House Bill 88: Ohio Legislators Propose Stricter Fentanyl Laws in Sweeping Anti-Trafficking Bill

Ohio has the fifth largest interstate system in the country and is within one day’s drive of more than 60 percent of people living in the United States and Canada. The state also has eight maritime ports, eight commercial airports, and more than 700 miles of navigable waterways.

Illegal drug traffickers take advantage of all of them.

Recent arrests made in 2025 paint a stark picture: Eleven pounds of fentanyl seized in Franklin County in July; 84 pounds of fentanyl seized in Dayton in August; 240 suspect pills seized in Hardin County in September. Most shocking of all, a March arrest in Pickering netted 3,723 fake prescription pills containing carfentanil, a fentanyl analog 100 times more powerful than fentanyl itself.

To escalate the state’s fight against fentanyl and other illegal drugs, Ohio lawmakers are pursuing House Bill 88. Sponsored by Representatives Cindy Abrams (R-Harrison) and Phil Plummer (R-Dayton), the bill proposes significant increases to criminal penalties and removes certain legal protections for drug possession.

Some of the key provisions in the proposed legislation include:

• Raising the penalties for drug trafficking of fentanyl, cocaine, heroin, and methamphetamine

• Establishing a 5-year mandatory minimum prison term if an individual is convicted or pleads guilty of a fentanyl-related death

• Removing the requirement for prosecutors to prove a defendant knew they possessed a fentanyl-related compound in non-marijuana drug arrests

• Requiring that death certificates list fentanyl poisoning as a cause of death if a lethal amount was found in person’s body to better generate data on fentanyl’s impact in Ohio

HB 88 also has provisions that support fentanyl education and awareness, including:

• Requiring grades kindergarten through graduate school to implement age-appropriate and research-based instruction on the dangers of fentanyl

• Designating the month of August as “Fentanyl Poisoning Awareness Month”
• Requiring public schools to designate a week during the school year for “Fentanyl Poisoning Awareness Week” to educate students on its dangers

The bill also incorporates significant provisions to combat organized crime by expanding human trafficking definitions and creating the new, first-degree felony offense of “participating in an organization or operation for trafficking in persons.”

On March 19, 2025, DOITFORJACK founders Tom and Stephanie Quehl testified in front of Ohio’s House Judiciary Committee in support of House Bill 88. Tom’s statement read in part:

House Bill 88 is a great start for our cause of protecting our youth and young adults. Increasing penalties for trafficking of illegal drugs is well overdue…This bill is about taking criminals off the street and drawing a line in the sand to state that drug trafficking in Ohio comes with severe consequences… If we don’t start protecting our nation’s youth and young adults, we will not have anyone to love or cherish.

DOITFORJACK encourages all Ohioans to read the proposed legislation. Then, call, email, or write your representative and urge them to support House Bill 88. Together, we can stand up to drug trafficking in our state and end fentanyl’s threat.