Atlanta, GA. (Atlanta News First) – Georgia's state senate has passed a legislative template to increase the punishments for everyone who was caught with fentanyl.
New data from the CDC find that the deaths for the overdose of medication decreased by 4% nationwide. It is the first decline since Covid 19 pandemic.
While it is encouraging news, overdoses remain the most common cause of death for people from 18 to 44.
Opioid overdose is the most common. According to the Georgia Department of Public Health, the fentanyl-related overdoses rose by more than 300%between 2018 and 2023.
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The Law on Senate 79, which was referred to as the “Fentanyl Exertion and Removal Act”, became a non -partisan support from the Senate on Wednesday.
The draft law is sponsored by Senator Russ Goodman. The draft law removes Fentanyl from Georgia's current statutes in connection with the opiates of possession, sales, distributions, production and trade and creates a separate schedule of crimes that are specific to Fentanyl and its associated substances.
“We try to have our laws and our punishments reflect more on how fatal fentanyl is. I look at my colleagues in the house to help us bring this bill about the finish line,” said Goodman.
State Senator Josh McLaurin spoke against the draft law. He wanted the word possession to be removed entirely. He argued that people in addiction should not be punished with prison – where they probably won't recover.
“If you criminalize ownership, you criminalize the addiction. The prison is not an answer to addiction,” said McLaurin.
Two years ago, Goodman was moved by an e -mail by Gus and Beth Walters. Her son Austin overdosed after buying a Xanax pill laced with Fentanyl.
The Walters say they would rather have their son in prison instead of visiting his grave.
“We do what we can do to save the children and grandchildren of other people. That's why we are here. We don't want someone to go through than we have gone through,” said Gus.
Maj. Walter Jones, director of drug authorities in the office of the Cherokee County's sheriff, said that fentanyl is pushed into pills and sold to modest buyers. Two milligrams, which corresponds to several Salzkördern, can kill an adult.
“We have children who lose parents, parents who lose children. For Cherokee County, we have almost 300,000. It would take about £ 1.3 Fentanyl to erase our entire population. For the perspective of 2024, the DEA in the state of Georgia, confiscated over 600 pounds of fentanyl powder,” said Jones.
Jones emphatically supports the bill.
If the draft law comes into force on July 1, 2025 and is signed in the law, the following applies to crimes that are committed on or after this date.
The invoice is now going into the house for examination.
Click here to read the invoice.
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