I’ve authored or co-authored 29 bills as of the deadline for bill filing on March 10, the 60th day of the 88th legislative session in Texas. I’m proud of all these items, and especially of my staff and how hard we’ve worked to create a substantive and meaningful stack of legislation—many of them common-sense items that improve the lives of all Texans.

Still, I’m the most passionate about HB 1581, which will increase the penalties on anyone who knowingly deals deadly fentanyl that harms others: causing serious bodily injury would become a second-degree felony, and causing death would allow for a first-degree felony charge. It also would prevent a court from allowing concurrent sentences served if a dealer is convicted under these circumstances.

Last fall, I was moved by the plea of a Denton County mother whose heart was shattered at the accidental fentanyl overdose and death of her child. So our office had researched, drafted and filed this bill before the tragic Carrollton case, where 10 young people overdosed on fentanyl-laced pills; three of them later died. It is reported that the drug dealers were purposely targeting teenagers, and that they were selling these poisonous pills just three blocks from a Carrollton high school. I want to see this horrifying fentanyl epidemic shut down, and my bill will allow the law enforcement and legal community to have more deterrents and more tools to use as they fight on the frontlines of keeping North Texas safe.

You can read the full bill by clicking HERE