Associated Press
BATON ROUGE, La. — Heroin-related deaths in East Baton Rouge Parish have reached a record high this year.
In a news conference Monday, Coroner Beau Clark said 38 people have died from heroin overdoses so far this year, about an 8.5 percent increase from Baton Rouge’s previous record of 35 heroin deaths in 2013.
Clark says he will push this spring for the Louisiana Legislature to stiffen penalties for heroin dealers.
Clark says heroin dealers are different from other kinds of people who sell drugs, with their product too often killing the user.
State lawmakers passed a bill last year that increased the maximum prison sentence for second-time heroin dealers to 99 years. First-time dealers can be imprisoned up to 50 years.
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