From The New Republic:
A few years ago, I found my boyfriend overdosed on the kitchen floor. I had handled the syringe he used because I found it in his stuff and then put it somewhere “safe” (I was sober a year myself but not thinking straight). The EMTs I called reached him before he could die. But what if they hadn’t? Would Greg Abbott say I was guilty of murder?
He just might. The Texas governor has pledged to sign a recently passed bill that would reclassify overdoses as “poisonings,” clearing the way for murder charges against anyone who provides a lethal dose—whether that provider was a friend, dealer, or person who happened to be in the same room. Still seeking top place in the cruelty contest, Florida passed a law allowing prosecutors to seek the death penalty for drug-induced homicide, or DIH, cases, again regardless of the supplier’s role. The Florida law also opens a new front in the criminalization of being around drugs: A nonfatal overdose could catch the supplier a second-degree felony.
The idea is not new. DIH (sometimes “drug delivery resulting in death”) has been available as a criminal charge since the first drug war. And that’s how we know how well it works. Historically, we know the approach is futile, and there’s even more overwhelming evidence of the active harm it can do (some studies have found it leads to more overdoses). Still, DIH laws are a fantastic way for politicians to pretend they’re doing something about the opioid epidemic, and so they have come into vogue again. Continue reading >>>
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