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NH will prosecute overdoses as crimes

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Attorney General Joe Foster has announced a partnership with U.S. Attorney Emily Gray Rice to charge drug dealers with murder for overdose deaths.

"Our joint team effort to prosecute those who are criminally responsible for overdose deaths is a critical element of the multi-faceted law enforcement approach needed to combat the drug epidemic in our state," said Rice.

The Attorney General's press release notes, "New Hampshire has the third-highest rate of per capita drug overdose deaths nationwide. Four hundred and thirty-one individuals died from drug overdoses in New Hampshire in 2015."

Opponents argue that decades of the "war on drugs" have proven that increased law enforcement penalties do not decrease drug use.  They also note the difficulty of getting a guilty verdict when charging a drug dealer with murder. 

Last December the LFDA asked our Facebook community about charging drug dealers with murder.  Commenters were split on whether or not prosecution was good policy.  Click here to read the results of that discussion, and add your own comments below.

Comments

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I understand why people in society are upset about the "epidemic". I understand they are angry with people they feel are beneath them and ruining society - drug addicts. But negativity breads negativity and austerity in response to a negative problem does not always breed positive results such as we are seeing today.

I look at Switzerland's response to the heroine epidemic. They set up facilities where doctors would administer heroine to addicts for free, the user would not be prosecuted. Sound absurd? You would be wrong. What they found was the heroine use in the country significantly declined. Furthermore state expenses were reduced.

The government set up state run/financed facilities to administer heroine to drug addicts. However while they were there they were given medical treatment, access to psychologists, job coaches, life coaches et cetera. Yes this cost taxpayer money, but this amount was less then what they were paying before to finance a 'war on drugs', prosecute users and hold them in jail.

By setting up facilities like this Switzerland lowered crime rates, reduced the heroine epidemic, saved tax dollars and saved lives in the process. So I would like our legislators to keep in mind that austerity is not always the answer to a problem. Maybe, just maybe out War on drugs and rigged prosecution has made the problem much worse, not better.

Please watch this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJUXLqNHCaI

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