Kendall County Times

State House Rep. Keith Wheeler (R-Oswego) is calling on the Senate to reject a bill that would reduce penalties for the possession and sale of small amounts of drugs - including fentanyl, cocaine and heroin - that only narrowly passed the House last year.

In a recent statement to Kendall County Times, Wheeler also urged Gov. J.B. Pritzker to reject House Bill 3447 if the Senate does not.

"We cannot allow House Bill 3447 to become law and reduce the penalty from a felony to a Class A misdemeanor," Wheeler said. "I call on members of the state Senate to reject this bill and urge Gov. Pritzker to veto any bill like this that reaches his desk."

Wheeler told Kendall County Times that he is "deeply concerned" about HB 3447, introduced into the House by Rep. Carol Ammons (D-Urbana).

"House Bill 3447 reclassifies the penalty for certain amounts of drug possession from a felony to a Class A misdemeanor, which means that the max sentence for drug dealers if convicted will be less than one year in jail," Wheeler said.

HB 3447 passed the House in April of last year with a vote of 61 for and 49 against.

"All 61 votes to pass this bill were Democrats'," Wheeler said. "This is yet another shocking example where the priorities of the current majority party in Springfield are weakening state laws aimed at holding drug dealers accountable for the addiction and death they are responsible for spreading."

Wheeler referred to the spike in Fentanyl-related deaths in Chicago's suburbs reported by local police departments and county health departments in recent years and to a "a great discussion" with Kane County coroner Rob Russell.

"He showed me statistics that there are more opioid-related deaths than suicide and homicide combined in Kane County in 2021," Wheeler said. "It turns out that these overdoses related to Fentanyl and opioids are destroying the lives of neighbors of all ages, both teens and young adults account for many of these deaths, as they don’t know that what they think is a prescription pill is actually a counterfeit pill laced with Fentanyl."

Fentanyl is being pedaled by area drug dealers, "especially toward kids," and those drug dealers "don't care about human life," Wheeler said.

"They only care about their own profit," Wheeler continued. "As a father myself, it infuriates me that many of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle believe our state laws aimed at holding drug dealers accountable are too tough. Protecting our kids from the threat of Fentanyl and the drug dealers who target them should be a bipartisan priority. Sadly, right now it's mostly Republicans who are sounding the alarm for this crisis, while Illinois Democrats continue to stand on their soft-on-crime record."

HB 3447 needs to die, Wheeler said.

"We cannot allow House Bill 3447 to become law and reduce the penalty from a felony to a Class A misdemeanor," he said.

Earlier this week, Wheeler co-sponsored legislation that would amend the state's existing controlled substances law to add other penalties for manufacturing and delivering of drugs of no less than six years and no more than 30 years. House Bill 5805 would amend the Illinois Controlled Substances Act and "provides that if a controlled substance analog is at least 5 times as potent as the controlled substance of which it is an analog, then the weight of the controlled substance analog for purposes of the Act shall be deemed to be the weight of the controlled substance analog multiplied by the increase in potency."

HB 5805 was introduced into the House on Wednesday, Sept. 21, and has since picked up seven Republican co-sponsors but has not yet been assigned to a committee.

Wheeler, a small business owner for about 30 years, has represented the 50th District State House seat since he assumed the office in 2015. He has since been regularly re-elected and this year he is seeking another term in the House, this time in the 83rd State House District following last year's legislative remapping. He was unopposed during June's Republican primary and he faces Aurora Democrat and former Kane County Board member Matt Hanson in November's General Election.

The 83rd State House District stretches from the Fox River in Wheeler's home city of Oswego and then extends north to the west side of Aurora and also picks up parts of St. Charles, Batavia and Geneva.