WESTMINSTER, Md. — Even in a city of just 20,000 people, like Westminster, fentanyl can fuel a mass overdose.
“Well, I came out to smoke of course and I saw all of the police officers up there,” said Robyn Diehl.
And on September 19, four people overdosed just down the block from Diehl’s home, including one of her former neighbors who didn’t survive.
Hear from residents and county leaders on the call for tougher penalties
“So where’s that coming from?” Diehl asked, “Pennsylvania Avenue is known for a drug haven up there.”
Just three days later on September 22, Westminster Police responded to an additional three overdoses within a 13-hour period.
Three fatal overdoses in the last month will bring Carroll County’s total to its number for all of last year, and State Delegate Chris Tomlinson says more should be done to stem the tide.
“To have that many occur over the course of such a small span, seven overdoses with one of them being a young guy in his forties passing away, I mean that is unheard of for what we experience usually here in Carroll County,” the delegate told us.
Tomlinson has tried unsuccessfully for two years in a row to get state lawmakers in Annapolis to toughen the penalties for drug dealers in cases where fentanyl claims lives or leave people with serious, bodily harm, and he hopes the mass overdoses give it a better chance of passing in the next legislative session.
His effort is fueled in part by the case of a Carroll County woman whose dealer avoided time behind bars.
“This is a guy who essentially killed this young woman and all he got was 18 months of house arrest. It’s a joke, and that’s the thing---when you meet the people who are opposed to this kind of legislation they think, ‘Oh, these people are already facing so any charges, and they’re facing up to 20, 30, 40…’. Yes, on paper, potentially, but in reality, these guys are getting a slap on the wrist.”
Tomlinson’s proposed legislation would cap the dealer’s prison sentence at 20 years, but it would give prosecutors leverage in seeking justice for victims where little exists today.
“I think they should go to jail,” said Diehl, “I think they… yes… I think they should go after them, because they’re bringing that deadly drug in here, you know, and they're lacing it with everything.”
