House passes legislation so drug dealers can be charged with manslaughter in overdose deaths

On Thursday, the Alabama House of Representatives passed legislation allowing prosecutors to charge a drug dealer with manslaughter if they provide a controlled substance that causes someone to die.

House Bill 82 (HB82) was sponsored by State Representative Chris Pringle.

Pringle explained that he had friends in Mobile who mortgaged their house, mortgaged everything they had to pay for their son to get through rehab. His drug dealer stalked him. The drug dealer kept calling him, followed him to Narcan on meetings, and even lied to his mother to get his number. Finally, he broke him down.

“The drug dealer talked her son into buying an oxycodone laced with fentanyl, and he died,” Pringle said.

Pringle explained that with HB82, “If you give someone a controlled substance and you are not a doctor or a pharmacist, and you kill someone, you can be charged with manslaughter.”

Juandalynn Givan expressed concerns that college students could get charged with manslaughter if they do drugs with their friends and one of their friends overdosed and died.

“I have walked on college campuses, and some of them are walking around like zombies,” Givan said. “We all know how it is on gameday and sometimes at other times.”

“Let’s talk about the transfer of the offense to a third party,” Givan said. “We have kids who play around and buy drugs, not knowing that that drug was laced with fentanyl. If their friend died, that person would then be charged with manslaughter.”

“If you are dealing a controlled substance, and you are not licensed to distribute a controlled substance, and you kill somebody, you get charged with manslaughter. You killed your friend, and you will have to live with that,” Pringle said. “If you go to Atlanta and buy 2,000 oxycodone pills from your dealer, and you sell them in Birmingham, and people start dying, then you are guilty of killing them.”

“Why do we not have anything in the bill about knowingly,” Givan said. “I want to make sure that there is not an unintended consequence with the bill. It is a good bill.”

Pringle said, “This is the same exact bill that has passed out of this chamber before.”

The bill has passed out of the House three years in a row but has stalled in the Alabama Senate.

Givan said, “Folks are lacing marijuana with fentanyl and all kinds of things.”

Rep. Allen Treadaway said, “I don’t think people realize just how bad things are. Over 100,000 people have died in this country in the last year due to drug overdoses. Jefferson County had a 400 percent increase in fentanyl deaths. Students that take Ritalin to stay up studying, and if they take a Ritalin laced with fentanyl and they are dying.”

Rep. Jim Hill said, “I support the bill because it is a reasonable consequence of what we are trying to do. If you sell a controlled substance and if that substance leads to the death of a third person, you either knew or you should have known what the consequences are.”

Rep. Laura Hall said, “We already know who the drug dealers are.”

Pringle said, “We addressed that with Mr. [Matt] Simpson’s bill dealing with the trafficking of controlled substances.”

“After my friend’s son died, another child took a fentanyl-laced oxycodone from that person and died,” Pringle said. “They are charging that person now.”

“This clarifies that under the law, they can be charged with manslaughter,” Pringle said. “The district attorneys want clarification that they can charge the drug dealers that are killing our children with manslaughter.”

“I am talking about putting them in jail for killing people,” Pringle explained. “I think the drug dealers should be put in jail for dealing drugs. I think the drug dealers that are killing people should be put in jail for killing people.”

“I personally think there are a lot more fentanyl deaths occurring than are being reported,” Pringle continued. “That is why we are putting more money in forensic labs.”

Rep. Kenyatta Hassell expressed concerns that the user could alter the drugs after they purchase them from the dealer.

“If he alters that drug himself, he is going to be charged,” Hassell said. “It is a real concern that if the user modified the drug himself.”

“We acknowledge that people give drugs to people all the time,” said Rep. Chris England. “Under this law, they could be prosecuted for manslaughter. This is one of those bills that probably has more unintended consequences than intended consequences.”

Rep. John Rogers brought an amendment adding the word “knowingly” to the bill.

“I consider this a friendly amendment and ask that members vote for it,” Pringle said.

The amendment was adopted on a 104 to 0 vote.

“The last place you want to put a person with an addiction problem is to put them in prison,” England said of two people who use drugs together, and one of them dies. “Your bill would make that person a murderer or convicted of manslaughter.”

“You’re automatically assuming that a person who is using a controlled substance is a bad person,” England said, charging that HB82 was “overcriminalization.”

HB82 passed the House with a bipartisan majority of 88 to 11.

The bill now goes to the Senate for their consideration.

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