Parents are pleading with lawmakers to change the law to hold drug dealers accountable for fentanyl deaths - WLBT
JACKSON, Miss. (WLBT) - Parents are pleading with Mississippi officials to crackdown on Fentanyl drug dealers and hoping more deaths can be prevented.
”I’m serious about fentanyl,” said Rep. Nick Bain from the House floor Wednesday. “I’m serious about going after these dealers.”
Watching the presentation of House Bill 607 from the gallery above were families who know the topic all too well. Each were holding a photo of their child or family member who they lost to drug poisoning... most fentanyl-related.
They were introduced one by one.
“Sam and April Brown.. son, Sam, Jr.” echoed through the House chamber.
“He passed away from a single Percocet that he purchased off of Snapchat, and paid through his cash app on September 5 of 2020,” explained April Brown, stepmother to Sam Brown, Jr. “That one pill contained enough fentanyl to kill 23 people.”
Rick and Cordie Rodenbaugh were also introduced to the House member. Their son was Parker.
“The dealer gave him a deadly drug,” described Parker’s mom Cordie Rodenbaugh. “And this dealer was convicted of drug trafficking and murder. And the murder charges were overturned, because there’s not a state law. And that is how, how it started. I have been pushing along to help drug dealers accountable.”
This proposed bill would create “Parker’s Law.”
“What it does is it allows for those individuals who might sell a drug that is laced with fentanyl, to it that results in someone’s death, they can be prosecuted for that homicide,” described Rep. Nick Bain. “The goal of the bill is to do exactly that... to prosecute the dealers, not the addicts, not the ones who are sharing it. But the ones who are exploiting those addicts, the ones that are exploiting the users to make a buck.”
It’s not the first year moms like Cordie and April have hope the legislature would take action. But they’re hopeful it will be the year the law changes.
“Us mothers that have already gone through this, we’re fighting for the other parents,” said April Brown. “That’s what it’s all about, is hoping that they can get some type of justice that we weren’t able to. And I think that’s very important. And I think that the law should be passed, the bill should be passed, and we should be doing more.”
“So hopefully, that one kid that decided to go dealer, like the dealer that killed Parker, will think twice,” noted Cordie Rodenbaugh. “And then that kid like Parker, still have his dreams.”
The bill now goes to the Senate for consideration.
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source: https://www.wlbt.com/2022/01/28/parents-are-pleading-with-lawmakers-change-law-hold-drug-dealers-accountable-fentanyl-deaths/
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