Committee hears technical corrections to HB 4002 including fentanyl statute changes, pharmacy authority and automatic-expungement fixes

Senators and representatives on the Joint Committee on Addiction and Community Safety Response heard public testimony Feb. 5 on Senate Bill 236, an omnibus technical-corrections bill tied to House Bill 4,002 (2024) that sponsors and agency witnesses said would separate fentanyl offenses into distinct statutes, adjust pharmacy authority and prescription processes for medications for opioid use disorder (MOUD), expand a jail-based MOUD grant to some correctional facilities, and correct automatic-expungement provisions that are not currently functioning as intended.

The bill matters because the changes are intended to make the 2024 law operable without changing criminal penalties, improve access to MOUD through pharmacies and correctional facilities, and allow automated set-asides of eligible convictions once state information systems and procedures can support that automation.

Rob Bovette, an adjunct professor at Lewis & Clark Law School who testified for the bill, told the committee sections 1–16 “basically break out fentanyl into separate statutes” so fentanyl fits into Oregon’s existing controlled-substances statute structure. Bovette said the drafting…