Iowa House passes ‘extreme’ penalty for fentanyl deaths

Published by editor on Thu, 03/07/2024 - 9:42am

By:

Robin Opsahl

Iowa Capital Dispatch

First-degree murder charges could result from a fentanyl death regardless of whether the person who supplied the drug knew it contained the dangerous opioid, under legislation approved Monday by the Iowa House.

Some Democrats who opposed the measure said it could lead to life in prison for teens who unknowingly share a drug with a friend. Supporters argued that Iowa’s serious opioid overdose rate justifies an “extreme” punishment for those who supply the drug.

House File 2576, passed 86-12, would make a person who unlawfully supplies another individual with fentanyl or fentanyl-related substances eligible for a first-degree murder charge if consumption of the drug results in death. A conviction would carry a mandatory sentence of life in prison without parole.

The bill’s floor manager, Rep. Ann Meyer, R-Fort Dodge, said the measure is a necessary step in addressing the increasing fentanyl overdose rates in Iowa and nationwide.

Though multiple lawmakers said addressing the problem must come from federal action on the U.S.-Mexico southern border, Meyer said increasing penalties was a means for state lawmakers to take action on preventing the flow of fentanyl into local communities.

She said a law enforcement officer told her about a person who brings a “carload of drugs” into Fort Dodge twice a week without any “fear of any consequences” for his actions after being arrested. Raising penalties will disincentivize drug traffickers who are currently operating in the state, she argued.

But some Democrats argued that increasing penalties under the bill’s language could result in first-degree murder charges for people who unintentionally provided fentanyl-laced substances to another person. Rep. Megan Srinivas, D-Des Moines, proposed an amendment requiring that a person must “knowingly” provide a substance containing the lethal dose of fentanyl for a first-degree murder charge to apply. The amendment failed.

Srinivas brought up hypothetical a situation in which a teenager shares a pill that they do not know contains fentanyl with a friend or sibling, who then dies. Some of the fentanyl overdose deaths in Iowa have occurred when a minor takes a drug they do not know contains the substance. Srinivas argued that the bill as it stands could hurt people who are accidentally involved or victims themselves.

“When we’re doling out these punishments, we have to be careful about who we’re encompassing,” Srinivas said. “Are we going after the ultimate drug dealer? Or are we going after a random suburban kid, who has no idea (what) he found when he was up in the closet of his brother or older sister, and he and his friends mistakenly took pills they shouldn’t have? Should they be behind bars for the rest of their life, ruining their lives?”

Meyer argued that by adding the stipulation of “knowingly” to the bill, drug dealers could claim that they were not aware drugs they are trafficking contained fentanyl and allow them to escape punishment. When asked if the bill would apply to a “18-year-old who’s sharing their drugs with a friend,” Meyer said that it would.

Rep. Ako Abdul-Samad, D-Des Moines, said he had difficulties with the bill because, while he supports increasing penalties for fentanyl traffickers, he does not believe that a young person sharing a drug should be subject to a life sentence without parole.

“I’ve seen individuals that have been stopped, and had guns found in the car and then a sack of fentanyl — you know, I want that individual locked up,” Abdul-Samad said. “But I don’t want to see a baby locked up because they found a recreational drug that they thought was safe and ended up killing somebody because we haven’t stopped fentanyl coming into this state, this country.”

Meyer said the high bar of punishment was necessary to prevent further fentanyl overdose deaths, and to deter traffickers from selling the drug in Iowa.

“This is an extreme punishment because we have an extreme problem in Iowa,” Meyer said. “And I’m here to fight for those parents, for those family members of people that are are getting swept up, for some reason taking a counterfeit pill which are plentiful in our state right now. We need to have an extreme solution.”