Among the most dangerous of legislation put forward by the Attorney General’s office in response to the opioid crisis was this measure to impose a life sentence on anyone who provides an unlawful controlled substance to a person, when consumption of that substance results in the person’s death.
The ACLU testified that the legislation would cause frightened individuals to refrain from calling for life-saving help if they feared they could face a lifetime in prison if the person died, and that it is addicts and low-level dealers, not drug kingpins, who would get caught up under the law. The ACLU joined with sixteen other community, public health, and drug recovery groups and more than sixty medical professionals in calling on the General Assembly to reject this legislation, but to no avail. A similar plea that asked Governor Raimondo to veto the legislation also fell on deaf ears.
