S429 - 2025 Public Safety Act. (SL 2025-70)

Overview: Section 1 of S.L. 2025‑70 (Senate Bill 429) creates new criminal offenses for exposing a child under the age of 16 to a controlled substance. Any person who "knowingly, intentionally, or with reckless disregard for human life" causes or permits a child to be exposed to a controlled substance is guilty of a felony.

The classification of offense is determined by the degree of harm caused, as follows:

• Causing exposure – Class H felony.
• Causing exposure resulting in the child ingesting the controlled substance – Class E felony.
• If the ingestion results in serious physical injury – Class D felony.
  • Serious physical injury is physical injury that causes great pain and suffering, including serious mental injury.
• If the ingestion results in serious bodily injury – Class C felony.
  • Serious bodily injury is bodily injury that creates a substantial risk of death or that causes serious permanent disfigurement, coma, a permanent or protracted condition that causes extreme pain, or permanent or protracted loss or impairment of the function of any bodily member or organ, or that results in prolonged hospitalization.
• If the ingestion is the proximate cause of death – Class B1 felony.

The offense does not apply to a person that intentionally gives a child a controlled substance that has been prescribed for the child by a licensed medical professional when given to the child in the prescribed amount and manner.

This section becomes effective December 1, 2025, and applies to offenses on or after that date.