An Overdose Death Is Not Murder: Why Drug-Induced Homicide Laws Are Counterproductive and Inhumane
This report examines one strategy – “drug-induced homicide” – that the evidence suggests is intensifying, rather than helping, the problem and calls for leaders to turn toward proven measures to address rapidly increasing rates of overdose deaths.
10 Nov 2017In the 1980s, as the war on drugs grew out of control, the federal government and many states passed laws intended to punish people who provided drugs that led to accidental overdose deaths with sentences equivalent to those for manslaughter and murder.
JAMES’ STORY
Jobs for people with a felony on their record are hard to come by, so when 36-years-old James Linder lost his job at a bakery, his employment opportunities felt especially bleak. James had recently been released from prison. He needed money and turned to the only option he knew: selling small amounts of drugs. He did it infrequently but made enough to take his son for a haircut and help out his sister.
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