Prosecutors going after drug dealers amid opioid epidemic

WOODSTOCK, Ill. (AP) - Prosecutors in a northern Illinois county are increasingly taking their battle against illegal drugs and the national opioid epidemic to the people who've supplied them to overdose victims.

The (Crystal Lake) Northwest Herald reports that in 2017, McHenry County State's Attorney Patrick Kenneally's office charged nine people with drug-induced homicide - as many were charged with the same crime during the previous six years.

Whether charging people with a felony that carries a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison will reduce the number of overdoses. But Kenneally says he hopes the effort will send a message to drug dealers.

But critics worry that the charges do little more than lock up the last person who was with the overdose victim, who is often another drug addict.