemic calls for get-tough approach
(INDIANAPOLIS) – Legislators fighting the opioid epidemic may shift their focus next year to punishing drug dealers.
Indianapolis Senator Jim Merritt (R) says he’ll introduce several bills which would impose longer sentences for drug crimes. One would set an automatic 10-year minimum sentence for dealing the painkiller fentanyl. That would make it the only drug with a mandatory minimum in Indiana. Merritt says fentanyl or fentanyl mixed with other drugs is to blame for most of the soaring number of Indiana overdose deaths.
Merritt’s also calling for nonsuspendible prison terms for pharmacy robberies.
The emphasis on longer prison terms represents an about-face from a revision of Indiana’s sentencing laws three years ago, whose goals included seeking alternatives to prison for drug offenses. Merritt says that was “a different time.” With opioids becoming the main drug threat, Merritt says the stakes have grown, and says the state needs to send dealers a clear message.
Merritt says he’ll also introduce a bill to tear up Indiana’s laws attempting to outlaw synthetic drugs like Spice — laws Merritt authored. Merritt says the makers of those drugs continue altering their formulas faster than the state can outlaw them. He’s instead proposing an approach taken by Marion County Prosecutor Terry Curry to prosecute those drugs under a beefed-up version of Indiana’s “lookalike drug” law, imposing the same penalties for drugs which mimic marijuana or L-S-D as you’d get for the real thing.
Filed under: General Problems
This will not help to curb this so called “Opioid Epidemic”. Decriminalizing marijuana or I should say legalization of it will take a great deal of the bite away from illegal drugs. Overdoses and deaths will go WAY down as they have in Colorado and Oregon.
The costs to incarcerate people will go down as the result of this alone. For others who are genuinely addicted, we can better spend our dollars on prevention and rehabilitation. Mental health services, which are desperately needed, can get the funds to treat more people and more effectively. Punishing addicts for doing drugs is and has really never worked (think of the Prohibition Era). We can stop building new prisons and stop spending as much money on detective work on hunting down addicts. That money can be used to pay for university and community college education for everyone. That way students will have little to no student loan debt. Think of the economic boom that could become of this. They will be able to buy homes, new cars, etc. right away. This will lead to more money in state and federal budgets making it easier to make the needed repairs to our infrastructure, too.
Chronic pain patients can also benefit because medical marijuana will be more readily available, more and better non-drug related therapies could be made available, and for those who need it; opioids could have fewer restrictions leading to better pain relief and a more productive workforce.
At least they are targeting the right people with this law! Not that I foresee it working.