WOOD COUNTY, OH (WTOL) - A Wood County man is being charged in connection to another man's overdose death.
Michael Pitts is charged with involuntary manslaughter, reckless homicide and trafficking drugs after selling cocaine and fentanyl to a man who died.
"If you sell drugs to someone and they overdose… especially if they die, you are going to be held accountable for that," said Wood County Sheriff Mark Wasylyshyn.
He says the charges are something his office takes very seriously.
"They're not thinking about what's happening to the lives of the people that they are giving these drugs to and selling these drugs to. And we're giving them one more reason to think twice about doing it, because they will go to prison," said Sheriff Wasylyshyn.
Charging drug dealers for overdose deaths it one of several steps in a state-wide effort to decrease Ohio's growing drug problem.
"We've had so many overdoses last year in Wood County alone," said Sheriff Wasylyshyn. "We actually had several people in Wood County that overdosed more than once during the year."
Pitts is scheduled to be arraigned next Friday at 1 p.m.
