On Wednesday, the Chester County Sheriff’s Office (CCSO) announced the arrest of Xavier Colvin of Fair Lawn. The significance of the announcement is that Colvin is the first reported person to be charged under a law that imposes potentially steep prison terms for anyone convicted of trafficking fentanyl in South Carolina.
The law – which received large bipartisan support in the Statehouse and which Gov. Henry McMaster signed on June 15 – imposes sentences of up to 40-years for anyone convicted of trafficking 28 grams or more of fentanyl.
Colvin was charged Tuesday with possession of 77.6 grams of suspected fentanyl. He was also charged with several other drug possession and intent-to-distribute offenses, as well as unlawful conduct toward a child and possession of a firearm during a violent crime.
CCSO spokesperson Londa Pringle said Wednesday that the new law is a welcome tool for law enforcement agencies in Chester County.
According to the state Department of Health and Environmental Control (DHEC), Chester County recorded 10 fentanyl-related deaths in 2021 (the latest numbers) – a rate of 37 deaths per 100,000 residents – among the worst third of county-level fentanyl-related death rates that year.
“Previously, we did not have the tools to go after these big traffickers,” Pringle said. “Now we have the tools to put people away for a long time.”
She said the law is especially helpful to rural communities that are hit so hard by fentanyl-related problems. The DHEC data from 2021 show that the highest rates of fentanyl-related deaths were concentrated in predominantly rural counties.
The wish to get large-scale fentanyl movers off the streets for decades at a time is essentially informed by the drug’s toxicity. According to the federal Drug Enforcement Agency, just two milligrams (2/1,000ths) of fentanyl can prove fatal.
That means a single gram could amount to 500 lethal doses (and 77 grams could amount to 38,500 lethal doses).
The drug is often mixed with other substances and frequently amounts to more than two milligrams per dose, the DEA reports.
In South Carolina, annual fentanyl-related overdose deaths nearly tripled – from 537 to 1,494 –from 2019 to 2021, according to DHEC. That made fentanyl the third-deadliest drug category in the state in 2021, behind overall prescription drugs and opioids.
Of the stiff penalties facing convicted fentanyl traffickers, Pringle said, “The focus is on getting these drugs off the streets; not just in Chester.”
But some in the substance addiction and recovery space see worrisome echoes of the crack epidemic of the 1980s, when federal lawmakers okayed decades-long sentences specifically against anyone moving crack cocaine. As early as 1993, the U.S. Department of Justice reported on the racial disparities of sentencing under those federal guidelines issued just a few years earlier. The move is now seen by many, including the American Civil Liberties Union, as a disaster. In December, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland issued new guidance on ending sentencing disparities between those convicted on powder cocaine charges and those convicted on crack cocaine charges.
In March, Adam Wandt, an assistant professor of public policy at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York, told PBS News Hour, “Every time we treat drugs as a law enforcement problem and push stricter laws, we find that we punish people in ways that destroy their lives and make it harder for them to recover later on.” He added that people behind bars often continue getting drugs — often without receiving quality addiction treatment.
Lesley Pregenzer, CEO of FAVOR Upstate, a substance abuse treatment center in Spartanburg, said that while her organization supports the state government’s awareness of the fentanyl problem South Carolina faces, punishment alone is not the way to address the deeper issue of addiction that fuels the fentanyl crisis.
“What we know about substances and addiction is that it’s a disease,” Pregenzer said. “And we know that punishment is not appropriate to address disease.”
The state’s fentanyl trafficking law does not have a treatment plan contained within it.
Pregenzer said that while the law is meant to punish traffickers and not users of fentanyl, the reality is that sales and use typically go hand-in-hand.
“It’s really hard to separate the drug from the addiction,” she said. She also said she’s grateful that the state Department of Alcohol and Substance Abuse Services (DAODAS) supports recovery-based services for drug offenders.
