While signing into law a bill imposing longer prison sentences for "merchants of death" dealing fentanyl, Gov. John Kasich said he is leaning toward supporting a ballot issue to prevent many low-level drug use and possession offenders from being sent to state prisons.
Kasich's signing of Senate Bill 1 Wednesday increases prison sentences for drug offenses involving fentanyl-related compounds, 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.
The bill sponsored by state Sen. Frank LaRose, R-Hudson, lowers the amounts required to trigger escalating levels of felony penalties, keeping offenders in prison longer.
"We're sending a message ... they're going to go to prison for a very long time," Kasich said.
Drug dealers convicted as major drug offenders in fentanyl-compound cases face additional mandatory prison terms of three to eight years. In some cases, the penalty for permitting drug abuse involving fentanyl will increase from a first-degree misdemeanor (a maximum of six months in jail) to a fifth-degree felony (up to a year in prison).
Meanwhile, Kasich signaled his potential support for Issue 1 on the Nov. 6 ballot, a constitutional amendment that would convert low-level drug use and possession felonies to first-degree misdemeanors that would divert offenders out of prison to addiction treatment. It also could lead to the release of those now imprisoned in state facilities for minor drug offenses.
"It's important for low-level offenders to not be in the prison system," the second-term Republican governor said, adding he wants to study the issue further. It is opposed by Attorney General Mike DeWine, the Republican candidate for governor, and supported by his opponent, Democrat Richard Cordray.
The bill Kasich signed will keep fentanyl offenders in prison for a longer time -- at an annual average cost of $26,365 for each inmate -- even as the state takes steps to divert low-level drug offenders from overcrowded prisons to local treatment programs by paying millions to local governments to cover the costs. State officials said they could not estimate the increased costs accompanying the get-tough law.
"Our prisons are open for these people dealing fentanyl," said Gary Mohr, director of the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction. He said the leading offense that now sends offenders to state prisons is drug possession.
Brenda Ryan of Cuyahoga Falls attended the bill signing holding a photo of her daughter, Sheena Moore, 31, who died of a fentanyl overdose in 2016. She talked of how the man who sold her daughter fentanyl, and was convicted of involuntary manslaughter and other crimes, was not properly punished and would have done more prison time under the new law.
"My daughter's life is worth more than eight years," she said.
Provisional federal figures 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 and the rate of increase in fatalities was nearly twice the national average of 9.5 percent. Kasich blames the numbers on deadly street drugs.
"We won the battle, but not the war. It's not going to be won for a long time," Kasich said, referring to a 30-percent drop in prescribed doses of opioid painkillers -- a "gateway" to heroin and fentanyl -- and a six-year low in the number of deaths from prescribed drugs.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio opposed the new law as part of the "thoroughly discredited 'War on Drugs' approach" and failing to address drug addiction as a public-health issue.
(c)2018 The Columbus Dispatch (Columbus, Ohio)
