ATLANTA — Something unusual happened to an anti-fentanyl bill in the Georgia Senate on Monday.
Republicans and Democrats listened to each other, amended the bill to target fentanyl traffickers instead of addicts, and then voted unanimously to pass it.
In a highly partisan environment, that kind of democratic process is rare. More often, the Republican majority doesn’t entertain Democrats’ frequent criticisms.
This time was different.
“If you’ll just listen a little bit and be willing to hear the other side’s opinion, whether that other side is in your party or not, it doesn’t matter,” Lt. Gov. Burt Jones, a Republican candidate for governor, said to senators moments before the vote. “But if you’ll just listen and talk through things, some of these things can get worked out without having to posture so much.”
The Senate voted 53-0 to pass the amended House Bill 535, sending it back to the House for consideration in the closing days of this year’s legislative session.
If approved, the legislation would impose minimum sentences of 2 ½ years in prison for possession of more than 4 grams of fentanyl and up to 35 years imprisonment for possession of larger amounts. The proposal would revise a law passed last year that imposed mandatory sentences for fentanyl trafficking.
Before the bill was amended on the Senate floor, it would have required heightened prison sentences for possession of at least 4 grams of any other drugs — such as cocaine, Adderall, Xanax, or marijuana — that were laced with smaller amounts of fentanyl.
Democrats who opposed the original bill said it would target drug possession by users who had no intention of selling fentanyl.
Fentanyl overdoses are the leading cause of death for Americans ages 18-44, usually in combination with other drugs, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The prospects for amending the bill didn’t seem promising when Sen. Josh McLaurin, D-Sandy Springs, a candidate for lieutenant governor and a persistent critic of Republicans, sought to remove the bill’s language punishing possession of over 4 grams of any drug that contains trace amounts of fentanyl.
“Throwing people in prison for decades and putting them on probation for decades isn’t doing anything to make us safer. It’s just giving us political talking points so we can all say we’re tough on crime,” McLaurin said. “That’s a hard realization to swallow for a lot of people in this building.”
Republicans responded that they didn’t want to punish addicts, but were seeking stronger laws against fentanyl distributors.
After over an hour of debate, the Senate reached a compromise when Sen. Bill Cowsert, R-Athens, offered his own amendment. He proposed requiring the mandatory minimum sentences only when the amount of fentanyl is over 4 grams, either alone or in combination with other drugs.
Both the Republican majority and Democratic minority approved that change. The bill distinguishes distributors from users by allowing judges to impose shorter sentences on defendants who aren’t leaders of the criminal conduct, didn’t use a weapon during the crime, or didn’t have a prior felony conviction.
Cowsert, a candidate for attorney general, said elected officials need to be open-minded.
“We get called flip-floppers or whatever if you change your mind,” Cowsert said. “But what we’re pointing out here is that we’re not trying to criminalize somebody that inadvertently buys a Xanax or an Adderall or marijuana that has trace amounts of fentanyl in it that can be deadly.”
