Summary — HB 4256 (2025)
Status and context
- Title: Criminal procedure: sentencing guidelines; sentencing guidelines for delivering, manufacturing, or possessing with intent to deliver certain controlled substances; amend MCL 777.13m. (Tie bar with HB 4255)
- Introduced: March 18, 2025 (Rep. Ann Bollin). Amends section 13m, chapter XVII of the Code of Criminal Procedure (MCL 777.13m).
- House action: Passed the House (given immediate effect) April 23, 2025; transmitted to the Senate and referred to the Committee on Civil Rights, Judiciary, and Public Safety. Public committee hearing on April 30, 2025; left pending.
- Effective date: 90 days after enactment — but the bill does not take effect unless HB 4255 of the 103rd Legislature is also enacted.
Purpose and intent
- Align sentencing guidelines with new/heightened penalties for offenses involving heroin, fentanyl, carfentanil (and their derivatives) that HB 4255 creates in the Public Health Code. The bill restructures guideline classifications and statutory maximums/minimums for manufacturing, delivering, or possessing with intent to deliver these specific narcotics.
Key provisions — sentencing guideline changes and penalties
- Carves heroin, fentanyl, carfentanil (and derivatives) into a distinct group with harsher guideline classifications, mandatory minimum terms for many quantity thresholds, and requirements that fines be imposed only in addition to imprisonment (not as a substitute).
- Quantity-based penalties for manufacture/delivery or possession with intent to deliver (when the controlled substance is heroin, fentanyl, carfentanil, or derivatives):
- 1,000 grams or more: imprisonment of at least 30 years up to life without parole; mandatory fine up to $2,000,000.
- 450 to <1,000 grams: imprisonment of at least 15 years up to 40 years; optional fine up to $500,000.
- 50 to <450 grams: imprisonment of at least 10 years up to 25 years; optional fine up to $250,000.
- Less than 50 grams: imprisonment of at least 5 years up to 20 years; optional fine up to $25,000.
- Delivery/possession with intent to deliver to a minor: any person 18+ who delivers (or possesses with intent to deliver) heroin, fentanyl, carfentanil (or derivatives) to someone under 18 must be punished by imprisonment of 10 to 40 years.
- Misrepresentation/disclosure requirement: prohibits a person who knows a product contains heroin, fentanyl, carfentanil (or derivatives) from selling or offering it for sale without representing that it contains that substance. Violation is a felony with a mandatory determinate 10-year sentence that must run consecutively to, and before, any other imprisonment imposed for the sale/offer.
Who is affected
- Defendants charged with manufacture, delivery, or possession with intent to deliver heroin, fentanyl, carfentanil, or their derivatives — including prosecutions involving small and large quantities.
- Persons 18+ who deliver these substances to minors.
- Sellers or offerors who knowingly sell products containing those substances without disclosure.
- Sentencing judges, prosecutors, public defenders, and the corrections system (potentially longer incarceration terms and altered guideline scoring).
- Local and state budgets may be affected by expected changes in incarceration levels and enforcement.
Other notes
- HB 4256 updates the list of felonies in the sentencing guidelines statute (MCL 777.13m) to reflect the reclassified offenses created or modified by HB 4255 (Public Health Code changes). The bill’s enactment is explicitly conditioned on HB 4255 becoming law.
