New Hampshire lawmakers are proposing mandatory minimums for fentanyl convictions, including one for distribution resulting in death. SB467 was introduced to the Senate Judiciary Committee November 21, though it’s calendared for formal introduction on January 7, 2026. Thirteen Republican legislators are so far attached to the bill.
Possession of 20 grams or more of any fentanyl-related substance, including non-psychoactive bulking agents that typically contribute most of the weight of a drug sample, would carry a mandatory minimum prison sentence of three-and-a-half years; for 50 grams or more, the mandatory minimum would be seven years. Depending on the circumstances, the weight in grams could represent the cumulative total of “individual acts” that occurred within the same three-month period.
For convictions related to distribution of any quantity that was linked to fatal overdose, the mandatory minimum would be seven years, with a maximum of life in prison. The bill would take effect January 1, 2027.
Exemptions from the mandatory minimums would only be considered for people who met every item in a fairly stringent list of conditions, in addition to common requirements like having no recent prior convictions for certain felonies and no weapons involvement, and being able to provide law enforcement with information that can be used in the prosecution of other cases.
Any sentencing below the mandatory minimums would come with three years’ probation.
Anyone determined to be a “leader, organizer or supervisor in the drug operation” would be ineligible. Possession or distribution of fentanyl in the form of counterfeit pressed pills (presumably as opposed to powder, which is more common on the East Coast compared to other regions of the country) would also be ineligible. Finally, eligibility would require submitting to an evaluation for substance use disorder, and completing any state-approved treatment program recommended by the court within the next nine months.
“In the event no treatment is available within the 9-month window, the court may, at its discretion, extend the time to complete such treatment,” the bill states. “If no treatment is recommended, the defendant shall complete a 50-hour, court-approved drug education program, provided such a program is available. The court may, at its discretion, allow substitution programs of a similar nature if there are no 50-hour, approved programs available.”
Any sentencing below the mandatory minimums would come with three years’ probation, and a prison sentence of at least three-and-a-half years if probation conditions are not met. Those conditions include biweekly drug-testing, “if applicable.” This means that someone could complete the treatment program and the other requirements such as community service, and submit satisfactory urine samples for most of the three years, and still end up serving the three-and-a-half year prison term.
“The odds of the state actually using this bill when it becomes law is infinitesimally small in my opinion.”
The bill closely resembles legislation proposed earlier in 2025.
“Twenty grams plus of fentanyl possession is almost certainly gonna be prosecuted as a federal crime,” New Hampshire Representative Kevin Verville (R) said in June in regards to the earlier legislation, according to the New Hampshire Bulletin. “The odds of the state actually using this bill when it becomes law is infinitesimally small in my opinion.”
He described the legislation as a political maneuver that was being pushed through for optics, but supported it because it was attached to a psilocybin decriminalization measure he felt “far outweighs” any effects of mandatory minimums. The legislation introduced November 21 does not mention psilocybin.
The Bulletin reported Rep. Linda Harriott-Gathright (D) describing mandatory minimums as “an outdated one-size-fits-all” approach that “our country has already tried [and] we all know that it has failed.”
Image (cropped) via Florida State Attorney Office 14th Judicial Circuit