opinion

Allhands: 5-year minimum prison sentence for selling fentanyl would only make things worse

My husband's best friend was addicted to fentanyl. He died of a drug overdose in 2014.

You'd think I'd like to see tougher prison sentences for anyone who illegally sells or manufactures such a dangerous drug.

But House Bill 2241 won't make an appreciable dent in the opioid epidemic. It does not distinguish between the grizzled kingpins who peddle death and the low-end dealers who ended up selling fentanyl, carfentanil and heroin to support their habit.

Everyone caught selling for the first time would go to prison for a minimum of five years. No exceptions.

And the reality is most of them won't get the help they need while they're there.

Only 2 percent get treatment in prison

A recent Arizona Department of Corrections report found that while 77 percent of inmates need substance-abuse treatment, only 2 percent are actually getting it.

HB 2241 includes no cash to boost treatment for inmates. So, after five years, those who went in addicted will emerge from prison with the same problems – and a record that would make it even more difficult for them to turn their lives around.

In other words, we'd only be increasing the chances of a person returning to prison, at great cost to all of us.

Why would we do that?

Let's be clear: I'm not saying that all first-time drug dealers should get a get-out-of-jail-free card. But leave that discretion to judges who can weigh the particulars of their cases.

A blanket sentence, no matter what, just fills our prisons without actually helping those that are there.

Reach Allhands at joanna.allhands@arizonarepublic.com.

READ MORE:

County attorney: Why we only have 3 years to help most inmates

Opioid overdoses killed 716 people in Arizona in 6-month span

Man caught with Fentanyl-laced pills sentenced to 3 years in prison