(Helena) Attorney General Austin Knudsen and Montana Department of Justice prosecutors and investigators testified in Senate Judiciary Committee today in support of Senate Bill 261, which would create penalties for people who expose children to drugs.
Under the state’s current endangering the welfare of children statute prosecutors can charge parents and other adults who cause or permit a child to inhale, be exposed to, have contact with, or ingest methamphetamine, or have contact with meth, but the AG argues that this leaves out other drugs like fentanyl and marijuana.
The bill would make it a crime to intentionally expose a child to quote “dangerous drugs and marijuana”, as well as to encourage or assist a child to enter a place where those are being sold or made. This bill would also make it a crime to facilitate a child’s entry into a place where human trafficking is taking place.
