WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY)– This week in the Cape Fear, there have been at least two people charged with causing the fentanyl-related deaths of someone by distributing opioid drugs.
As the opioid crisis consistently becomes a bigger issue each year, the Death by Distribution law has received some revisions that will soon take effect, and will make consequences for offenders even tougher.
“What we need to know about this law is that this is a deadly drug, and it has serious criminal consequences for dealing it,” said Ben David, District Attorney.
As the opioid crisis continues to grow, the Death by Distribution law that was initially established in 2019 will soon undergo changes.
“We are going to be putting people in prison for a long time who are killing people with this deadly substance,” said David.
The initial law made it a Class C felony to sell opioids that result in the death of users.
The new law that will go into effect December 1 is focused on fentanyl. It will increase the punishment to dealers to a Class B2, or even Class B1 felony. Which is equivalent to second degree murder. It also expands the category of people that can be prosecuted.
“If someone is knowingly distributing these drugs, sometimes masking it with other substances to get their users hooked, that to me is a special kind of evil. And we need to have a special kind of incarceration for that. We need to be unapologetic about doing that,” said David.
Coastal Horizons, an addiction treatment center in New Hanover County, believes these revisions will benefit their clients, and help decrease the number of fentanyl-related deaths in our community.
“We believe this law will protect our clients. It will make drug dealers think twice,” said Elizabeth Redenbaugh, Coastal Horizons Director of Development.
“For the dealers who are out there preying on people’s addiction, and causing all of these deaths we’re talking about, this law is really going to give us an added tool to go after them with everything we have. And that’s what the justice system should be designed for,” said David
From 2013 to 2022, nearly 14 thousand people in North Carolina died as a result of fentanyl. With more than 400 of those in New Hanover County, equaling two people per week being involved in a fentanyl related fatality in the district.