N.H. House rejects three bills to toughen fentanyl drug laws
- Oops!Something went wrong.Please try again later.
- Oops!Something went wrong.Please try again later.
May 2—CONCORD — Despite the desires of Gov. Chris Sununu and the Republican-led state Senate, three bills to beef up penalties for the illegal use of possessing, trafficking and transporting fentanyl fell flat in the House of Representatives Thursday.
After brief debates, the House voted to kill one, sent a second to a mercy-killing study and placed the third on the table.
The third bill will be difficult to resurrect in the coming weeks of the 2024 session unless House Republican attendance improves or there are fewer House Democrats in the chamber.
A centerpiece of Senate President Jeb Bradley's agenda for the 2024 session had been to create a minimum five-year mandatory prison term for anyone transporting fentanyl into the state with the intent to distribute.
The bill (SB 316) also would have expanded the state's power to seize someone's vehicle if the owner is caught with fentanyl in it.
Rep. Linda Harriott-Gathright, D-Nashua, said such mandatory jail sentences were tried in the 1980s and early 1990s to punish those trafficking in crack cocaine.
"Mandatory minimums are outdated, one-size-fits-all solutions that are an ineffective use of taxpayer dollars in addressing the opioid epidemic in our state," Harriott-Gathright said.
"The bottom line is our country has already tried this approach."
House Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee Chairman Terry Roy, R-Deerfield, said those previous minimum mandatory terms were too broad.
"They sent a lot of people to prison that probably didn't need to go," Roy began.
This bill addresses the importation of fentanyl into the state, some of it coming up from the Southern border, Roy said.
The legislation is part of the state's response to illegal immigration, he argued.
"We just can't keep treating the system; we have to deal with the underlying cause," Roy said.
A move to pass the bill failed on a 229-137 unrecorded or division vote with no doubt dozens of Republicans joining Democrats in opposition.
Libertarian-minded House Republicans have been trying for years to limit the police power of civil forfeiture, which made it harder for the the bill to gain traction.
The second bill would have imposed at least a 3 1/2 -year prison term for someone caught with at least five grams of fentanyl that would go up to a seven-year minimum for those with at least 28 grams (SB 415).
The House voted to table the bill, 340-24.
Roy suggested the move was a polite way to get rid of it.
"Would I then vote to kill this bill so we can move on to deal with other stuff" on the agenda, Roy asked rhetorically.
The third Senate-passed bill (SB 414) would have created a 10-year minimum prison term for anyone convicted of selling fentanyl that resulted in the death of another.
Without debate, the House sent the bill to interim study, which means it has to start over again as a new bill in the 2025 session.
Roy's committee had recommended study for the third bill.
Sununu's office had officially weighed in favor of two of these measures and Sununu had praised the Senate GOP's work on the issue.
New Futures, a public health advocacy group, the American Civil Liberties Union of New Hampshire and the state's criminal defense bar all opposed the measures while State Police and the New Hampshire Association of Chiefs of Police supported them.
Senate President Bradley said he was disappointed the House didn't agree that stiffer punishment was called for to send a no-tolerance message when it comes to fentanyl trafficking.
"There is way too much emphasis on legalizing drugs in New Hampshire," Bradley said. "When people are bringing deadly drugs into New Hampshire, I think there should be strong penalties."
Bradley said he would talk with House Speaker Sherman Packard's leadership team to see if there's a way to "continue the discussion" in other pending legislation this spring.
He suggested the lopsided nature of Thursday's votes made that less likely.
Senate Republicans did prevail on a related front when the Senate killed a House-passed bill (HB 170) to exempt fentanyl test strips and other drug-checking equipment from the definition of drug paraphernalia.
Supporters said the bill would have made the strips more widely available.
"We heard testimony from law enforcement that this bill would provide an affirmative defense for drug dealers in court," said Sen. Bill Gannon, R-Sandown.
"During a drug crisis, we cannot pass legislation that encourages drug use and protects drug dealers. I am therefore grateful to my Republican colleagues for rejecting this dangerous bill today."
The Senate killed it on a voice vote.
