Is murder the right charge for drug dealing? Some states think so.
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In several states, people are going to prison — for life — for murder. Only they never shot or stabbed someone, and they never intended to kill anyone. Instead, this group of people is being charged for murder for merely supplying a drug.
With deaths from heroin and opioids at their highest level in U.S. history, prosecutors have begun charging those who supplied the final dose with murder, even when that person is the deceased's friend, lover, sibling or spouse.
The new initiative is sometimes in direct conflict with good Samaritan laws, which protect addicts from being charged if they call 911 when a fellow user is overdosing. The tougher approach also is in marked contrast to a growing movement that seeks to treat drug addiction as a disease and public-health crisis rather than criminal behavior.
Prosecutors in New Jersey, Tennessee, West Virginia, and Louisiana have recently dusted off dormant War on Drugs-era laws to subject sellers and providers to homicide charges and stiff sentences on par with convictions for shooting, beating or poisoning people to death. In New York, Ohio, and Virginia, lawmakers have introduced bills to allow murder charges to be filed in drug-overdose deaths.
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