People who sell fentanyl could get life in prison, or at the very least much stiffer prison terms, under a pair of bills that both advanced Tuesday in the Louisiana Legislature.
The bills are part of a push for more tough-on-crime lawmaking among some factions of the state Legislature — a trend that comes in an election year as legislators sponsoring some of the bills pursue higher office.
“We need to send a very strong and clear message that if you’re distributing these kinds of drugs, you intend to kill people, and you’re gonna face the requisite penalty for that,” Rep. John Stefanski, R-Crowley, the sponsor of the tougher of the two bills and a candidate for attorney general, told the House Administration of Criminal Justice Committee.
The panel moved to approve his bill by an 11-1 vote with only committee chairman Rep. Joe Marino, I-Gretna, objecting.
Louisiana Senator Sharon Hewitt, R-Slidell, left, talks with Rep. Francis Thompson, R-Delhi, right, after Gov. John Bel Edwards addressed members of the House and Senate to kick off Louisiana’s 2023 regular legislative session, Monday, April 10, 2023 at the State Capitol in Baton Rouge, La.
The state Senate on Tuesday also passed Senate Bill 49, which would raise maximum jail terms from 15 to 40 years for people convicted of running fentanyl labs. The bill sponsored by Slidell Republican Sen. Sharon Hewitt, who is running for governor, also calls for escalating sentences for later arrests with 99-year maximum terms for third-time arrestees.
Stefanski has made rooting out and preventing crime a key plank in his run for the state’s top law enforcement office. His House Bill 90 would make people arrested with 28 grams of fentanyl-cut drugs — just under an ounce — eligible for a life-in-prison sentence without potential for parole.
Fentanyl is about 500 times deadlier than heroin and has driven a surge of overdose deaths in Louisiana and nationally in recent years. Supporters said the bill is part of a no-tolerance approach necessitated by the “scourge” of the drug’s spread.
Advocates and doctors who specialize in addiction told the criminal justice committee that tougher sentencing would do little to fix the problem, accusing lawmakers of playing “whack-a-mole” by toughening sentencing each time a new drug overtakes the market. They pointed to research showing that solving crimes — not tougher sentences — is what prevents crime.
Opponents raised concerns that Stefanski’s bill would allow the life without parole sentence for people arrested with 28 grams or more of any kind of narcotic, provided the substance is cut with fentanyl. Law enforcement officials say fentanyl is commonly added to other drugs like cocaine.
“It is 100% a deadly drug, but my concern is how it’s concealed,” said Marino, the committee chair who voted against the bill.
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