As our Commonwealth continues to face a dire crisis of drug abuse and overdoses, I will be introducing legislation to revamp the criminal offense of Drug Delivery Resulting In Death. My bill will address shortcomings in the law which can prevent it from being prosecuted against some drug dealers, as well as including an important way to avoid the offense being over-extended.
- Right now, the offense only applies in cases resulting in death. This can result in unjust outcomes. If an EMT or Good Samaritan just happens luckily to arrive on the scene of an overdose in time to administer life-saving medication, the offense doesn't apply at all, despite the same dangerous criminal conduct. To address this, my bill will add cases where the drug delivery resulted in serious bodily injury to the scope of the offense.
- Our law can be read such that it doesn't apply to if a controlled substance subject to sale is mixed with another controlled substance. My bill will correct this potential problem.
- The current statute of limitations to bring charges under this offense is a mere two years. My bill will treat the offense as a major crime, with a statute of limitations of five years, for cases resulting in serious bodily injury, and will apply an unlimited statute of limitations where the case results in death.
- Due to a technical reading of the offense, courts will only apply it where the drug sale – not the overdose – actually happened in Pennsylvania. For border areas like mine, in particular, it is possible that the sale happens over the state line, then the buyer returns to the Commonwealth to consume the product. My bill will extend the offense to cover these situations ensuring that all dangerous drug deals affecting our citizens are covered.
- The intention of the law is to target drug dealers, not roommates or friends who simply share drugs. Yet the current law can apply to and punish each the same. To protect against over-extension of the law, my bill will provide an affirmative defense for those who are not dealing drugs in return for profit or services.
Punishing and deterring those who peddle poison to our citizens in one step in stopping more overdoses. Please join me in sponsoring this legislation.
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