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Committee hears bills to add fentanyl-specific schedule and tougher penalties for fentanyl-related crimes
Summary
Representatives introduced House Bills 4255 and 4256 to create a new controlled-substance schedule for fentanyl and increase penalties, including mandatory minimums for certain sales. Prosecutors, recovery advocates and family members testified in support; no committee vote was recorded.
Representative Leitner introduced House Bills 4255 and 4256, a package that would amend Michigan's criminal procedure code and public health code to create a new controlled-substance classification for fentanyl and its derivatives and to increase penalties for distribution of fentanyl, heroin, carfentanil and related opioids.
Representative Leitner said the package creates a new schedule specific to fentanyl derivatives, raises maximum penalties, and adds mandatory minimums in some circumstances, including sales to minors. "We want to support these successful efforts, but we must do something to stop the penetration of these fatal drugs throughout society," she said.
Calhoun County Prosecutor David Gilbert testified the county has seen a sharp rise in overdose deaths and that synthetic opioids are the primary driver. "Throughout Michigan, there were 2,931 overdoses in 2023," Gilbert said. "To say, I didn't know there's fentanyl in it is really difficult to say these days when 78 percent of those, the drugs that we find have fentanyl in it. About 75 percent of the overdose deaths in our county and probably the state too are have fentanyl in the drugs that are being used." He said fentanyl and carfentanil are the leading killers in local drug trends and urged tougher penalties to remove repeat dealers from the street longer.
Michael Hurst of Andy's Angels and Julie Reisner, whose son Chris died of a fentanyl-laced heroin overdose after years of addiction and recovery attempts, testified in favor of the bills. Hurst urged that dealers should face stiffer punishment and suggested test kits as a harm-mitigation tool for users. Reisner described her son's long struggle and death and said the family supported tougher penalties for distributors whose products caused fatalities.
Members asked about scope and unintended consequences for non-opioid products and about how the bills would interact with plea bargaining and sentencing practices. Prosecutor Gilbert said counties handle pleas differently and that he did not expect misdemeanors to replace felonies under the proposed scheme; he said sentencing bargains would remain possible.
No committee vote on HB 4255 or HB 4256 was recorded in the transcript.
