Photo by Ron Rittenhouse Surrounded by family members of the late Lauren Cole, Gov. Patrick Morrisey signs Senate Bill 196 — dubbed ‘Lauren’s Law’ —  in Morgantown.

MORGANTOWN — Gov. Patrick Morrisey vowed vigilance Thursday afternoon as he signed a bill into law that will deliver harsher penalties to those found guilty of trafficking drugs causing death in the Mountain State. 

“We’re gonna constantly be looking for you,” he said. “We’re gonna be targeting you, and by God, we’re gonna hold you accountable.”

During a ceremony in Morgantown, Morrisey signed into law Senate Bill 196, which is now officially known as “Lauren’s Law” on the books in West Virginia.

The law delivers penalties of up to 40 years in prison to offending dealers.

Lauren’s Law increases penalties for drug-related crimes, including enhanced sentencing for the delivery of fentanyl; increased penalties for transporting fentanyl into the state and conspiracy to transport; mandatory prison sentences for top-tier drug offenses; creating a new offense for delivery resulting in death, with a mandatory 10- to 40-year sentence; and creating a new offense for offenders labeled “drug kingpins” with a mandatory sentence of 10-to-40 years.

The bill is named in honor of Lauren Cole, a 26-year-old Morgantown woman who died in 2020 after taking a dose of heroin laced with fentanyl. Fentanyl, in its medicinal, prescription form, is 80 to 100 times more powerful than morphine.

The governor, who calls the drug “a weapon of mass destruction,” said families and communities here have languished under its shadow for too long.

West Virginia regularly leads the nation in drug overdose deaths.

With Lauren’s parents, Michael and Cherie Cole, looking on, Morrisey signed the bill just down the hall from Lauren’s Wish — a nonprofit, 24-bed triage center they helped found in the years after their daughter’s death.

The center, which offers counseling and additional help to overdose survivors, is located in Hazel’s House of Hope on Scott Avenue. It just saw its 900th client earlier this year.