Anyone who knowingly or intentionally manufactures or sells fentanyl or fentanyl-laced drugs may face stiffer criminal penalties should recently introduced legislation from state Rep. Doyle Heffley become law.

Citing a 6% increase in Pennsylvania overdose deaths in the past year, Heffley is calling for a five-year increase in the maximum allowable jail sentence and a $250,000 increase in the allowable fine for fentanyl offenders.

“This really is a poison that’s killing people on our streets,” Heffley said. “It’s turning up in heroin, but it’s also turning up in methamphetamines. It’s coming in marijuana, Xanax and cocaine. I’m tired of it. I’m tired of hearing about it and I’m tired of losing our young people to overdoses when it doesn’t have to happen.”

The bill calls for any individual convicted of manufacturing or selling fentanyl to be subject to a sentence of up to 20 years in prison and a fine of up to $500,000. Under current law, individuals can be sentenced to up to 15 years in prison and fined up to $250,000.

Carbon County District Attorney Michael Greek said the legislation would put another tool in law enforcement’s arsenal to combat the unrelenting scourge of fentanyl.

“Fentanyl is not only sold and used on its own, but it is most often added, sometimes unknowingly, to other street level drugs, including marijuana, which obviously serves to enhance it’s devastating effects,” Greek said. “The proposed enhanced penalties may serve as a deterrent to those who profit in the delivery of this poison on the streets of our community.”

Last year, there were a reported 5,438 overdose deaths in Pennsylvania, Heffley said, up 6% from the prior year. The increase in fatalities, he added, can be largely attributed to the rise of the illegal sale and usage of fentanyl, an opiate-based drug that is 50 to 100 times more potent than heroin.”

“We have cases of folks that have been three years or four years in recovery and then they relapse,” Heffley said. “What we’re seeing is somebody relapses and they try to use again and a lot of times the drugs that they’re seeing now are laced with fentanyl. We want this stuff off of our street and if this is one more tool that we could put people away for a little bit longer for dealing this poison, then that’s why I’m introducing this legislation.”

Fentanyl is also extremely dangerous to the officers who have to handle it during incident responses. Just getting it on their skin, Heffley said, can cause an overdose and while Narcan is out there to reverse the effect, isn’t always strong enough to bring somebody back.

Police departments around the county are supporting Heffley’s call for stiffer penalties.

““Having tougher punishments on those who manufacture and sell fentanyl will help combat fentanyl use on our streets, which I hope will in turn save the lives of those affected by the use of fentanyl,” Jim Thorpe Police Chief Joe Schatz said.

House Bill 2820 is expected to be referred to the House Judiciary Committee for review.