A fatal overdose could lead to manslaughter charges for the individual distributing the drugs if a bill filed by Rep. Chris Pringle, R-Mobile, can make it through the Legislature this year.
The House Judiciary Committee gave the bill a favorable report last week after Pringle shared a story of a friend’s son, who he said was pressured by a dealer into relapsing and then died from a fatal overdose form fentanyl-laced oxycodone.
“The only thing they could charge that man with was trafficking drugs,” Pringle told the committee.
The bill creates a new qualifying definition for manslaughter to include the distribution of a drug that leads to death.
Alabama isn’t the first state to consider this law.
So far, 23 states have a law to this effect. Arkansas and Arizona are also considering similar bills and Wyoming’s Legislature just denied their own version of the law.
A record 107,000 Americans died from drug overdoses in 2021.
Pringle’s bill made it through the House last session but died before it could be considered by the full Senate.
