Proponents say prioritizing recovery services over punishments may reduce fentanyl overdoses

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Living Proof Recovery Executive Director Brittney Galvanauskas points at a wall map of drug overdose location reports.

Credit: Ellen Eldridge/GPB

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Living Proof Recovery Executive Director Brittney Galvanauskas looks at a piece of art on the wall. Her T-shirt says "Where there is life, there is hope."

Credit: Ellen Eldridge/GPB

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A woman in a gray hooded jacket playing pool by herself at Living Proof Recovery in Rome, Ga.

Credit: Ellen Eldridge/GPB

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Living Proof Recovery Executive Director Brittney Galvanauskas stands by the sign outside the recovery center's sign.

Credit: Contributed

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Living Proof Recovery Executive Director Brittney Galvanauskas.

Credit: Ellen Eldridge/GPB

Austin Walters was lonely, his father, Gus Walters, said.

The 31-year-old successful John Deere salesman struggled with untreated anxiety and depression.

"He had a great group of friends," Walters said. "He loved being with people. He loved the outdoors. He loved to hike, fish."

Austin Walters moved to Brunswick shortly before the COVID-19 pandemic isolated him from the people he needed to be near, his dad said.

"He didn't have a partner in life, if you will," Walters said. "My wife and I both feel like that if he'd had a really nice young lady that loved him, that, you know, he probably wouldn't have been in such a depression — or dealt with depression and anxiety like he did."

When Walters learned that Austin died by fentanyl poisoning after buying what he thought was Xanax, a prescription medication for anxiety, he wanted to find the person responsible — and he did — but there was nothing he could do. 

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Austin Walters

Credit: Contributed by Gus Walters

Ultimately, Austin Walter’s death would change that. Today in Georgia, people can face prison time for unwittingly selling or sharing the deadly synthetic opioid fentanyl.

Now a bill passed by the General Assembly and headed to Governor Brian Kemp’s desk would go further by establishing mandatory minimum sentences for fentanyl possession.

Proponents say it will slow the flow of the drug. But some in the substance abuse disorder recovery community worry that it may also send drug users to prison instead of toward help.

The opioid epidemic

Nationally, synthetic opioids, primarily fentanyl, cause more overdose deaths than any other illicit drug, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and, on average, synthetic opioids were found in 63% of overdose deaths in Georgia in 2024. 

Most recent cases of fentanyl-related overdose are linked to illegally made fentanyl, which is distributed through illegal drug markets for its heroin-like effect. It is often added to other drugs because of its extreme potency, which makes drugs cheaper, more powerful, more addictive and more dangerous. 

Until 2014, the number of fentanyl exhibits reported by the National Forensic Laboratory Information System (NFLIS) remained below 1,000, except for a spike to 1,594 in 2006, when a single clandestine lab in Toluca, Mexico, fueled that fentanyl outbreak. The number of exhibits soared in 2014, accompanied by sharp increases in deaths despite no comparable increase in prescribing (Gladden et al., 2016), and reached 13,002 in 2015 (DEA, 2016a).

Harsh punishment for dealers

Gus Walters said law enforcement knew exactly where the dealer who sold Austin the fatal pill lived, but there was little to no point in making an arrest because the only available charge for selling Xanax was a misdemeanor. And those who sold the single pill avoided a felony charge because it couldn’t be proven that they didn’t know the Xanax was also laced with fentanyl.

That loophole inspired Georgia lawmakers in 2024 to craft and pass what’s known as Austin’s Law, named for Gus Walter’s son.

"So Austin's Law last year basically created a new charge," Walters said. "It's aggravated involuntary manslaughter."

The law says if somebody sells, distributes, or manufactures a medication that causes the death of another person through fentanyl or a fentanyl derivative, then they can be prosecuted for manslaughter. Importantly, that’s whether they knew the fentanyl was present or not. 

Austin's Law didn't go far enough, lawmakers say

Gus Walters said Austin’s Law was just a start. 

"So, it was more of a reactive law," Walters said. "In other words, on the front side, somebody dies and the reaction is now we can go after the person that sold the pill that killed that individual."

The Fentanyl Eradication and Removal Act does that by establishing very stiff mandatory minimum prison sentences for simply possessing fentanyl.

The language of the bill calculates those sentences in a number of different ways. In one example, possession of just under an ounce of fentanyl would mean a 25 year sentence and a $500,000 fine. 

Beth Lambert has lived through both addiction and incarceration. Today she is the volunteer coordinator of Living Proof Recovery in Rome, a city in Northwest Georgia. She worries that the new sentences will backfire and lead to more death.

"Here we are at a crossroads where we want to get fentanyl off the street, but I feel like this will lead to more overdoses and overdose deaths because people are going to be less likely to call in for help now," Lambert said.

That’s because people might be too afraid of being charged with possession and the long prison term that could come with that if they dialed 911.

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Brittney Galvanauskas stands in front of a Living Proof Recovery sign.

Credit: Contributed

If the Fentanyl Eradication and Removal Act were law when Brittney Galvanauskas struggled with substance use disorder, she said her daughter would not have a mother or a father today. Dad died of an overdose. Brittney would still be in prison.

While she has not used illegal drugs in seven years, she estimates $40 worth of fentanyl would send a person to prison for up to five years. 

"I still can't wrap my mind around it," she said. "That's like nothing when you're using."

A judge gave her one last chance after a long list of wasted opportunities, telling Galvanauskas that he hoped she was cured of her desire to use drugs when she left prison six years early.

The early release allowed her to live in a group home led by other people living recovering from addiction.

"They supported me in a way that I had not been supported before," Galvanauskas said. "They had walked a similar path. They knew the challenges. They knew the barriers that I was going to face."

Now, she is the executive director for Living Proof Recovery.

The recovery and harm reduction-focused model in Georgia is what is keeping people alive, Galvanauskas said — in other words, meeting people where they are and supporting them in whatever phase that they're in.

"What we have been doing historically, which is mass incarceration, doesn't work because, if it did, then we would not be losing over 100,000 people every year," she said.

Recently, overdose deaths in the US have been dropping dramatically, down to over 80,000 a year. 

While experts are still asking exactly why and how this happened, many credit expanded access to the opioid overdose reversing drug naloxone for the new trend.