America's drug policy has always been a source of controversy, and one of these main controversies are Drug-Induced Homicide Laws. These laws are incredibly detrimental to the justness of our legal system and have led to many resulting avoidable opioid overdoses. Drug Induced Homicide laws work to undermine Good Samaritan laws, disproportionately target African Americans, discourage witnesses from calling for medical attention, can unfairly condemn the victim's friend or lover, and are heavily misused in prosecutions (Health in Justice). There is really no upside to these laws because while they not only result in avoidable deaths, there is also no evidence of these laws being effective (Criminal Legal News). Thus, Drug-Induced Homicide laws are causing immeasurable damage to our legal system and generally only target low-level dealers and users, not the actual distributors and manufactures; thus, getting rid of these laws would help our society as a whole immensely.
Drug Induced Homicide Laws came about in the 1980's when America's legal system was under a great pressure to respond to the crack cocaine epidemic (Criminal Legal News). The federal government thought a harsh punishment was best, hoping it would work as a deterrent. So, in an effort to end the crisis they created the idea of a drug induced homicide and made the penalties for this so severe it is comparable to manslaughter or murder (ABA). The idea of drug-induced homicide is that anyone who made the drugs available to the user will be held responsible for their death. The problem with this law though is the lack of guidelines surrounding it (Chicago Tribune).What constitutes delivering drugs? This question has been asked over and over in hundreds of different court cases, but yet not effort at trying to clear up the vagueness surrounding the law has been made. This law was intended to punish high-level distributors and manufactures, however, the majority of prosecutions made using this law only punished fellow drug-user friends or family members of the victim who shared a small bit of their stash (NYPost). Prosecuting these people is incredibly damaging to our law system because not only does it wrongly and harshly target individuals close to the victim, but it also undermines the legal system. Good Samaritan Laws have been created to provide immunity for low-level drug users that are seeking medical help for an OD victim.(?) But, by undermining these laws, people who could have saved a life instead opt not to in fear of police involvement. For example, in a 2017 study by Lasalle, over half of witnesses to separate opioid overdoses were extremely reluctant to call for help(Criminal Legal News). Thus, the undermining of Good Samaritan Laws and harsh, unfair penalties with murky guidelines have lent itself to many harmful effects on America's legal system.
Racial bias is another huge problem within the DIH Laws, and has been proven over and over thorough empirical data surrounding arrests and sentences. For example, African Americans who are prosecuted under DIH Laws face a median of 9 years in prison, while whites only face a median of 5 years for the exact same crime (Health in Justice). Thus, these laws work to perpetuate racial disparities by locking up Blacks for significantly longer, thus harming their rehabilitation rate after prison more so than whites. It is incredibly important to stop these laws so the black community is not upon in horror as "peddlers" or "pushers". However, stopping these laws is much harder than one would think, due to the increased frequency of their use. Twenty states already have DIH Laws and many other states charge this under various other offenses such as "felony-murder, depraved heart, or involuntary or voluntary manslaughter." (Drug Policy).The use of DIH laws have increased by 225% in 6 years, going from 363 cases in 2011 to 1178 cases in 2016. (Criminal Legal News). This, increase in prevalence of DIH Laws clearly shows that the problems caused from them will only continue to worsen until amendments are made.
Criminal Legal News: Drug Induced Homicide Laws Hurt Rather Than Help Opioid OD Crisis
Health In Justice: Drug Induced Homicide
NYPost: We Shouldn't Treat Drug OD's like Homicide
ABA: Interest in Drug-Induced Homicide Laws Grows
Chicago Tribune: Who Counts as a Drug Dealer?
Drug Policy.org: An Overdose Death Isn't Murder
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| Chart showing relationship between victim and dealer |
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| Chart depicting news mentions of DIH Laws |
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| Map of states with DIH Laws |
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