Massachusetts House leaders are proposing a major overhaul the state’s criminal justice laws.
The legislation announced on Monday includes tougher penalties for those who in deal in deadly synthetic opioids, and for multiple repeat drunken drivers. But it would also eliminate some mandatory minimum sentences and for the first time ever in Massachusetts allow certain past crimes, including marijuana possession, to be expunged.
Democratic House Speaker Robert DeLeo said the legislation announced Monday calls the proposed changes “meaningful, workable and sustainable.”
The House will eventually have to reconcile its proposed changes with a massive criminal justice bill passed by the Senate last month.
The House bill calls for classifying fentanyl and carfentanil as Class A drugs, the same as heroin, which would allow for stiffer sentences for dealing those substances.
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