By Ruth Brown, Idaho Reports 

The House Judiciary, Rules and Administration Committee deliberated for two hours Tuesday over a bill that would add mandatory minimum prison sentences for people convicted of trafficking fentanyl, ultimately voting 16-2 to send the bill to the House floor without a recommendation. 

The “no” votes came from Rep. Chris Mathias, D-Boise, and Rep. Don Coberly, who is filling in as a substitute for Rep. Colin Nash, D-Boise.  

The committee heard about three hours of public testimony on the issue Friday and waited until Tuesday to deliberate and vote on HB 406, sponsored by Rep. Ted Hill, R-Eagle. A similar bill failed to make it out of the same committee last year. 

Idaho already has mandatory minimum prisons sentences in law for trafficking marijuana, methamphetamine, cocaine and heroin. Fentanyl will be added to the list, should the bill pass.  

In addition to trafficking, Hill’s bill includes a new “drug-induced homicide” statute, under which a person could be charged with a felony if they supply the drug that later kills someone. Under the bill, the crime would be punishable by up to life in prison.  

Several legislators had questions about the drug-induced homicide addition, focusing on the fact that if a prosecutor were to charge first or second-degree murder, there is an automatic waiver of age. That means any person age 14 or older could be charged as an adult with a felony.  

Sen. Todd Lakey, R-Nampa, stressed that every case is different, and the details of the cases are different. The decisions would be left to local law enforcement, prosecutors and judges. 

The committee discussed scenarios where people may be sharing drugs and a person dies, but it wasn’t an intentional killing like a standard murder. 

“I think this aspect of the bill would be a challenge to prove as a prosecutor,” Lakey told the committee.  

Under the bill, a person could be sentenced for trafficking fentanyl and would face a mandatory minimum of three years in prison for knowingly possessing 4 grams to less than 14 grams, or 100 pills to less than 250 fentanyl pills.  

For possessing 14 to less than 28 grams of fentanyl or 250 pills to less than 500 pills, the mandatory minimum increases to five years in prison and a $15,000 fine.  

For possessing 28 grams or more, or 500 pills or more of fentanyl, the mandatory minimum sentence would be 10 years in prison and a $25,000 fine.   

The maximum sentence for trafficking fentanyl would be life in prison and a $100,000 fine. A second offense for trafficking fentanyl, under the proposed law, would result in a mandatory minimum sentence twice what is otherwise required under the bill. 

The committee expressed concern around the fact that the bill also uses the language “any mixture or substance containing a detectable amount of” fentanyl. 

Lakey said that language is already in the controlled substance section of law for other mandatory minimum sentences, because drug dealers use other powders to cut the drugs. He stressed that the state lab and law enforcement said they haven’t seen issues where a trace amount of fentanyl is found in marijuana, for example, something that became a topic of concern in Friday’s hearing. He also said if a person is found with marijuana, law enforcement generally has no reason to test it for fentanyl.  

Rep. David Cannon, R-Blackfoot, also expressed concern about the potential for marijuana or another drug to have fentanyl in it and end up with 4 grams of marijuana, which is legal in many states, carrying a mandatory minimum sentence.  

Rep. Dan Garner, R-Clifton, made an amended substitute motion to send the bill to the House floor without a recommendation, which passed. 

Cannon is a criminal defense attorney and made a substitute motion to send the bill to the floor for amendments. That motion and the original motion to send the floor with a do-pass recommendation did not get a vote.  

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