ATLANTA – The penalty for trafficking fentanyl just got more serious in Georgia after Gov. Brian Kemp signed legislation that seeks to suppress illicit sales of the dangerous drug.
When used in a medical setting with proper dosing, the painkiller can help patients experiencing discomfort. But it is 100 times more potent than morphine, according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency, and it can be lethal on the street where it can be found laced with other drugs, such as Adderall, Oxycodone and Xanax.
Two milligrams can kill depending on a person’s body size, tolerance and past usage, according to the DEA, which maintains a memorial exhibit for the drug, which has predominantly killed teenagers.
The Fentanyl Eradication and Removal Act imposes a range of mandatory minimum sentences on convicted traffickers in fentanyl. Four grams to 14 grams, the smallest amounts covered by the legislation – Senate Bill 79 — will result in at least five years behind bars.
Kemp signed the legislation Monday, along with 19 other bills.
Sen. Russ Goodman, R-Cogdell, drove more than eight hours round trip to watch the ceremony. The South Georgia blueberry farmer said Tuesday that he introduced SB 79 because fentanyl is unlike any other drug experienced by older generations. If those older drugs are BB guns, then fentanyl is a nuclear bomb, he said, and teenagers are particularly at risk because they are unaware.
He has many anecdotes from his part of the state — about a medical administrator whose child died after consuming marijuana laced with fentanyl or three young men who took cocaine laced with fentanyl while harvesting crops late one night. Two of them died, Goodman said.
“It’s really gotten personal for me. I’ve met so many people who’ve lost their children.”