Democratic House Speaker Greg Stumbo reiterated his statement Tuesday that there will be a heroin bill this session, but lingering differences remain between the House and Senate.
With the Senate already moving on its priority legislation before the General Assembly’s month-long break, attention is now on the House and the debate over heroin. Monday, Stumbo told reporters that funding for treatment efforts in the Senate bill, as well its approach to penalties, are undergoing review in his chamber.
"We need to be careful about the way that we craft those penalties so that we actually get the people in jail that need to be in jail, and people who are just addicts perhaps don't need to be in the same category as what we think of as pushers or dealers," he said.
The speaker said Rep. John Tilley has been working alongside Commonwealth Attorneys to craft the House version of the bill, a draft of which is expected by the middle of next week. Also on the docket in the near term is a measure granting domestic violence protections to dating couples.
Stumbo says questions about the oversight of those protective orders still need to answered, but the House will produce a bill – a promise the speaker says Kentuckians can “take to the bank.”
