Law enforcement, prosecutors and families back tougher fentanyl, trafficking penalties in committee hearing

Representatives of law enforcement, county prosecutors and families of overdose victims urged the Ohio House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday to advance House Bill 88, a package of changes that would increase penalties for trafficking in fentanyl, cocaine, heroin and methamphetamine and create an enhanced mandatory sentence specification for trafficking that directly causes a fentanyl-related death.

Heinz von Eckertsburg, legislative chair for the Ohio Association of Chiefs of Police and a retired Dublin police chief, told the committee that “95 percent of the opioid drug overdose deaths involved fentanyl” in the most recent data he cited and that traffickers routinely mix fentanyl with other drugs, increasing the risk of unintentional fatal overdoses. He said the bill’s higher penalties and the new trafficking definitions would…