According to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, xylazine use has spread to every state, and overdose deaths are increasing. In a 2023 study from the National Center for Health Statistics, the most recent year available, overdose deaths involving xylazine were 35 times higher in 2021 than in 2018. Florida Department of Law Enforcement reported that in the first six months of 2023, in the 278 deaths in which a medical examiner detected xylazine, it was the cause of death in 56 percent of cases. 

The Criminal Justice Subcommittee, which includes Bankson and Plakon, replaced the original draft bill with a committee substitute that exempts appropriate veterinary use of xylazine. That was unanimously approved March 6. It passed the Justice Budget Subcommittee 13-1 on March 18. 

Bankson called xylazine "insidious" and said it had to be stopped.

Under the bill, selling, manufacturing, delivering or possessing 4 grams or more xylazine with the intent to sell, manufacture, or deliver it would carry a minimum prison sentence of seven years and a $50,000 fine. The mandatory minimum sentences and fines would increase depending on the amount of xylazine involved.

Law enforcement groups, like the Florida Sheriffs Association and the Police Chiefs Association, backed the bill. Barney Bishop, who leads the center-right advocacy group Florida Smart Justice Alliance, called it “common sense.”

However, Aurelie Colon Larrauri, a policy associate with the Southern Poverty Law Center, criticized the bill’s mandatory minimum prison sentences during the subcommittee hearing. She said research has proven that mandatory minimums do not deter crime, waste taxpayer money and increase recidivism. 

“Specifically, such sentences contribute to prison overcrowding, disproportionately impact marginalized communities and limit the ability to tailor sentencing to individual circumstances by allowing judges to have judicial discretion,” she said.

She added that the bill focused on criminalizing possession rather than sales. She urged lawmakers to explore evidence-based reforms rather than imprison individuals with substance-abuse problems. 

On the Justice Budget Subcommittee, Rep. Michelle Rayner, a St. Petersburg Democrat, cast the lone vote against advancing the bill. She said she didn’t think mandatory minimum sentences were the best way to go after drug dealers. But she left the door open to voting for the bill later on. 

Rep. Kimberly Daniels, the ranking Democrat on the Justice Budget Subcommittee, said she agreed with Rayner’s concerns but voted in favor of the bill, citing the severity of the problem and future amendments that might address any sticking points.

Plakon emphasized the bill’s importance in “getting ahead of this problem” because xylazine is a new street drug, and not all medical examiners know to test for it yet. She added that naloxone (aka Narcan), which can reverse a fentanyl overdose, will not revive someone who has overdosed on xylazine because it is not an opioid. (The CDC still recommends administering it because xylazine is so often mixed with other opioids.) 

Plakon said the mandatory minimum sentencing requirements “sends a message to the dealers and traffickers and the gangs that we will not tolerate the distribution of dangerous illegal drugs in Florida.”