Governor Ivey signs minimum obligation law for fentanyl dealers.

Montgomery, Alabama (WIATMore) — Gov. Kay Ivey signed into law a bill imposing minimum obligations on fentanyl sellers. It was unanimously approved by both houses of the Alabama legislature.

Lawmakers said their bipartisanship and unanimous voice of support proves just how dangerous the drug is. .

“We are not condoning it,” Senator Greg Reid (R-Jasper) said Thursday morning following the Senate’s unanimous approval.

HB1 sets mandatory minimums based on the amount of drug trafficked. For 1-2 grams, the dealer faces at least 3 years in prison. 8 grams or more is life imprisonment. This law he will come into force in July.

Before the law was enacted, pure fentanyl was the only drug in Alabama without mandatory minimum sentence guidelines, according to the bill’s sponsor, Matt Simpson (R-Daphne).

“We’ve just caught fentanyl with other drugs in the state,” Simpson said. “Fentanyl was being used. Congress was behind the times when it came to drug use going on. We caught up with the dealers and what they were using.”

Simpson said the drug is not discriminatory and is killing people statewide.More than 150 people die nationwide from fentanyl-related overdoses every day, according to the CDC.

“We talk to coroners across the state to talk about the rising death toll and the ongoing rise,” Simpson said. “Current overdoses understand that about 80% of the overdoses seen in drug overdoses are due to fentanyl.”

Ivey signed the bill into law shortly after it passed the Senate. “The passage of House Bill 1 requires the entire nation to take note of what we’ve accomplished in Alabama today,” she said on Twitter.

This may not be the end of fentanyl legislation this session. Simpson earlier this week introduced a bill that would criminalize “chemically endangering first responders” who may come into contact with fentanyl.