Three Interesting Bills: Xylazine Penalties, Custodial Death Reports and ‘Aliens’ in State Code

Hundreds of bills are filed for General Assembly consideration each year. In this weekly series, the Mercury takes a look at a few of lawmakers’ 2024 proposals that might not otherwise make headlines during the whirlwind legislative session.

House Bill 1187: Penalties linked to human consumption of xylazine

This bill from Del. Keith Hodges, R-Middlesex, would make it a Class 5 felony for anyone to knowingly sell, distribute, or manufacture xylazine with the intent that it be used for human consumption. It would also make it a Class 1 misdemeanor for any person to knowingly possess xylazine for the intention of human consumption.

A drug approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for use as an animal tranquilizer, xylazine is known as “tranq” on the streets, where it is often mixed with opioids like fentanyl. If consumed, it poses a great risk to humans.

“Here you’re taking an animal tranquilizer that is a [central nervous system] depressant, muscle relaxant, and causes severe hypertension with humans,” said Hodges. “Putting that with something like an opioid or fentanyl — it’s a combination for disaster.”

Last April, the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy officially designated the mixture of xylazine and fentanyl as an emerging threat to the United States. A 2023 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study analyzing 20 states and Washington, D.C., revealed that the monthly percentage of deaths involving the drug increased from 3% in January 2019 to 11% in June 2022.

Susan Seward with the Virginia Veterinary Medical Association told the subcommittee xylazine on its own is a critical drug in the veterinary community, the beef and dairy industry, and the field of wildlife control. There is only one manufacturer in the U.S., she said, that makes the drug for veterinary use.

The diversion of the drug to markets focused on human consumption, she said, “is not coming from the veterinarian community, but rather from illicitly manufactured xylazine coming across the border or primarily from China.”

The legislation would not prohibit the use of xylazine for veterinary purposes.

The bill passed the Senate Finance and Appropriations Committee unanimously.

House Bill 611: Requiring reports on the deaths of people in custody

HB 611 from Del. Cia Price, D-Newport News, would require every law enforcement agency and correctional facility to provide the Department of Criminal Justice Services information regarding the death of any person in detention, under arrest or in the process of being arrested or incarcerated. That information would have to include the date, time, and location of the death, which party had custody of the person, and a brief description of the circumstances surrounding the cause of death.

The department would then be required to analyze the data to determine ways to reduce the number of such deaths.

Any law enforcement agency or correctional facility that fails to comply could be declared ineligible for state grants or funds.

Price told the House Public Safety Subcommittee this February that while reporting would be required under the federal Deaths in Custody Reporting Act reauthorized in 2013, that law has yet to be implemented.

“So instead of waiting for the feds to get their act together,” Price said, “we are bringing forward the Virginia Deaths in Custody Reporting Act.”

Price said information about these deaths is often found out through journalists, as opposed to from the department.

“We’ve talked to some reporters that have found some information is hard to get because of Freedom of Information Act exemptions,” Price said. “We can’t work to lower the number in effective ways unless we have a full picture of what’s happening.”

According to the Richmond Times-Dispatch, Virginia saw 41 jail deaths in 2019 and 40 in 2022. That number jumped to 77 deaths in 2021 and fell to 68 in 2022. Virginia’s Board of Local and Regional Jails did not respond to the Times-Dispatch on why those numbers rose in recent years.

Price said research shows the rates of suicides and homicides in custody are lower in states where the data is required and made public than in those where it is not.

Price’s bill passed the House 94-5 last month. The bill is now headed to the Senate Finance and Appropriations Committee.

House Bill 942: Removing the term ‘alien’ to describe noncitizens from state code

This legislation from Del. Alfonso Lopez, D-Arlington, would remove the term “alien” throughout the state code as a description of people who are not U.S. citizens or nationals. Instead, the term would be replaced with language such as “lawfully admitted permanent resident” or “individual who is not a citizen or national of the United States.”

Lopez told the House Professions, Occupations and Administrative Process Subcommittee last month that the use of the term “alien” to refer to immigrants, documented or undocumented, is dehumanizing.

“The change might seem symbolic, but it’s an important step to restoring humanity after years of demonization,” he said. “Simply put, the term is outdated, reflecting prejudices that most Virginians do not hold today.”

In recent years, he added, the term “illegal alien” has been used as a slur toward immigrants, specifically Latino communities, and “we legitimize that slur every day that it remains in our code.”

In the past, he said, opponents to changing the term have suggested it could conflict with certain federal programs that still use it.

However, he noted that several federal bodies like the Library of Congress, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement have updated their guidelines to no longer use the term in their work.

Lopez’ bill passed the Senate Courts of Justice Committee 9-6, with Republicans voting in opposition.

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