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Pennsylvania State Senate
04/25/2024 04:30 PM
Pennsylvania State Senate
https://www.legis.state.pa.us/cfdocs/Legis/CSM/showMemoPublic.cfm?chamber=S&SPick=20190&cosponId=26555
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Senate Co-Sponsorship Memoranda

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Senate of Pennsylvania
Session of 2019 - 2020 Regular Session

MEMORANDUM

Posted: December 3, 2018 10:27 AM
From: Senator Mike Regan
To: All Senate members
Subject: Fentanyl Trafficking Sentencing and Penalties
 
This past fall, the US Drug Enforcement Administration’s Philadelphia Field Division and the University of Pittsburgh released a report entitled “The Opioid Threat in Pennsylvania”.

The report’s Key Findings include:
  • The heroin threat to Pennsylvania is exacerbated by the unprecedented proliferation of clandestinely produced fentanyl and fentanyl-related substances.
  • Heroin and fentanyl availability in Pennsylvania are ubiquitous and impacting more than 97 percent of counties.
  • Pennsylvania experienced 5,456 drug-related overdose deaths in 2017. This number represents a rate of 43 deaths per 100,000, far exceeding the national average of 22 per 100,000 in 2017.
  • Increased fentanyl availability and misuse contributed to a 65 percent overall increase in drug-related overdose deaths in Pennsylvania between 2015 and 2017.

Overall, the report and the continued headlines since then, reaffirm what many of us know – while we continue to talk about the heroin crisis or the opioid crisis it has quickly become a fentanyl crisis that needs serious attention.

Fentanyl is an inexpensive-to-produce synthetic opioid that is proving more and more deadly as users of drugs such as heroin are oblivious to the fact that fentanyl is being mixed with their drug of choice. And the drug dealers selling the fentanyl must be held accountable. For that reason, I will be re-introducing Senate Bill 1222 to target dealers of fentanyl by establishing increased sentencing guidelines and penalties specifically related to the trafficking of fentanyl.

My goal with this legislation is to give our prosecutors another tool for combating the impact fentanyl traffickers are having on our communities.

Co-sponsors of SB 1222 were: BREWSTER, BROWNE, COSTA, DiSANTO, FOLMER, HUTCHINSON, LANGERHOLC, MARTIN, MENSCH, RAFFERTY, RESCHENTHALER, STEFANO, VULAKOVICH, WHITE, and YUDICHAK.


Introduced as SB8