Prosecution trend: After fatal OD, dealer charged with death

Maximum penalty: life behind bars.

In many states, including Ohio, Maine and New Jersey, authorities grappling with an alarming surge in opioid abuse are filing homicide, involuntary manslaughter or related charges against dealers.

[...] beyond the postcard image is a crime blotter where the overwhelming majority of major crimes are tied to drugs.

Last year, a convenience store was hit four times by different armed robbers seeking money for drugs.

Millette had been linked to another fatal fentanyl overdose, but the witness wasn't credible, so police didn't pursue the claims.

Millette says he didn't know he was selling Martin pure fentanyl and insists he was no big-time dealer, just a desperate addict.

[...] Tyler notes he peddled fentanyl, heroin and cocaine to more than 30 customers.

Millette's life turned into a dead-end cycle of dealing dope, then buying drugs for himself.

Erika Marble, Martin's fiancee and mother of their two young sons, says he tried to stop but something always got in the way — no insurance, no room in treatment centers.

Marble says Martin was a caring, big-hearted man and she hoped the presence of her and their children would inspire him.

Last spring, the U.S. attorney's office and state's attorney general formed a task force to pursue dealers who sell opiates that result in fatal overdoses.

[...] 56 cases are being investigated, says Benjamin Agati, senior assistant attorney general.

[...] James Vara, who prosecuted the case and now is the governor's special drug adviser, rejects such criticism.

Gamble visits Martin's grave often; she's placed two ceramic plates there embedded with their sons' tiny hand prints.