For the week ending June 7, Warnock and Ossoff focused on protecting former Georgia U.S. Rep. John Lewis's legacy, introducing legislation to stop fentanyl trafficking at the southern border, protecting women's rights to contraception, and previewing new legislation that would help new farmers enter the profession.
Fentanyl made from Chinese chemicals is killing tens of thousands of Americans. A House committee report found new evidence the Chinese government supports tax breaks to subsidize the drug trade.
As the fentanyl crisis grows, Georgia lawmakers have set their eyes on holding someone accountable, pushing forward a bill that will make it easier to charge drug dealers with murder if their supply causes an overdose.
On the Thursday, March 21 edition of Georgia Today: State lawmakers want drug dealers to face murder charges in overdose cases; Georgia ended its pandemic era-moratorium on executions last night; and it could now be more difficult for some local employees to form a union in their workplace.
The morning started on a happy note as Lt. Gov. Burt Jones showed off the trophy won by the Senate in last night’s annual inter-chamber kickball game, after two years of House victories. But a visit from Jason Riley, father of slain UGA nursing student Laken Riley, brought a more somber mood to the floor.
The Georgia House is expected to consider criminal justice legislation designed to toughen penalties for people who sell fentanyl that causes an overdose and a bill that gives police officers more pay while recovering from severe injuries sustained on the job.
As the fentanyl crisis ravages Native American communities, some of their leaders want tribal police and courts to go after non-tribal dealers. But they can't without getting permission from Congress.
Vending machines carrying opioid-overdose reversal drugs are the center of a bill moving through the Georgia House that aims to make more drugs available to combat deaths from overdose.
The federal government made naloxone nasal spray available over the counter this year, and that availability is helping naloxone become a life-saving measure in shelters, jails and schools.
The majority of drugs tested after an opioid overdose — 90% — contain fentanyl, which is a synthetic opioid that is up to 50 times stronger than heroin and 100 times stronger than morphine. That's why some health experts are calling for nasal nalmefene to be available over the counter.
Renae was so desperate to keep her child alive when so many others have died from overdose that she resorted to extreme measures — and extreme risks. She now supervises drug use in her own home.
