New York State must help reduce fentanyl deaths with changes to bail laws

Fentanyl flooding across our border killed nearly twice as many Americans last year as died in the Vietnam War. Just as in Vietnam, most of these tragic overdose deaths are young people who would otherwise still have their lives ahead of them.

Every day in the United States, nearly 300 people overdose and die from fentanyl. For adults ages 18 to 45, fentanyl is the leading cause of death. Not car accidents, not violence, not illnesses. Compared to fatal overdoses, four times as many people overdose on fentanyl but are saved by emergency medical intervention. Given the potency of fentanyl, accidental overdoses for children under the age of 10 are skyrocketing as well. Last year, there were approximately 300 fatal and 1,450 nonfatal opioid overdoses in Suffolk County, where I serve as district attorney. Most of these deaths were from fentanyl.

Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid typically used to treat chronic pain, post-surgical pain, and pain from terminal illnesses. As little as 2 milligrams, which is the weight of a small mosquito, can prove fatal. As the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration has reported, 42% of illegal pills seized in the U.S. contained at least 2 mg of fentanyl.

Because illicit fentanyl manufactured overseas is flooding across our border with Mexico, fentanyl is cheap and plentiful for drug dealers. Dealers use the cheaper and more readily available fentanyl to supplement and stretch out all types of illegal narcotics. Users think they are taking heroin, Adderall, or Xanax, but they are often unknowingly taking a substance with a deadly amount of fentanyl. Did the drug dealer put too much fentanyl in the mixture? Is the purity of this illicit fentanyl too high? Users have no way of knowing until it is too late. Every drug user is essentially playing Russian roulette every time they ingest any illegal drug. As a result, the number of overdoses is growing at an alarming rate.

The combination of deadly fentanyl and New York’s failed bail reform experiment is causing more young adults to die.

Under current New York law, prosecutors in my office cannot even ask for bail for fentanyl dealers, unless they are persistent offenders (having two prior felonies), on parole, or on probation, even when they are dealing lethal doses of fentanyl. New York is the only state in the nation where prosecutors cannot seek bail based upon the danger to the community. Moreover, we cannot even seek bail for most fentanyl offenses at all because those statutes are not on the list of offenses for which our legislature allows prosecutors to ask for bail.

The fentanyl dealers go through the revolving-door of our criminal justice system, until they eventually kill an often-unwitting user. For every fentanyl dealer released back onto the street, we face the very real risk of more young people dying. That is unacceptable. Those who choose to push this deadly poison on our streets should know that such conduct will result in immediate incarceration. Our communities deserve to be protected.

New York should immediately change its laws to allow prosecutors to seek bail for any felony fentanyl narcotics charge. I have written to Gov. Kathy Hochul and our state legislators proposing this change. I urge our lawmakers to do something. Fentanyl is killing our kids.

This guest essay reflects the views of Ray Tierney, the Suffolk County district attorney and a prosecutor for more than 30 years.