Texas passes bill allowing fentanyl distributors to be charged with murder

OAN Brooke Mallory
UPDATED 6:30 PM – Thursday, March 16, 2023

The Texas Senate approved a Bill Wednesday, the committee would consider fentanyl- poisoning as murder. This is for both prosecution and death certificates.

According to Republican Senator Joan Huffman (R.Texas), the Texas Department of Public Safety had seized more than 353,000,000 deadly doses of Fentanyl in the last two years. This drug is technically enough to endanger every U.S citizen.

Governor Greg Abbott (Republican from Texas) and other state legislators have decided to be more aggressive in their response to the fentanyl crisis. They are pushing for increased criminal penalties and defining overdoses as a crime. “poisonings.”

According to the U.S Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), two milligrams fentanyl can cause death depending on an individual’s body size, tolerance and past use.  

Current Texas law and Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Acts (HIPAA) do not allow certain state subjects to share information about overdose in an effort to differentiate overdose. “hot spots.”

These key areas can help officials to install beneficial resources in those areas.

Emergency responders can provide certain parts of the information to law enforcement without fear of reprisal. The bill does not permit these state subjects to share victim’s personal data.

“So, to continue our efforts to keep this drug from hitting our communities, the committee substitute to Senate Bill 645 increases the penalty for manufacturing or delivery of less than 1 gram of fentanyl from a state felony to a third-degree felony. Furthermore, if an individual dies from fentanyl overdose, the penalty would be enhanced to a second degree,” Senator Huffman.

Huffman attached a floor amendment to Senate Bill 645. It details the manufacturing and delivery of fentanyl in murder cases.

According to the statute, possession of fentanyl intended to deliver would be prosecutable.

Texas overdoses involving fentanyl rose by nearly 400% between 2019 and 2021. The CDC estimates that there were more than 5,000 deaths from these overdoses in the period July 2021 through July 2022.

The topic has been covered by many media outlets, including stories from young people who died as a result of fentanyl poisoning. Families are demanding that legislation be passed to stop this epidemic.  

“Members, we’ve reached a critical point in the fentanyl crisis here in Texas… We have no choice but to take a comprehensive approach to what is going on,” Huffman also added.

The Senator stated that she had added the following language. Senate Bill 1The general appropriations bill, which allowed for more than $18million to be used towards overdose prevention education, reversal medication such as Narcan, and other law enforcement initiatives, was referred to as.

The Senate temporarily suspended their standard rules to expedite Senate Bill 645’s passage through its second and third readings.

Some of the issues with the bill include the type of questioning that would take place and how prosecutors could prove that the person selling or distributing drugs knew they contained fentanyl.

DEA Special Agents and Police are well aware that the people selling or distributing drugs are often not the same people who make the drugs. The whole process is often involving multiple parties.

The bill was passed by a huge vote of 30-0. Now, it is being transferred to the House of Representatives.

Parents and friends of deceased fentanyl addicts have celebrated the passage of this bill. They hope it will prevent more drug overdoses in the future and that loved ones and other family members won’t have to experience the same thing.

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