Read the original article on the Raleigh News & Observer website.
Welcome to the Sunday edition of our Under the Dome newsletter, which focuses on the governor. I’m Avi Bajpai, filling in for Dawn Vaughan this week.
The budget proposal Gov. Josh Stein unveiled last month renews his request, now for the third year in a row, for a special unit of state prosecutors and law enforcement agents focused on combating fentanyl trafficking.
Stein first called on the General Assembly to create a fentanyl control unit within the N.C. Department of Justice in February 2023. As head of the department in his role as attorney general at the time, Stein said there was a need for additional prosecutors dedicated to helping local district attorneys go after large-scale trafficking, wiretap, and overdose cases.
His first recommended budget as governor this year includes a funding request for a fentanyl control unit with attorney positions at the DOJ, and law enforcement positions at the State Bureau of Investigation.
Asked about the proposal this week, Stein told reporters that even though initial data appeared to show a downturn in overdose deaths in North Carolina last year, it remains a priority for the state to “dedicate resources to getting this poison out of our communities to the fullest extent possible.”
Continue reading “Stein wants ‘fentanyl control unit’ of prosecutors and drug agents. How it would work.”