LANSING, MI — A group of Michigan lawmakers is looking to enact stronger penalties, including up to life in prison, for drug dealers who seriously injure people they sell fentanyl to.
While stiff penalties already exist for dealers who sell fentanyl that leads to death, new legislation targets cases where buyers survive but suffer severe harm.
State Representatives Tom Kuhn, Donni Steele, and Mark Tisdel introduced House Bills 5157 and 5158 to create a new class of crimes for dealing fentanyl that causes injuries. The bills recently passed the House and are headed to the Senate.
"And you sold drugs to someone and they got hurt seriously hurt, injured, maimed, or had a head injury or had a serious impairment of a bodily function," Representative Sarah Lightner said.
Lightner also sponsored House Bills 4255 and 4256, which passed the House back in 2025. Those bills enact stiffer penalties for anyone in possession of 50 grams or more of fentanyl or drugs laced with it.
"I don't think drug dealers care about an individual at all. I think all they care about is the money," Lightner said.
"My hope is that these increased penalties will disrupt the supply chain and get these people off the streets," Lightner said.
Mike Hirst, whose son Andy died of an overdose in 2010, has made it his mission to help others recover from drugs. He supports the lawmakers' efforts to make a dent in the opioid crisis.
"If you want to make a living on the backs of people suffering from substance abuse agony and misery, we're not going to support you one bit," Hirst said.
"We've spent these millions and billions of dollars to get people better again and we're not gonna have that wasted by some guy who comes up and says 'hey I've got some dope, you want some?' We're just not going to have that anymore," Hirst said.
According to data from the Centers for Disease Control, fentanyl killed almost 50,000 people in the United States in 2024. The Department of Health and Human Services reports that 1,167 of those deaths happened in Michigan.
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