Committee hears emotional testimony and law-enforcement support for tougher fentanyl penalties

Representative Leitner introduced House Bills 4255 and 4256, a package amending the criminal procedure code and the public health code to create a new controlled-substance classification for fentanyl and some derivatives and to increase penalties for distribution, including mandatory minimums and enhanced penalties for sales to minors.

"This package of bills creates a new category of controlled substances and creates a higher penalty for heroin, fentanyl, carfentanil, or any derivative ... and revises these penalties," read Jessica, legislative director for Representative Bolin, who provided sponsor materials to the committee.

David Gilbert, Calhoun County prosecutor, described local overdose statistics and urged stricter penalties. "Throughout Michigan, there were 2,931 overdoses in 2023," Gilbert said, and he testified that synthetic opioids are a primary driver of overdose deaths in the state. He told the committee that roughly "78 percent of the drugs that we deal with have fentanyl in it," and that fentanyl and carfentanil are the leading killers in the current drug crisis.

Michael Hurst, founder of Andy's Angels and an advocate whose son died of an overdose, urged the committee to keep mandatory minimums and said the cartel-produced counterfeit pills have dramatically increased deaths. "Now we have people that have never used drugs before dying," Hurst said. He described Andy's Place, a recovery and housing initiative in Jackson that partners with treatment courts.

Julie Reisner, a Jackson-area parent who lost her son to a fentanyl-laced heroin overdose, testified about the family's experience, the criminal prosecutions that followed, and the impact on their community. Reisner described multiple treatment attempts for her son and recounted how the dealer whose arrest her son aided later returned and her son was beaten; she said the dealer ultimately received prison time but that the family still lost their son.

Support cards read into the record included Matt Saxon of the Michigan Sheriffs Association and other law-enforcement and community-support groups. Committee members asked questions about statutory exemptions, whether penalties would affect plea bargaining, and the role of treatment and diversion courts. Prosecutor Gilbert said counties may continue to negotiate pleas and that mandatory minimums would change bargaining dynamics but were appropriate given the lethality of fentanyl.

Why it matters: Testimony framed the bills as a public-safety response to a surge in fatal overdoses tied to fentanyl and counterfeit pills. Sponsors emphasized mandatory minimums and a new schedule to give prosecutors and courts tools to remove repeat and high-harm distributors from the streets.

Background and details: Testimony and sponsor materials said the bills add mandatory minimums for certain offenses and enhanced penalties for sales to minors, while creating a separate schedule for fentanyl derivatives so that existing penalties for other controlled substances are not reduced. The transcript does not show a committee vote on the bills during this session.