Attorney General Files Bill to Make Fentanyl Trafficking a Crime

Tuesday, August 18, 2015

GoLocalWorcester News Team

Fentanyl

On Monday, Attorney General Maura Healey filed legislation that would establish the state crime of fentanyl trafficking.

“An Act Relative to the Trafficking of Fentanyl,” creates the crime of trafficking of fentanyl for amounts greater than 10 grams. The proposed law would authorize incarceration in state prison up to 20 years for those convicted of fentanyl trafficking.

According to the Attorney General's office, fentanyl is the most potent opioid available for use in medical treatment and is estimated to be 50 to 100 times more potent than morphine and 30 to 50 times more potent than heroin. Predatory drug traffickers frequently mix fentanyl with heroin, often without the knowledge of the buyer. Its euphoric effects are indistinguishable from morphine or heroin.

Even in very low doses, fentanyl can be fatal.

In June, the AG’s Office charged two individuals allegedly involved in an extensive fentanyl and heroin packaging and distribution operation involving more than $1 million worth of drugs, including almost one kilogram of fentanyl.

“Like heroin and other prescription opioids, fentanyl is claiming lives across Massachusetts,” said Healey. “By making the trafficking of this extremely dangerous drug illegal, we can help give law enforcement the tools they need to get these drugs off our streets and out of the hands of those struggling with addiction.”

“The current opioid crisis is made increasingly lethal by a dangerous loophole in our trafficking statutes,” said Representative John V. Fernandes (D-Milford), House Chairman of the Committee on the Judiciary. “Since our current laws do not authorize a trafficking offense for fentanyl, individuals caught with large quantities of fentanyl, or mixtures including fentanyl or a derivative, can only be charged with mere possession or possession with the intent to distribute. The need to address this problem is urgent and I am proud to sponsor this bill with Attorney General Healey.”

Attorney General Maura Healey

“We are pleased to support this legislation, which will hold accountable people who are putting an extremely dangerous drug into the hands of those struggling with addiction,” said Joanne Peterson, Founder and Executive Director of Learn to Cope. “Fentanyl is making this public health crisis even more deadly.”

In the past year, Massachusetts law enforcement has seen a significant increase in the presence of fentanyl, especially in drug overdoses and deaths. According to the National Forensic Laboratory Information System, state and local laboratories reported 3,344 fentanyl submissions in 2014, up from 942 in 2013.

Recent updated statistics from the Massachusetts Department of Public Health found that more than 1,250 people died from overdoses of heroin and opioids in 2014 in Massachusetts, which represents a 15 percent increase from 2013 and a 57 percent increase from 2012. In the first three of months of 2015, opioid overdoses claimed 312 lives in Massachusetts, putting the state on pace to match last year’s death toll. That amounts to about four deaths per day from opioid overdoses in Massachusetts.

Currently, individuals caught with large quantities of fentanyl can only be charged with possession or possession with the intent to distribute.