As B.C. grapples with an epidemic of fatal drug overdoses, the province's top court has decided convicted fentanyl traffickers should face tougher penalties than other dealers.
In a ruling delivered last Friday, the Court of Appeal ruled the sentences for fentanyl dealing, which usually range from six to 12 months, should be increased to 18 to 36 months.
The step is necessary, the three-judge panel said, because of the devastating effects of the drug, which was linked to several hundred deaths last year.
"Fentanyl is a scourge. It poses intolerable risks of accidental overdosing because it is so much more powerful than morphine," Justice David Harris said in the decision.
"As matters stand today, other dangerous drugs do not kill as frequently, accidentally, or as unpredictably."
The judges were hearing an appeal for the sentence of Frank Stanley Smith, a street-level dealer and first-time offender who was given six months for possession for the purposes of trafficking.
The court declined to increase his sentence, however, because Smith committed the offence in early 2015, when the dangers of fentanyl weren't as widely known.
"In the interim there has been a profound and enormous escalation in the extent of the fentanyl crisis and public awareness of it," Harris said.
On Tuesday, B.C. Public Safety Minister Mike Morris said he supports the judges' push for stiffer sentences, arguing fentanyl dealers must be held accountable for knowingly putting drug users at risk.
"These folks are preying on some of the most vulnerable people we have in society, and over the last couple years we've realized the inherent public danger that comes with fentanyl," Morris said.
With files from CTV Vancouver’s Bhinder Sajan
