Is a drug overdose murder?
It’s called “drug-induced homicide.”
Twenty-four American states have specific laws targeting dealers who sell drugs that kill. These laws carry a sentence, depending on the state, of anywhere from two years imprisonment to the death penalty.
As the toxic drug crisis sweeps across North America, there has been a staggering increase in the number of those charges being laid in the U.S. The trend, undocumented before now, has extended to Canada.
A W5 open source investigation has compiled the first-ever national research on the move by some police agencies to treat an overdose death as a potential crime. Combing through a database of media reports, court filings, and in rare cases, police statistics, we have uncovered a 700 per cent increase in manslaughter and criminal negligence causing death charges against those who deal, and even those who share drugs that result in death. In 2016, we could find just nine instances. By 2019 that number increased to 65.
The spike is due, in large part, to a novel, yet controversial approach to the overdose epidemic by Canada’s second largest police service, the Ontario Provincial Police. In 2018, the OPP developed a new policy to treat every overdose death as not just a medical call, but also a potential murder.
Chief Supt. Brian MacKillop is the architect of the mandate and says people who peddle what he calls “doses of death,” need to pay the price if someone dies.
“We have criminals out there who, with complete reckless disregard for the safety of our citizens, are peddling drugs that are killing people. And we just needed to do something to make sure we were holding people accountable. There's no ifs, ands or buts about it. Iff a person's dealing fentanyl, they could very well be killing people.”
But does the punitive action do anything to save lives or stem the crisis? The U.S. non-profit Drug Policy Alliance says, categorically, that it does not.
“There has not been a shred of evidence that these laws are effective at doing anything. They're certainly not reducing supply, they're not reducing demand. And we know that overdose deaths are increasing across the country,” says policy director Lindsay LaSalle.
Their ground-breaking research, has found that most often those facing charges are friends, family members or low-level dealers who are themselves struggling with addiction. LaSalle says the approach to punish them is all wrong.
“You're attacking it from the wrong side. You are trying to go after the supply when the demand still exists, rather than trying to figure out what is ultimately underlying this demand and how can we provide services so that that demand doesn't exist rather than criminalizing the people who are simply supplying.”
For more information about addiction, go to albertusproject.org
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
BREAKING Police investigating shooting outside of Drake's Bridle Path mansion: source
Toronto police are investigating a shooting that took place outside of Drake’s Bridle Path mansion early Tuesday morning, a source tells CP24.
Canadian cadets rock mullets and place second at U.S. military competition
Sporting mullets, Canadian Armed Forces officer cadets placed second in an annual military skills competition in the U.S.
'It looked so legit': Ontario man pays $7,700 for luxury villa found on Booking.com, but the listing was fake
An Ontario man says he paid more than $7,700 for a luxury villa he found on a popular travel website -- but the listing was fake.
The Met Gala was in full bloom with Zendaya, Jennifer Lopez, Mindy Kaling among the standout stars
The Met Gala and its fashionista A-listers on Monday included Jennifer Lopez, Zendaya and a parade of others in a swirl of flora and fauna looks on a green-tinged carpet lined by live foliage.
There's actually no such thing as vegetables. Here's why you should eat them anyway
The rumours are true: Vegetables aren't real — that is, in botany, anyway. While the term fruit is recognized botanically as anything that contains a seed or seeds, vegetable is actually a broad umbrella term.
Noelia Voigt resigns as Miss USA, citing her mental health
Noelia Voigt, who was crowned Miss USA in November 2023, has announced she is resigning from her role, saying the decision is in the best interest of her mental health.
Highlights from the 2024 Met Gala exhibit: Sleeping Beauty would wake up for these gowns
Sure, she was a royal princess and all. But there’s no way Sleeping Beauty — either before or after her nap — ever had quite the fabulous wardrobe that’s been assembled at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Stormy Daniels is expected to appear at Trump's hush money trial on Tuesday
Donald Trump returns to the hush money trial Tuesday facing a threat of jail time for additional gag order violations as prosecutors gear up to summon big-name witnesses including porn actor Stormy Daniels.
Israeli forces seize Rafah border crossing in Gaza, putting ceasefire talks on knife's edge
Israeli tanks seized control of Gaza's vital Rafah border crossing on Tuesday as Israel brushed off urgent warnings from close allies and moved into the southern city even as cease-fire negotiations with Hamas remained on a knife's edge.
Local Spotlight
Investigating the tale of Winnipeg's long-running mystery bookstore
Whether passionate about Poirot or hungry for Holmes, Winnipeg mystery obsessives have had a local haunt for over 30 years in which to search out their latest page-turners.
'Love has no boundaries': Sask. couple in their 90s and 80s get married
Eighty-two-year-old Susan Neufeldt and 90-year-old Ulrich Richter are no spring chickens, but their love blossomed over the weekend with their wedding at Pine View Manor just outside of Rosthern.
Twin Alberta Ballet dancers retire after 15 years with company
Alberta Ballet's double-bill production of 'Der Wolf' and 'The Rite of Spring' marks not only its final show of the season, but the last production for twin sisters Alexandra and Jennifer Gibson.
Video shows gaggle of geese stopping traffic on Highway 1 near Vancouver
A mother goose and her goslings caused a bit of a traffic jam on a busy stretch of the Trans-Canada Highway near Vancouver Saturday.
B.C. mayor stripped of budget, barred from committees over Indigenous residential schools book
A British Columbia mayor has been censured by city council – stripping him of his travel and lobbying budgets and removing him from city committees – for allegedly distributing a book that questions the history of Indigenous residential schools in Canada.
Three Quebec men from same family father hundreds of children
Three men in Quebec from the same family have fathered more than 600 children.
Here's how one of Sask.'s largest power plants was knocked out for 73 days, and what it took to fix it
A group of SaskPower workers recently received special recognition at the legislature – for their efforts in repairing one of Saskatchewan's largest power plants after it was knocked offline for months following a serious flood last summer.
Quebec police officer anonymously donates kidney, changes schoolteacher's life
A police officer on Montreal's South Shore anonymously donated a kidney that wound up drastically changing the life of a schoolteacher living on dialysis.
Canada's oldest hat store still going strong after 90 years
Since 1932, Montreal's Henri Henri has been filled to the brim with every possible kind of hat, from newsboy caps to feathered fedoras.