Father Wants Mercy for Friend Charged in the Overdose Death of his Son

Treat, don’t imprison addicts, says family of man who died of an overdose. Calling for probation and recovery efforts instead of prosecution for the man’s co-heroin user, the Franklin County, Ohio, family is a case in point that drew the attention of a group of law professors who wrote a letter last month to the Ohio Sentencing Commission in which they called such prosecutions counterproductive in addressing the opioid addiction crisis. The letter was based on a study by the law school’s Health in Justice Action Lab, headed by Professor Leo Beletsky.