Published on: Thursday, March 6, 2025
This morning the United States Sentencing Commission published a new report on Overdoses in Federal Drug Trafficking Crimes. Full report here; Report at A-Glance here; Press release here. This report “covers the prevalence of these offenses, the drug types involved, the outcomes of each overdose, the victims’ awareness of the drugs they were taking, the conduct of the individuals who were sentenced, and the sentences imposed by the courts in these cases over the five-year study period.”
Key findings include:
- Cases involving an overdose increased by 44 percent between fiscal years 2019 and 2023 in the federal caseload.
- Fentanyl and its analogues were involved in nearly 80 percent (79.4%) of the overdose cases in this study.
- Less than five percent (4.8%) of sentenced individuals in this study knowingly misrepresented the drugs they were trafficking. Most people selling drugs in this study and most of those who overdosed on these drugs did not know the exact drugs involved in the transaction.
- Almost 80 percent of the victims who overdosed on fentanyl did not know they were taking that drug.
- 92 percent of victims who overdosed on a fentanyl analogue did not know they were taking that drug.
- Most overdose victims believed they were taking heroin, oxycodone, or cocaine.
- Over half (55.2%) of the sentenced individuals in this study performed the function of a street level dealer.
- Nearly two-thirds (64.5%) of the 2,112 victims in this study suffered a fatal overdose.
- The average sentence imposed in cases involving an overdose was 149 months, approximately double the average sentence in cases where no overdose was reported, which was 76 months.
- Sentences imposed in cases with an overdose varied by offense conduct:
- The average sentence in cases with a single, non-fatal overdose was 125 months.
- The average sentence in cases with multiple overdoses, of which at least one was fatal, was 177 months.
- In cases where an overdose victim died and the sentenced individual failed to render aid or caused further harm to an overdose victim, sentences were longer on average, at 210 and 216 months, respectively.