Pharmaceutical Harm Or Homicide: Accountability For Prescription Drugs

State Senator Bryan King files bill focused on Big Pharma and opioids

Do you trust your doctor? Americans rely heavily on the healthcare system for everything from the treatment of a common cold to cancer.

Many people think that if a doctor prescribes a medicine it is seemingly safe.

Arkansas state Senator Bryan King seeks to create a legal pathway for citizens to be better protected from harm as a result of harmful prescriptions.

“These companies are worse than street corner dealers,” King told South Arkansas Reckoning. “They will receive civil penalties but that doesn't have any real impact. They make $500 million and will pay $100 million in damages. There needs to be more. Big Pharma harms people.”

King, who lives in Green Forrest, filed a bill Friday for the upcoming 2025 legislative session to protect Arkansans from harmful prescription drugs.

In the bill it states, “A person commits prescription drug harm or homicide if; the person is an executive officer for a pharmaceutical company and is 18 years of age or older; the person introduces into the market a prescription drug produced by the pharmaceutical company; the person knowingly hides, conceals, omits, or otherwise withholds evidence, documentation, or information that the prescription drug has dangerous effects; another person is prescribed the prescription drug and in this state uses the prescription drug; and the use if the prescription drug causes the death of or serious physical injury to the other person.”

“Prescription drug harm or homicide is an unclassified felony with a sentence of imprisonment of not less than one year and not more than life.”

The bill also creates a prescription drug harm or homicide offense fund under Arkansas Code Title 19, Chapter 5, Subchapter 12.

It would create the “Prescription Drug Harm or Homicide Offense Fund” would consist of:

• Federal funds received through a grant

• Appropriations from the General Assembly: and

• Other revenues and funds authorized by law.

The bill states the attorney general would use the fund to provide funding and support for the prosecution of the offense of prescription drug harm or homicide.

Earlier Friday, King filed a bill about vaccine harm.