Mississippi opioid task force apparently calling for extreme sentences for heroin dealers

In this post yesterday, I noted that recent reports and activity emerging from the Trump Administration concerning the opioid epidemic did not include any calls for new or increased federal sentences as part of the criminal justice response.  But this local article from Mississippi, headlined "Task force: Up to life sentences for heroin, fentanyl dealers," highlights that some state actors are talking about some remarkable sentencing reactions to the crisis.  Here are the basic details:

The Governor’s Opioid and Heroin Study Task Force is recommending some of the toughest measures in the U.S. to fight an epidemic that is now killing more Americans in a single year than U.S. service members who died during the entire Vietnam War...

To battle the increased problem of heroin and fentanyl overdoses, the task force is recommending tough punishment for drug dealers who sell heroin or fentanyl — an enhanced sentence of 40 years to life.

I cannot yet find a copy of this state task force's full recommendations, so I am not sure that it is really calling for all dealers of heroin or fentanyl to receive sentences of at least 40 years in prison.  But, whatever the particulars, I am sure that this task force is demonstrating how easy it is to advocate for increased sentences as one part of a response to our nation's latest drug epidemic.

UPDATE: A helpful comment below provides this link to the Mississippi Task Force recommendations.  The first recommendation in the law enforcement section simply urges "increased punishment" for heroin dealers and an "enhanced sentence of 40 year to life" for all who sell or transfer any controlled substance "that result in death (or serious bodily injury)."  So, intriguingly, the opioid epidemic has prompted a recommendation in Mississippi for a mandatory minimum 40-year prison term for any and every person who shares a drug that results in serious injury.

Though I am not sure how stringently Mississippi law approaches causation and serious bodily injury, I am sure this provision could be interpreted in expansive ways that could expose many drug-involved individuals to a mandatory minimum 40-year prison term. Indeed, were this recommendation to become law, I could imagine an aggressive prosecutor considering applying this provision to persons who passed around marijuana or ecstasy at a party if a partygoer thereafter badly crashed his car and broke some bones on the way home from the party.