Sen. Brian Adams, R-Goose Creek, briefly discusses an amendment to a drug-induced homicide bill on Tuesday, Feb. 25, 2024. (Screenshot via SCETV)
COLUMBIA — Legislation touted as a way to help get drugs laced with fentanyl and other fatal cocktails off the street unanimously passed the South Carolina Senate.
Under the proposals, anyone who provides the illegal drugs that cause a fatal overdose can be charged with homicide and sent to prison for up to 30 years.
The pair of bills approved Tuesday with little discussion create felony charges of “fentanyl-induced homicide” and “drug-induced homicide.” The two proposals are nearly identical, with the difference being that one is specifically about fentanyl and the other covers all illicit drugs.
They would allow South Carolina law enforcement to charge anyone who knowingly “delivers, dispenses, or otherwise provides” the drugs that kill people with causing their death.
“Right now, if I overdose on drugs that you dealt me, law enforcement doesn’t have anything — they have no way to arrest you for it,” said Sen. Brian Adams, R-Goose Creek, a sponsor of both bills.
The former North Charleston police officer retired in 2018 after spending 18 years in specialized enforcement units, including working undercover in drug cases.
“It’s important to give them the tools they need to get some of these drug dealers off the street,” said Adams, first elected to the Senate in 2020.
The fentanyl bill also unanimously passed the Senate in 2023 but died with the end of last session without ever getting a vote on the House floor.
Overdose deaths have soared in South Carolina, from 613 in 2013 to 2,296 in 2022, according to the most recent statistics from the state Department of Public Health. That represents a near-quadrupling over that decade.
Fentanyl accounted for more than 70% of those 2022 deaths, or 1,660 overdoses, representing a near-quadrupling over just five years, according to the 2024 report.
Just 2 milligrams of the deadly synthetic opioid can be lethal, depending on a person’s size, tolerance and past usage, according to the federal Drug Enforcement Administration, which describes the drug as 100 times more potent than morphine.
Because fentanyl’s so potent and cheap, drug dealers often mix fentanyl with other drugs, increasing the likelihood of an unsuspecting buyer dying of an overdose, the DEA warned.
In 2023, the Legislature passed a law that threatens fentanyl traffickers with up to 40 years in prison if they’re caught with 28 grams or more.
The legislation passed this week would apply to anyone who provides any amount that kills.
“Fentanyl and some of these synthetic drugs that are being produced are so deadly that we have to give law enforcement the tools so they can go after the dealers,” Adams said.
Another senator pointed to a recent arrest in Chester County as an example.
On Jan. 31, the Chester County Sheriff’s Department seized more than 1,700 grams, or 3.7 pounds, of fentanyl. That’s enough to kill more than 800,000 people, according to Sheriff Max Dorsey.
“These drugs are killing people throughout our country, and Chester County is no exception,” he said in a statement following the raid. He called it the largest fentanyl seizure ever in the county about halfway between Columbia and Charlotte, North Carolina.
The charges faced by the two people arrested include fentanyl trafficking, the crime created by the 2023 law.
Sen. Everett Stubbs, R-Rock Hill, was already a sponsor of the bill that would create a new law of fentanyl-induced homicide. But the seizure in his district made it a bigger priority for him, said the freshman senator.
“Anything we can do to get that stuff of our streets should be a priority,” Stubbs said.