MONTGOMERY, Ala. — A bill that was sent to Gov. Kay Ivey in error and signed after the normal session will go into effect in about a month.
Lawmakers gave hints that they might fix the problem during the special session, but they did not do so before leaving Montgomery last week.
With the changes made to HB82, it is now manslaughter to sell fentanyl to someone who dies from it. The bill that the governor signed was an older version that didn’t just cover fentanyl but also other drugs that are illegal.
The House Clerk said that the wrong bill was sent to the governor because of a mistake. During the special session, lawmakers said they were thinking about changing it, but in the end, they did not.
House Speaker Nathaniel Ledbetter said about the Bill,“I wish we had a longer period of time where we could,”
Ledbetter said that the next normal session of the legislature would be the time to talk about it.
“It’s something that needs to be revisited,” Ledbetter said.
Since the usual session starts in February 2024 and the law goes into effect this September, there are at least five months for the wrong bill to become law.
House Minority Leader Anthony Daniels said, “I’m not going to say that something bad happened, but I’ve never seen a mistake like this before.”
Daniels says it’s a bad idea to let the wrong bill go into action. He wants to know more about how this happened, and he is sure that the state will be sued once this law goes into action.
“Mistakes happen. But this one is huge and could be questioned. “These things could be called into question if someone is arrested for a controlled substance that is not fentanyl,” Daniels said.
Steve Flowers, a political analyst, says that he has never seen anything like this happen before either.
“I do not recall. Especially because this is a significant piece of legislation,” Flowers said.
Flowers says that the bill wasn’t in the governor’s call for the special session, which is expected to keep the focus on redistricting.
The Attorney General’s Office was asked by CBS 42 if this rule should be enforced. Amanda Priest, who is in charge of communications, says that they don’t have anything to say right now.
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