Honorable Ryan Guillen, Chair, House Committee on Homeland Security & Public Safety
FROM:
Jerry McGinty, Director, Legislative Budget Board
IN RE:
HB4642 by Guillen (Relating to offenses involving the manufacture or delivery of certain controlled substances and the enforcement and prevention of those offenses; creating a criminal offense.), Committee Report 1st House, Substituted
The bill would create the first degree felony offense of lethal opioid poisoning for the manufacture, delivery, or trafficking of a Penalty Group 1-B controlled substance which results in the death of an individual as a result of injecting, ingesting, inhaling, or introducing the controlled substance into the individual's body.
Creating a new criminal offense may result in an increase in demands upon state and local correctional resources due to a possible increase in the number of individuals placed under supervision in the community or sentenced to a term of confinement.
In fiscal year 2022, there were 1,689 individuals arrested, 49 individuals placed on adult community supervision, 6 individuals placed on juvenile community supervision, and 13 individuals admitted into an adult state correctional institution for manufacture and delivery of a Penalty Group 1-B controlled substance. In fiscal year 2022, there was one individual admitted into a juvenile state correctional institution for manufacture or delivery of a controlled substance however the type of substance is unspecified. It is unknown if any of these cases resulted in the death of an individual as outlined in the bill's provisions.
The impact on state correctional populations or on the demand for state correctional resources cannot be determined due to a lack of data to estimate the prevalence of conduct outlined in the bill's provisions and would be dependent on the number of offenses committed and the subsequent penalties.