Missouri House To Approve Fentanyl and Date Rape Drug Bill

Legislation to increase penalties for trafficking fentanyl could go before the Missouri House this (Monday) afternoon for a final vote. The House gave initial approval to Republican Representative Nick Schroer’s bipartisan bill last week.

“This is an issue that impacts everybody in the state, and basically every state in the nation.”

Fentanyl is not currently included in Missouri’s drug trafficking statutes. Schroer’s bill makes trafficking or producing 20 milligrams or more of fentanyl a class A felony. If it involves more than ten milligrams, it would be a class B felony.

The Missouri Police Chiefs Association and the Missouri State Troopers Association are backing the legislation to increase criminal penalties for distributing or making fentanyl. Schroer says nurses and those in the medical field are also supporting his bill.

“There were that spent time in emergency departments or emergency rooms, and they say this has been an issue across the state in every single city, and every single county.”

A representative for Missouri anesthesiologists testified for Schroer’s bill this month, telling lawmakers that people with “needles in their arms” are being dumped off at hospital emergency rooms.

Schroer’s bill also includes a Democratic amendment toughening penalties on “date rape drugs.”

“They thought that the prosecutor’s language didn’t go far enough, so we actually strengthened that on the floor. I believe that we’re going to see a very high vote count.”

Federal agents made the largest seizure of fentanyl in U-S history in late January in Arizona at 254 pounds.