A bill in Arizona that would allow drug dealers to be charged with murder if their product kills someone has been repulsed by those who criticize it as unconstitutional, leading to 911 overdoses. can have a chilling effect on calls and may target typical users. Harsh punishment.

of Ashley Dunn LawIt was named after a young woman who died of a fentanyl overdose in 2021.

But a bipartisan group of lawmakers rejected the bill, with one lawmaker saying it causes more problems than it solves.

This is the second time Prescott Valley Republican Rep. Quang Nguyen has proposed the Ashley Dunn Act. Last year, the bill was approved by a committee, but failed to reach a vote in the House of Representatives.

Dunn’s mother, Josephine Dunn, told the commission her daughter Dealer was sentenced to just two years in prison for distribution after Ashley’s death.

“How much is my daughter’s 24-month life worth?” she asked the commission.

She added that she is confident the law will have a deterrent effect.

Pima County Attorney Laura Conover opposed the bill, saying there was already a law regarding books prosecutors could use for these types of deaths. However, according to her, they all eventually made a plea bargain and were convicted of either manslaughter or manslaughter.

there were 2,015 reported deaths from opioid overdose in Arizona in 2021, 3,609 non-fatal opioid overdosesaccording to the Arizona Department of Health Services.

Dunn, of Prescott Valley, said her daughter’s dealer could not be charged with manslaughter because the coroner found marijuana in her body along with fentanyl, and fentanyl alone killed her. She said she couldn’t prove it, even though she took a lethal dose.

Nguyen’s proposal is much broader than current manslaughter laws, allowing charges against sellers even if drugs are determined to have contributed to a person’s death.

And that’s a bridge too far for Republican Rep. Alex Corrodin, who said it was unconstitutional. Scottsdale attorney Corrodin said the Supreme Court ruled that for a murder conviction, the prosecutor must prove that the accused directly caused the victim’s death.

He said the proposed law was too broad to meet its standards.Corrodin and Marana Republican Rep. Offered to work with Nguyen to fix it, they said Nguyen refused. Mr Corodin said he regretted having to vote against the bill.

Daniel Russell, who will graduate from Arizona State University with his PhD this semester, testified against the bill. She told the commission about 15 years ago she was an intravenous drug user who nearly lost both of her legs to gangrene.

Drugs, she said, are often sold through a small network of friends without the involvement of large dealers, and are sometimes purchased from friends and family, sometimes from people much younger and in worse circumstances than she is. added.

Russell said she believed she wouldn’t be where she is today if she was in prison, and many of her friends who got caught up in the criminal justice system took their own lives.

She also frowned on the bill’s lack of individual accountability to drug users.

“I take responsibility for my actions,” said Russell. “I think taking away the agency of people who use drugs is doing them a disservice because, after all, no one ever injected me against my will. I made my choice.”

She added that people with addictions probably aren’t concerned about the potential legal consequences of their actions.

Both Yavapai County Attorney’s Office Chief of Staff Bill Hughes and Prescott Valley Police Chief of Staff James Edelstein urged the commission to pass the bill.

Edelstein said he is confident the law will have a deterrent effect and reduce the number of drug-related deaths.

Hughes said Yavapai County has never convicted a drug dealer of manslaughter. He said the county had only recently brought its first such charges against drug dealers and the case was not yet closed. It’s very difficult to apply to death from drugs.

Conover said her officers had already led one statewide training on how to pursue manslaughter charges against drug dealers, as Pima County did, and offered to do more.

However, Conover acknowledged that her office’s practice of prosecuting people for manslaughter does not “solve the problem of drug murder,” adding that the problem requires a multi-pronged approach.

After the committee voted against the bill, Dunn’s mother shouted “shame on you” to the committee members who voted against it.

Nguyen, who said he was a friend of the Dan family, told her he would try again next year.

A more narrowly focused proposal for drug death, Senate Bill 1029, approved Jan. 26 by the Senate Judiciary Committee. The bill would expand the state’s first-degree murder laws to include deaths from fentanyl, provided the drug can be traced to a specific person.

A conviction under that law could result in life imprisonment or even the death penalty.