AUGUSTA –– The Maine Senate voted Tuesday to increase penalties for bringing drugs across state lines and for heroin possession, despite opponents’ contention that the changes could slap some drug users with a lifetime punishment.

The Senate voted 26-8 in support of a bill that would increase the maximum prison term for importing heroin and other opiates into Maine from five years to 10 years and make it a felony offense – punishable by up to five years in prison – to import other illegal drugs into the state.

But lawmakers were more divided on a bill that would once again allow prosecutors to pursue felony charges against anyone for possession of heroin, methamphetamine, fentanyl or more than 14 grams of cocaine. While supporters said the threat of longer jail sentences was needed to force some drug users into treatment, critics said a felony conviction can haunt people for life by preventing them from obtaining jobs and student loans or even voting.

“Not only does someone have to serve a jail sentence, but forever they are going to have a ‘Scarlet F’ of a felony (conviction) on them,” said Sen. Roger Katz, R-Augusta, playing on the “A” that adulterers were required to wear in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel “The Scarlet Letter.”

The mixed votes and heated debate reflect the political challenges facing lawmakers as they struggle to respond to the growing heroin crisis in Maine. The number of fatal drug overdoses in Maine soared by 31 percent between 2014 and 2015, with 157 of the 272 deaths last year attributable to heroin, fentanyl or other combinations of drugs.

In response, the Legislature has provided funding to the LePage administration to hire additional drug agents to target the drug traffickers bringing heroin into Maine while funneling more money toward treatment. The drug importation bill, L.D. 1541, would also create a new crime of aggravated illegal importation of scheduled drugs, punishable by up to 30 years in prison.

The sponsor of the drug importation bill, Republican Sen. Scott Cyrway of Benton, choked back emotions Tuesday as he recalled the lives and families he saw torn apart by drugs during his years as a police officer and a D.A.R.E. officer in school. He and other supporters argued that the threat of more severe punishments could deter some drug traffickers from setting up shop in the state.

“Let’s make a statement that when they come here to Maine, they’re not going home,” Cyrway said.

But opponents of both Cyrway’s legislation and the bill to make heroin possession a felony offense predicted that both proposals will end up ensnaring drug addicts, not dealers.

Just last year, the Legislature passed a bill that reduced the penalties for low-level drug offenses as part of the growing national movement away from lengthy jail sentences for drug possession. But while one bill passed last year made possession of smaller amounts of heroin and other narcotics a misdemeanor for first-time offenders, another bill retained the felony penalties for the drugs and added the prescription opiate fentanyl to the list.

Sen. Eric Brakey, an Auburn Republican whose politics fall squarely on the libertarian side of his party, called the heroin possession bill, L.D. 1554, “a major step backwards” from last year’s drug sentencing reforms. Brakey also pointed out that felony convictions cannot be expunged.

But supporters, including Attorney General Janet Mills, have said prosecutors need the threat of a felony conviction to cajole users into treatment. Prosecutors do that by sending a case to the state’s drug court system or by using “deferred disposition,” in which accused persons are charged with a felony up front but end up with only a misdemeanor conviction or no conviction if they complete drug treatment and probation.

Sen. Tom Saviello, R-Wilton, told his colleagues that he was supporting the bill because county sheriffs said they needed it as a tool.

The bill to increase the penalty for heroin possession could face tougher odds in the Democratic-controlled House.

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