SB 1061 would apply to charges of possession with intent to sell, as well as to charges of “[t]ransport for sale, import into this state, offer to transport for sale or import into this state, sell, transfer or offer to sell or transfer.”

First-time convictions involving 9 grams of fentanyl or more would trigger a mandatory minimum sentence of five years in prison, with a presumptive sentence of 10 years and a maximum of 15 years. Subsequent convictions would trigger a mandatory minimum of 10 years, with a presumptive sentence of 15 years and a maximum of 20 years.

The bill passed its third reading with 32 votes in favor and 25 votes against; three senators did not vote.

In 2023, Hobbs vetoed a proposal that would have lowered the threshold for intent to sell from 9 grams to 2 milligrams, or 0.25 milligrams for carfentanil and other fentanyl-related substances. In a letter reiterating her support of Good Samaritan protections, she invited legislators to send her “a narrower bill that focuses on the manufacture of fentanyl.”

In 2024, Hobbs signed the law that set the original threshold of 200 grams. That stood until April 13 when she signed House Bill 2132, which lowered it to 100 grams.

But law enforcement, including Attorney General Kris Mayes, have been angling for something lower than 100 grams. In January, a county sheriff testified that a lower threshold would allow his department to pursue longer prison sentences for street-level sellers.

Arizona has emerged as one of the states where fatal overdose appears to increasing the most rapidly.

SB 1061 was introduced by Senator Wendy Rogers (R), who has supported a number of proposals ramping up penalties related to fentanyl and border control. In January, the Arizona Mirror reported that Rogers cut off an attorney who was testifying that rather than harsher sentencing, the state should be looking at treatment options.

“Shoulda woulda coulda. I am for nabbing [9 grams] off the street,” Rogers reportedly said. “If someone is an addict versus a dealer, that is not my obligation.”

There’s a good chance Hobbs will veto, as she vetoed an identical proposal from Rogers in 2025. However, in the year since Arizona has emerged as one of the states where the rate of fatal overdose appears to be going back up the most rapidly, even as nationally the death rate continues to go down.

On June 13, one day after SB 1061 was sent to Hobbs’ desk, state representatives introduced a bill calling on the federal government to boost funding for the Arizona division of the Drug Enforcement Administration as well as other offices engaged in drug interdiction at the United States-Mexico border.

“[O]ver half of all fentanyl smuggled from Mexico comes through Arizona’s border, and Arizona had the highest 12-month increase in drug overdoses as of August 2025,” that bill states, “making Arizona a uniquely impacted and important state in the fight against fentanyl trafficking in the United States.”

Image via United States Customs and Border Protection

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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

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Better known as the Georgia Survivor Justice Act (SJA), the reform allows defendants to submit evidence of abuse or coercion directly related to their case in the hope of more lenient sentencing. It also allows for people already in prison to petition for resentencing to the same effect.

The vast majority of women in prison have experienced domestic violence, often during the events that led to their conviction. It’s inordinately common that women serving life sentences for murder convictions had been defending themselves from domestic or sexual abuse. Coercion into participation in a felony—like driving the car in a drive-by shooting—is common as well. The SJA stands to begin rectifying some of the unjustly long sentences for those whose circumstances of abuse or coercion were never taken into account. 

For anyone convicted of a felony punishable by something other than death or life in prison, the SJA sentence range would be anywhere from one year up to half of whatever the maximum they could have been sentenced to previously. For felony convictions punishable by death or life in prison, the new sentencing range would be between 10 years and 30 years—but with the potential for exceptions.

“In the court’s discretion,” the SJA states, “the judge may depart from such mandatory minimum sentence when the prosecuting attorney and the defendant have agreed to a sentence that is below such mandatory minimum.”

In Georgia, the mandatory minimum sentence for a murder conviction is life in prison. The point of mandatory minimums is that they remove the judge’s ability to exercise personal discretion and consider individual circumstances of someone’s case. Yet here despite the revised mandatory minimum of 10 years, the law includes a way to circumvent that and give people even less time. A welcome crack in the inviolability of mandatory minimums.

The SJA also stipulates that such sentences can be further reduced through any avenue of sentencing relief that exists under the authority of GDC or the parole board. A life sentence could be commuted to time served.

Of course, prosecutors would have to be on board; local district attorneys have been making their displeasure known from the beginning.

The longer someone has been in prison, the more unlikely it is that new evidence can be produced, even if it was plentiful at the time of the conviction.

“The full context of the situation should dictate that sentencing should look different,” Wade Askew, policy director at Georgia Justice Project, said in January. “We should be able to go outside of the mandatory minimum … to tailor sentencing that’s more appropriate for the situation, if a conviction does take place.”

Georgia Justice Project was involved in drafting the SJA and is now representing people whose cases are potentially eligible, alongside Georgia Coalition Against Domestic Violence. Neither are taking on resentencing cases yet, but they expect to in early 2026. They’ll likely be inundated with far more requests for pro bono counsel than they have the resources for, from people who’ve been in prison years or decades and are struggling to draft their petitions.

Examples of previously overlooked evidence that could be submitted in a resentencing petition include records of having sought medical care or law enforcement assistance related to the abuse, or “the effects of battering and post-traumatic stress disorder,” or expert testimony “relating to the family violence, dating violence or child abuse.” The more time has passed, the more unlikely it is that these records can be produced, even if they were plentiful at the time of the conviction.

The SJA states that there “shall be a presumption in favor of granting a hearing on a petition … unless the court determines that there is a lack of circumstantial guarantees of trustworthiness, an inherent unreliability of the facts asserted or a deficiency in the factual allegations in the petition.” Those things become easier to determine the longer someone has been in prison, too.

Still, word of the reform has been spreading across the system. Though like many corrections departments GDC is hell-bent on stifling communication between facilities, its affinity for constantly shuffling us all around does mean that information travels with us. Ironically the age-old vendetta against jailhouse lawyers in particular means that GDC is, through punitive transfers, helping to spread the news. And hopefully sow the seeds of litigation. 

Image via Superior Court of Fulton County, Georgia

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