New Indiana opioid law gives hope to Plymouth mom

PLYMOUTH, Ind. -- A new law that just went into affect July 1 in Indiana. aims to make stride towards combating the opioid crisis. 

One Plymouth mom, who we introduced you to during our Addicted America series, says this stride is a step in the right direction. 

"It's a bittersweet thing. I mean ideally, I would like to know who the drug dealer was who sold my son the batch of heroin that he overdosed on, which was laced with fetnanyl," says Angie Kain.

It's been a year and a half since her son Chandlor overdosed in the Economy Inn in Plymouth.

The drug dealer who sold him those drugs, unknown, but still walks free.

But with a new law, she's hoping that could change.

"It makes me hopeful to other families, because inevitably it's going to mean that these people are going to be caught and put in prison," she explains. "At the end of the day, it'll save lives."

Now, dealers could face up to 50 years in prison, if someone that sold to overdoses and dies from that batch.

Before, they could only face a 30 year sentence if they were caught selling more than 10 grams of a drug. 

Without that weight restriction, Kain says it could make a difference.

"They start with a big fish and here's the small fish, then it's dispersed to the smaller ones who then sell to the other ones," she adds. "Hopefully it'll make people think. Is it worth me selling this drug for 20, 30, 40 bucks? Is it worth me doing 50 years in prison?"

While it's a step in the right direction to strike back against the epidemic, Kain believes it'll still be a challenge.

"Typically, when someone does die from a drug overdose, it's not just heroin by itself. There's usually something like opioids as well, that was the case with my son's overdose too," she says."It's just being able to track down that it was that batch that did it and it wasn't because of mixing."

Other laws regarding the epidemic include:  the way coroners report data with regards to overdose deaths; health care professionals' use of a new database for a patients' prescription history; and Indiana's goal to increase the amount of drug treatment programs from 18 to 27.