PHOENIX — A proposed Arizona law that would allow drug dealers to be charged with homicide if their product killed someone was shot down by critics who said it was unconstitutional, could have a chilling effect on 911 calls for overdoses, and had the potential to subject a typical user to harsh punishment.
The Ashley Dunn Act, named for a young woman who died from a fentanyl overdose in 2021, received impassioned and heart-wrenching testimony from both supporters and detractors during a House Judiciary Committee meeting Wednesday.
But a bipartisan group of lawmakers voted the bill down, with one lawmaker saying it would cause more problems than it would solve.
This is the second time that Rep. Quang Nguyen, a Prescott Valley Republican, has proposed the Ashley Dunn Act. Last year, the bill won committee approval but didn’t advance to a vote by the full House of Representatives.
