‘Austin’s Law’ targeting dealers, suppliers of fentanyl: bill advances out of committee

ATLANTA, Ga. (Atlanta News First) - “It was about three months ago when Angela King lost her beloved son Jack. He had just come home from college for Thanksgiving break. He had a night out and stayed at a friend’s house, but when his family didn’t hear from him the next day they got worried.

“My husband went over to the friend’s house right around the corner. They were asleep, so we thought. Jack had already died,” she said.

King said her son had taken a pill that unfortunately was laced with fentanyl.

“My husband performed CPR on him for 30 minutes. Then EMTs came and worked on him for an hour,” said King.

It’s experiences like these that Senator Russ Goodman is hoping to prevent with SB 465, also coined Austin’s Law, named after a Georgia man who also passed in a similar way.

“Austin had bought some Xanax that was laced with fentanyl. Literally from the time he took it until he passed away it was about 24 hours,” said Goodman.

“What this bill is going to do, is create another class or another crime. It’s called aggravated involuntary manslaughter,” said Goodman.

Senator Goodman said many situations could also be left up to a judge’s discretion.

“You have the judge’s discretion if you have a 17-year-old that buys some controlled substance laced with fentanyl, he gives it to the friend, he lives and his friend passes away,” said Goodman.

The bill passed in the Senate Judiciary Committee, now it has to be voted on by the full House and Senate. For moms like Angela King it’s one step closer to saving more lives.

“There needs to be a lot more legislation passed for this epidemic that we are facing not only in Georgia, but nationally,” said King