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SC lawmakers considering bill to crack down on fentanyl

Lawmakers are also considering homicide charges for anyone who distributes the deadly drug.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — South Carolina lawmakers are considering a bill that would make trafficking fentanyl a crime.

After a spike in overdose deaths, they're also considering homicide charges for anyone who distributes the deadly drug.

Data from the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control (DHEC) shows numbers have more than doubled between 2019 and 2020, and now lawmakers are working to establish minimum and maximum penalties. 

Senate President Thomas Alexander, R-Oconee, sponsored fentanyl-related bills the past two legislative sessions and blamed timing for the general assembly’s failure to pass the legislation.  

He recently reintroduced a fentanyl-specific drug-induced homicide bill that passed the senate unanimously last year, and he’s hopeful it will become law this year. 

Drug-induced homicide laws, which are on the books in roughly two-dozen states, allow prosecutors to charge drug suppliers in fatal overdoses.

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