RI legislator's bill would decriminalize 'small amounts' of hard drugs ... Except this one.
PROVIDENCE – The sponsor of a bill that would decriminalize possession of “small amounts” of hard drugs in Rhode Island says he would amend the legislation to exclude fentanyl, a drug at the center of the opioid crisis.
Testifying at a House Judiciary hearing Thursday, state Rep. Jose F. Batista, of Providence, said while his bill as originally written lacks “carve-outs” or exceptions for any drug (except marijuana, which is already legal) “that is certainly not what I believe, let me be clear.”
“I’d certainly be willing to make an amendment to carve out something like fentanyl,” he said. “It's at the heart of the opioid crisis. It is different from all the other drugs.“
Batista’s bill (H7315) would make possession of “small amounts” of drugs – including Schedule 1 drugs like heroin and cocaine – a civil violation punishable by a $100 fine for the first offense and up to $300 for subsequent offenses.
The bill does not define “small amounts.”
Shifting the focus to treating people with addiction
In 2021 Rhode Island passed a law that dropped simple possession of such drugs to misdemeanors. Lawmakers said the emphasis should be on treating people with drug addictions, not prosecuting them for simple possession.
Batista says the intent of his bill is the same. But it would go a step further and do what only Oregon has done before.
And Oregon has had second thoughts.
State lawmakers there recently rolled back portions of its first-in-the-nation drug decriminalization law after rampant public drug use and a spike in the overdose death rate soured support for the measure, which had won the approval of 58% of Oregon voters in 2020.
“I submitted this bill before Oregon passed a bill to undo the [de]criminalization bill,” Batista said. “I give them a lot of credit. If they passed a bill to decriminalize drugs and learned from it and had unintended consequences, I think that’s a good thing.”
He said he was open to any suggestive changes on his bill that started a conversation about drug treatment and the nation’s high incarceration rate.
“I don’t think the debate on the decriminalization of drugs is over by any means,” said Batista.
While the United States “proclaims to be the home of the free and the land of the brave, we are actually the worldwide leader in incarcerations,” said Batista. “In fact we have about 5 percent of the world's population and about 25 percent of the prison population.”
'Racial disparities in our criminal justice system'
The American Civil Liberties Union of Rhode Island supports the bill.
In written testimony to the judiciary committee, it said “In addition to the significant and harmful racial disparities in our criminal justice system that enforcement of controlled substance offenses has perpetuated, it is simply bad public health policy to harshly punish individuals who are experiencing a substance use disorder.
“A punitive approach to controlled substances has not resulted in a lessening of use nor has it positively impacted the proliferation of these substances in our communities.”
Attorney General Peter Neronha, who in 2021 supported the new law that declassified hard drugs from felonies down to misdemeanors, opposes Batista’s bill.
Earlier this month he told The Journal through a spokesman that, “As we are currently seeing elsewhere in the country, this type of legislation is not a silver bullet in the battle against substance use disorders.”
“Legislation that decriminalizes dangerous drugs, and potentially increases their use and availability, could have an adverse impact on our continued efforts to protect Rhode Islanders during this crisis,” Neronha said.
Contact Tom Mooney at: tmooney@providencejournal.com
This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: RI drug decriminalization effort mirrors Oregon law but excludes fentanyl
