From March 9, 2023 post.
On Tuesday, March 7, sheriffs from across the state attended a news conference and a Senate committee hearing at the State Legislative Building in Raleigh on Senate Bill 189, Fentanyl Drug Offenses and Related Changes speaking with a strong voice in support of the bill as a high priority.
Fentanyl is a highly addictive opioid and has increasingly become deadly for our citizens and law enforcement officers in North Carolina and across the country. Fentanyl is lethal in very small doses. In fact, just two milligrams are considered a potentially lethal dose, which is equivalent to just a few grains of sand. The drug is a major contributor to fatal and nonfatal overdoses across the country according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Senate Bill 189 creates new methods for law enforcement to combat fentanyl including establishing a new offense of death by distribution for delivery of controlled substances, increasing the punishments for other offenses of death by distribution of controlled substances and increasing fines related to fentanyl trafficking.
“Fentanyl is a real, life-threatening risk to the public and law enforcement officers. This legislation is a crucial step in the fight against this dangerous and deadly drug,” said Orange County Sheriff Charles Blackwood, the Association’s President.
Law enforcement officers who encounter the substance in the field while conducting searches have themselves become victims of the potentially deadly effects of the drug. Officers in North Carolina have been the recipients of life-saving measures after encountering fentanyl during the normal course of their duties.
“The use and abuse of fentanyl and fentanyl-laced drugs is a crisis we cannot ignore. Ingestion of pure fentanyl can obviously be deadly, but so can ingestion of other controlled substances laced with just a small amount of fentanyl” said Moore County Sheriff Ronnie Fields who attended the news conference on Tuesday.
The Association urges lawmakers to pass this crucial piece of legislation that could potentially save the lives of North Carolina citizens and law enforcement officers and looks forward to seeing it move through the legislative process to become law.
Source can be found here.
