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House committee hears bill to enhance sentences for fentanyl traffickers
Summary
The House Judiciary Committee heard testimony on House Bill 16, which would add discretionary sentencing enhancements for fentanyl trafficking based on pill counts and leadership role; supporters and opponents disputed whether enhanced sentences will reduce deaths and how thresholds should be set.
House Judiciary Committee members heard testimony on House Bill 16 on an effort to increase sentencing ranges for fentanyl trafficking in New Mexico.
Supporters said HB16 targets large-scale traffickers and adds sentencing “enhancements” judges may apply based on quantity or leadership. Representative Drew Little, sponsor of the bill, described it as amending “the criminal sentencing act for fentanyl traffickers and dealers in New Mexico, increasing the sentence depending on the amount traffickers possess.”
The measure would make three discretionary enhancements available to sentencing judges: a 3-year enhancement for possession of 100–500 fentanyl-containing pills, a 5-year enhancement for possession of more than 500 pills, and a 5-year enhancement for leaders or organizers of a drug enterprise, according to testimony from Mark Baker, an attorney testifying as an expert. “Fentanyl is 50 times more potent than heroin, 100 times more potent than morphine,” Baker said, adding that “any individual fentanyl pill is potentially deadly.”
Opponents urged rejection, arguing increased incarceration does not reduce crime and would worsen racial disparities and prison crowding. Courtney Montoya, community engagement specialist at the ACLU of New Mexico, told the committee that “increasing sentences does not benefit crime control” and warned the bill revives “tough on crime” approaches that the ACLU says are counterproductive.
Law enforcement and business groups urged passage. Troy Easter, chief of the New Mexico State Police, said the bill targets large-scale traffickers and noted state police experience with repeated arrests of the same traffickers. Duval Westfall of the Greater Albuquerque Chamber of Commerce described the bill as “targeted at those trafficking the drugs, not the victims.”
Committee members asked detailed questions about thresholds, how courts would define organizer or leader language, and whether liquid forms of fentanyl or fentanyl-laced products would be captured. Baker said detection would rely on chemical testing and that the measure’s thresholds were intended to separate users from high-level traffickers.
No vote on HB16 was recorded in the committee during this hearing. The sponsor and supporters said they intend to work on thresholds and definitions so the measure targets large traffickers and not people with substance use disorders.
The committee then moved to other items on the agenda.
