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Tougher penalties won’t reduce overdoses
Tougher penalties won’t reduce overdoses
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There is a bill under consideration in the Maryland General Assembly that, if passed into law, would increase current criminal penalties, up to 20 years of imprisonment, for those who sell or distribute fentanyl or heroin to an individual who is harmed or dies from its use. Supporters of this legislation (HB 1245 and SB 1075) say that increasing punitive measures will deter drug suppliers, thereby decreasing the availability of these substances and saving lives.
Having lost my only son to a fentanyl overdose, I am respectful of the anger and grief that inspires advocacy for sparing others. While we agree that the tragedy of lost lives, shattered families, and human suffering begs for change, I am opposed to this legislation because there is no evidence to support the premise that it will combat the overdose crisis. In fact, research tells us the opposite is true.
It’s important to remember that distribution of illicit drugs is already illegal, with violators subject to imprisonment. This proposed legislation would increase the duration of prison sentences, a stance opposed by voices of experience from state organizations including the Maryland Office of the Public Defender, where the belief is that current penalties are harsh enough.
Testimony in opposition to the bill from NCADD-Maryland and the Behavioral Health System of Baltimore emphasized that this law counters needed reform and will not reduce overdose or deter drug distribution. In fact, they warn, it will lead to greater harms down the road, creating barriers to interventions that have been proven to save lives.
Public health experts and addiction researchers share a common theme: Tougher sentences for low-level distributors of drugs that contain fentanyl will not reduce overdose or deter distribution, nor they remind us, has increased imprisonment ever had an impact on drug use or drug-related deaths.
A new RAND report analyzing America’s “opioid ecosystem” clarifies that “increased penalties make no sense.” Because illicit fentanyl is infiltrating so much of the drug supply, they maintain, both sellers and users are often unaware of what contaminants are present, suggesting that drug-related deaths can be the result of ignorance rather than malice.
Jennifer Carroll, a medical anthropologist at North Carolina State University and author of a recent study that found sweeps of drug dealer arrests actually drove up overdoses, knows that criminalization causes more harm than good.
Joining fellow researchers, Carroll details the myths that contribute to ill-founded laws. Both tragic and pervasive these myths include: Harsh criminal penalties deter drug distribution; removing a person who distributes drugs from the market decreases the drug supply; and, people who distribute drugs are purposefully poisoning the drug supply — a narrative she says “is by no means new, nor is the evidence refuting it.”
Public health experts are worried that the majority of fentanyl-related incarcerations will continue to disproportionately target people of color who may be selling to support their addictions. According to the U.S. Sentencing Commission, these concerns are well-founded: Of those convicted last year for fentanyl distribution, 56% are Black, 25% are Hispanic and 17% are white.
For the past 100 years, drug policymakers have consistently focused on policing and criminalization, undeterred by scientific findings or underlying systemic issues, much less health care. Implemented without the backing of science or research, these policies have consistently failed.
Our outsized focus on supply side interventions, which we have ratcheted up for every wave of this crisis, has always brought an increase in overdose fatalities. Often reacting to media frenzy and public opinion, the boogeyman for the crisis shifts — crack cocaine, prescription drugs, fentanyl—just as the nitazene crisis debuts.
What’s hard to understand is why we would want to increase our prison population — and the massive expense of doing so. The U.S. has the world’s highest rate of incarceration and the world’s highest rates of illegal drug use and overdose fatalities. Furthermore, states with the highest number of arrests do not have less drug use or overdose rates. As recently reported by The Sentencing Project, “There are two million people in the nation’s prisons and jails — a 500% increase over the last 40 years. Changes in sentencing law and policy, not changes in crime rates, explain most of this increase.”
You’d think our history of disastrous outcomes with mandatory drug sentencing would sound an alarm. But here we go again, falling prey to the same old forces. Listening to the experts and adopting the discipline of digging beneath the surface to analyze the far-reaching effects on the lives of others, takes a back seat to the appearance of being “tough on crime.” As we teeter between moving forward and falling back, we allow misinformation to reign supreme.
The drug war mentality prevails. And it’s killing us.
