Governor Rick Scott was in Sarasota yesterday for a ceremonial bill signing for a law that is meant to hold drug dealers accountable for their role in the opioid epidemic. The actual bill was signed in June- it increases penalties for drug dealers caught selling synthetic drugs like fentanyl. Under the new law, dealers could face murder charges if their customers overdose and die using fentanyl. It also imposes a minimum three-year sentence for anyone caught with at least four grams of fentanyl or other similar drugs like carfentanil, which is 100 times more potent than its more common variant. Fentanyl caused 704 overdose deaths in Florida during the first half of last year alone- making it the leading cause of overdose deaths in the state.
