Kan. Senate OK's tougher penalties for exposing kids to drugs

TOPEKA, Kan. -- The Kansas Senate last week approved legislation to strengthen penalties for selling drugs to children and for exposing kids to the manufacture of methamphetamine.

Senate Majority Leader Derek Schmidt, R-Independence, offered a successful amendment to House Bill No. 2435 to increase the length of a prison sentence imposed for selling illegal drugs to minors. The enhanced penalties would apply when the seller is older than 18 and the buyer is a minor. Schmidt's amendment also would require that people convicted of aggravated endangering a child, which prohibits having children present when methamphetamine is being manufactured, serve their prison terms consecutive to the term for any other crimes.

"Keeping drugs out of the hands of children should be a priority of the law," Schmidt said. "The ideas contained in this amendment were brought to me by law enforcement officers who work with this problem each and every day. It is intended to give law enforcement an added tool to keep our children safe."

Schmidt's amendment was based on a proposal developed earlier this year in cooperation with the Kansas Alliance for Drug Endangered Children. The amendment was approved by the Senate unanimously and the bill passed 40 to zero. It now will be considered by a conference committee composed of members of the Senate and of the House of Representatives.