LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — A proposal on the Nevada Legislature would amend a cost of first-degree homicide to incorporate offering fentanyl to an individual who dies from an overdose.
Senate Invoice 153 from Republican State Sen. John Steinbeck would deem promoting, giving or buying and selling medicine “inherently dangerous” within the eyes of the regulation. Voters elected Steinbeck in November as he served as chief of the Clark County Fireplace Division. He retired in January earlier than the beginning of the legislative session.
First-degree homicide, the best cost involving the demise of one other particular person, entails a willful or premeditated crime. Second-degree homicide usually consists of a demise the place police and prosecutors consider there was no intent to kill.
Present Nevada regulation permits prosecutors to cost an individual who offered a lethal dose of fentanyl, whether or not they knew it or not, with second-degree homicide.
Ought to the invoice grow to be regulation, an individual might be charged with first-degree homicide ought to police arrest them for offering the fentanyl that killed one other particular person. The cost additionally applies to any drug combination with fentanyl in it.
All different managed substances would stay below the second-degree cost.
In 2023, 302 folks died from overdoses involving fentanyl in Clark County — a 28% improve from 2022. Knowledge from 2024 was not finalized as a result of toxicology outcomes can take months to course of.
In April 2024, the federal authorities reported fentanyl was the main explanation for demise for Individuals between 18 and 49 years outdated. Because the 8 Information Now Investigators have beforehand reported, the Drug Enforcement Company mentioned the vast majority of fentanyl coming into the USA is smuggled by ports of entry.
A file photograph of blue fentanyl capsules is proven on this story for instance of what police are discovering throughout Clark County.
