Prison time for fentanyl goes up, prison time for minor drugs goes out?

Governor John Kasich signed a bill to impose longer prison sentences for fentanyl abuser and simultaneously voiced his inkling towards legislation that would prevent many low-level drug offenders from being sent to state prison.

Wednesday, Kasich’s signature increased prison sentences for fentanyl-related offenses up to eight years, with those convicted potentially facing more felony time for trafficking, possession and funding of trafficking involving the deadly synthetic opioid that has fueled a spiral of fatal overdoses, reports The Dispatch.

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With these convicts being behind bars longer, Kasich said he is leaning towards supporting Issue 1 on the November 6 ballot which would take minor drug crime offenders out of state prisons and put them in addiction treatment.

Low-level drug crimes would decrease from felonies to first-degree misdemeanors.

Provisional federal figures, per The Dispatch, released last month showed 5,134 drug overdose deaths in Ohio last year, an increase of 770 or 17.6 percent. Ohio’s deaths was fourth-highest in the nation.

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