Idaho Bills

Amends existing law to provide that trafficking in fentanyl is a felony and to provide that mandatory minimums become effective only on a second offense.

Idaho is in the midst of a fentanyl crisis. Not only is it deadly, it is often laced into other pills or drugs – even black-market vape cartridges – and a person won’t even know it. This bill would impose mandatory minimum prison sentences and fines on those found with seven grams or more of fentanyl. It would also make the following updates to Idaho’s 30-year-old mandatory minimum drug sentencing statute: 1. Keep mandatory minimum sentences but allow judicial discretion for first-time convictions for drugs other than fentanyl. Idaho’s original law included language allowing discretion to depart from the mandatory minimum sentence in specific instances. This bill would restore discretion in a way that respects the legislature’s original intent and Idaho’s Constitution so that judges may distinguish between trafficking and addiction. 2. Ensure the law focuses on drug dealers by requiring prosecutors to prove intent to distribute. The current statute only requires a showing of weight, not proof that the person intended to distribute or deliver it. 3. Require weight be limited to the illegal substance. Weight is based not only on the illegal substance, but also onallsurroundingmaterials. TheStateLabalreadyseparatesandweighstheillegalsubstancefromsurrounding materials for federal cases. 4. Update quantities of certain drugs that trigger a mandatory minimum by eliminating the lowest category of marijuana trafficking and by mirroring the levels for heroin to federal law. Most quantities are original to the 1992 law. Yet Idaho police report that nearly every drug they apprehend is a combination of legal and illegal substance. Dilution coupled with tolerance means some addicted Idahoans are mislabeled as traffickers. If the power and resources of government are used to remove a person’s liberty, the standard should be higher.

Amends existing law to provide that trafficking in fentanyl is a felony and to revise sentences for trafficking offenses.

Idaho is in the midst of a fentanyl crisis. Not only is fentanyl deadly, it is often laced into other pills or drugs – even black-market vape cartridges – and a person won’t even know it. This bill is an effort to compromise. It includes language identical to a bill introduced earlier this session imposing mandatory minimum prison sentences for fentanyl. It also includes reasonable updates to Idaho’s 30-year-old mandatory minimum drug sentencing statute: 1. Impose mandatory minimum sentences for seven grams or more of fentanyl. 2. Keep mandatory minimum sentences but allow judicial discretion for first-time convictions for drugs other than fentanyl. • Thirtyyearsago, thelegislatureestablishedmandatoryminimumsentencesfordrugcrimes. Theintended target was leaders of criminal drug rings that manufacture and sell drugs to Idahoans. • Idaho’s original statute included language allowing discretion to depart from the mandatory minimum sentence in specific instances. This bill would restore discretion in a way that respects the legislature’s original intent and Idaho’s Constitution so that judges may distinguish between trafficking and addiction. • Judges will still be able to impose a full sentence for first-time offenders – it is simply not a mandate. 3. Update quantities of heroin to mirror other statutory levels. • Under the original 1992 language, the lowest trigger for mandatory minimum sentences for heroin was set at two grams; for the sickest addicts today, this reflects less than 1 day of personal use. • Idaho police report that nearly every drug they apprehend is a combination of legal and illegal substances. Drug dealers make more money when they add other substances to illegal drugs. Put simply, this makes drugs weigh more. Dilution coupled with tolerance means some addicted Idahoans are mislabeled as traffickers. • This bill would amend the mandatory minimum sentencing tiers for heroin to match the state’s levels for cocaine and methamphetamine. If the power an