The state House has passed a bill Monday that would make it easier to trigger harsher penalties for selling fentanyl.
The bill did not change the severity of the prison sentences, which the bill’s sponsor said was aimed at mid-level drug dealers.
Current law triggers a minimum five-year sentence for possessing or transporting 200 grams of fentanyl for sale.
The bill aims to lower that threshold to 100 grams, which by some estimates could equal about 1,000 pills. The measure, passed with 59 House members approving and one not voting, now goes to the Senate.
The vote comes weeks after preliminary data shows Arizona was one of just a handful of states that saw an increase in overdose deaths in the latest CDC report.
More Arizona politics news
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Arizona is poised to have a mine inspector race. The office has a Democratic challenger for the first time since 2018. -
Andy Biggs, Republican congressman and gubernatorial candidate, says he wants to get Arizona’s desalination plant in Yuma up and running. -
Rep. Andy Biggs has a track record of supporting checks on a president’s ability to engage in war activities, but he said President Donald Trump’s actions in Iran are above board. -
A majority of state senators want to ask voters to double their pay, with the claim that Arizonans may get a better, or at least broader, choice of people to represent them. -
Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly said he believes the culture at the Department of Defense and a disregard for traditional military safeguards contributed to a missile strike on an Iranian girls' school.
