Legislation backed by Republicans in the state House of Representatives and endorsed by Democratic Attorney General Kris Mayes would lower the threshold for enhanced sentencing requirements in fentanyl sales from 200 grams to 100 grams, while a competing proposal in the Senate would impose harsher sentences when just 9 grams of the drug is present.
In 2022, lawmakers created the stiffer enhanced sentencing requirements despite concerns from former addicts, attorneys and civil liberty groups that doing so could sweep in those addicted to the drug. Under that law, any person found with 200 grams of fentanyl automatically triggers harsher sentences that include a minimum of 5 years for a first offence and a maximum of 15 years if the person had previous offenses.
Nguyen, who chairs the House Judiciary Committee, said Wednesday morning that the 100-gram limit in his House Bill 2132 was the result of discussions and negotiations with Mayes’ team, although he and law enforcement that spoke before the committee conceded that they wanted a lower threshold.
Nguyen and others echoed recent talking points of the Trump administration, which has declared fentanyl a “weapon of mass destruction” as a means to justify military strikes on boats in the Caribbean Sea, despite the boats mainly moving cocaine. Most fentanyl coming into America comes either from China or Mexico.
“This is a drug of mass destruction,” Yavapai County Sheriff’s Office Chief Deputy Jeff Newnum told the committee, adding that 100 grams is around 1,000 pills. On average, he said, sales cases in his county involve 30 grams.
Newnum said that lowering the threshold will allow them to seek tougher prison sentences for the “mid-to-low-level dealers” that make up the bulk of their cases.
“I am just concerned that we continue to move the goal posts,” Rep. Alma Hernandez, D-Tucson, said.
Hernandez asked Newnum how they can be sure lowering the threshold won’t sweep up addicts who would otherwise be diverted into treatment programs. She also voiced concern that, even if Nguyen’s legislation becomes law this year, police will be back at the Capitol next year asking to lower the threshold again.
“I would love an amendment that lowers it to 30 grams, but I’ll take 100 grams today,” Newnum said. “These are not people, in my opinion, that need to be placed on probation. They need to be put in prison.”
[…]
Across the Capitol complex in the Senate, lawmakers took up Sen. Wendy Rogers’ more draconian Senate Bill 1061.
While Nguyen and his bill’s backers said their goal was to target dealers, Rogers, a Republican from Flagstaff, made sure everyone knew she didn’t care if drug users also faced harsh prison sentences.
“The purpose of this bill is to nail someone who has nine grams,” Rogers retorted sharply after attorney Vicki Lopez testified that lowering the threshold to nine grams would go far beyond trying to punish drug dealers. “That is not my charge to determine. That is not my obligation.”
“We should be looking for treatment and ways to deal with it-” Lopez began to respond before being cut off.
“Shoulda woulda coulda. I am for nabbing that amount off the street. If someone is an addict versus a dealer, that is not my obligation,” Rogers said.
Continue reading: https://azmirror.com/2026/01/14/arizona-republicans-push-harsher-fentanyl-penalties-critics-say-wont-deter-addiction/