BATON ROUGE, La. (KLFY) — A Lafayette attorney whose daughter died after taking a recreational drug she didn’t know was laced with fentanyl addressed lawmakers in Baton Rouge on Wednesday.
Bob Broussard may well be taking on the fight of his life. Broussard wants House Bill 844 to send this message to people; “don’t plan to distribute fentanyl in Louisiana.”
“Head north go through Arkansas, go through Mississippi, do what you got to but stay away from Louisiana,” Broussard explained before the Administration on Criminal Justice Committee.
The bill’s author by Independent State Representative Daryl Adams of East Baton Rouge.
Broussard’s daughter JoTerez died on October 30 after unknowingly taking a recreational drug laced with fentanyl.
“Here’s her picture, she was 20-years-old set to be 21-years-old thirteen days later,” Broussard said. “The fentanyl… she was not an addict nor a fentanyl user. She was a regular college student.”
House Bill 844 allows for a person arrested for distributing fentanyl or possession to authority in the conviction of others in exchange for lighter sentences.
Some committee members have questions, especially as to the bill’s end goal.
“Too many people in our community dying, but this provision with the assistance I just don’t get it,” committee member Nicholas Muscarello (R) District 86 stated.
State Representative Marcus Bryant made an offer as it relates to a bill he said is already in the works.
“I urge you to help us with that bill because it’s already halfway through the process to get to the end that we’re trying to accomplish with this fentanyl,” Bryant stated.
Broussard’s daughter, nicknamed “JaJa,” was a University of Louisiana at Lafayette student.
The committee meeting began at 9 a.m. on Wednesday, April 27, 2022.