Maine House Democrats Vote to Keep Taxpayers Rather Than Convicts Footing the Bill for Analysis of Drugs

Democratic lawmakers in the Maine House of Representatives on Thursday voted down a bill that would have shifted the financial burden of testing illegal drugs as part of criminal cases from the state’s taxpayers to convicted drug traffickers.

LD 717, An Act to Amend the Maine Criminal Code Governing Restitution to Include the Costs of All Analyses of Suspected Illegal Drugs, was sponsored by Republican State Rep. Steven Bishop of Bucksport.

“The purpose of LD 717 is to remove the cost of criminal actions from the responsibility of Maine taxpayers,” Rep. Bishop told the Legislature’s Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee last month when introducing his bill.

“Taxpayers did not have to pay for these costs until a few years ago when a new law was passed by the Maine Legislature,” Bishop said. “Because of that law, in today’s current circumstances, if an individual chooses to possess illegal drugs and are subject to violation by law enforcement, the cost of the testing required for prosecution falls on the shoulders of taxpayers.”

Bishop said that in small Maine municipalities, the total annual cost of such testing can run upwards of $10,000.

“This is simply not right,” Bishop said. “Offenders possessing illegal drugs must be held responsible for their actions. It is not the place for citizens in Maine to front the cost of illegal drug actions of others.”

If passed, the bill would have moved the burden of the costs incurred for the analyses of drugs in criminal cases to the person convicted of the drug offense, as part of that convicted person’s restitution.

Both the Maine Chiefs of Police Association and Sheriff’s Association testified in support of the bill, citing the increasingly tight budgets of the state’s municipalities and counties.

“When these costs are no longer recoverable and additional funds are not allocated, other aspects of criminal investigations are impacted,” said Auburn Police Chief Jason Moen at the bill’s public hearing last month. “Law enforcement agencies and prosecutors must decide where to spend limited resources, making it harder to prosecute drug cases effectively.”

The Maine American Civil Liberties Union gave testimony in opposition to the bill, stating that the bill “will further impoverish people who are already likely to be poor, without any clear rehabilitative benefit,” and arguing that it would violate the “excessive fines” clause of the Eighth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

In a roll-call vote in the Maine House on Tuesday, every Democratic state representative present voted in favor of accepting the Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee’s “ought not to pass report,” resulting in a vote of 75-68, effectively killing the bill.