St. Sen. Sue Rezin (R-Morris) is backing a bill for tougher penalties on drug dealers who sell drugs mixed with fentanyl. The penalty would be nine to 40 years in prison. And there would be a fine up to $100,000 for using cell phones to arrange the sale.
Rezin says 70,000 people age 18 and up died in the U.S. last year from synthetic opioid use. She says that’s the equivalent of a plane crash every day, but hardly anyone talks about it. She says fentanyl deaths numbered just 87 in Illinois in 2013 but soared to 2,672 in 2021.
Fentanyl is a very deadly drug that illegal drug dealers like to put in what they sell to make it stronger at a lower cost. It was developed in 1959 as a pain reliever and still has legitimate medical uses. Legally produced fentanyl is sometimes diverted to illegal drug trades, but some illegal drug dealers make their own.
Sound for this story came from the Illinois Senate Republicans’ press office.