A Falmouth man was sentenced Thursday to serve five years in prison for providing heroin to a man that resulted in that man’s death, U.S. Attorney Thomas E. Delahanty II said in a statement.

United States District Court Judge Jon D. Levy sentenced 32-year-old Adam Norton to five years in prison, to be followed by three years of supervised release.

In October 2014, Norton distributed heroin to a man that resulted in his death, court records show. A few days after the man died, Norton supplied heroin to a family member, who also overdosed but was resuscitated with Narcan – an opiate antidote.

Scott Pelletier, spokesman for the Maine Drug Enforcement Agency, said it is not common for drug dealers to go to prison for causing another person’s death. He said changes in Maine law have made it easier to impose prison sentences on traffickers, provided authorities can prove that a drug dealer caused someone’s death.

“It is common for us to try and connect the dots because our job is to track the drug back to its source, but we leave it up to the Attorney General’s Office and the U.S. Attorney’s Office to sort things out and determine if someone should be prosecuted,” Pelletier said.

At Thursday’s sentencing, Levy said that this “case presents circumstances that are the most heartbreaking” he has encountered. Norton’s drug trafficking stemmed from his own heroin addiction, which started with his use of prescription medication.

“Being an addict is not an excuse for drug trafficking,” Levy said.