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Assemblywoman Venicia Considine speaks inside the Legislature on Monday, March 15, 2021 in Carson City, Nev. (David Calvert/The Nevada Independent, pool)
Monday, March 22, 2021 | 6:45 p.m.
CARSON CITY — In a burst of activity on Monday, Nevada lawmakers introduced 91 bills in one of the busiest days yet of the legislative session.
The rush to put forth bills comes one week after legislative leaders extended the initial March 15 deadline an extra week to give legislative staff additional time to draft bills for lawmakers.
Here’s some of the legislation that lawmakers introduced Monday:
Safe injection sites
Assembly Bill 345, introduced by Assemblyman David Orentlicher, D-Las Vegas, would create safe injection sites where adults can take intravenous drugs they bought elsewhere in a safe environment.
Evidence has shown that safe injection sites help lower mortality and overdose rates, including in a study released in January from the nonprofit Institute for Clinical and Economic Review.
The bill would let counties with 100,000 or more residents establish a safe injection site program. If these programs are successful after two years, counties with smaller populations would be able to establish similar programs.
No county would be able to establish another safe injection site unless the first program has operated “safely and continuously” for four years.
Sanctuary state
A group of eight Democratic lawmakers introduced a proposal that would limit local law enforcement’s ability to cooperate with federal immigration officers. The bill mirrors “sanctuary state” policies in place in California, Colorado, Illinois and New York.
It would prohibit police officers from collecting information concerning a person’s birthplace, immigration or citizenship status, and make it illegal to detain someone for the purpose of determining their immigration status. It also prohibits state and local officers from detaining a person on a hold relating to federal immigration enforcement unless the request is accompanied by an arrest warrant or supported by probable cause that the person committed a crime.
The bill notes that immigrants make up 19% of Nevada’s population, account for 1 in 4 workers in the state and account for about 30% of the small-business owners in Nevada.
Animal abuser registry
Assembly Bill 350, introduced by Assemblywoman Melissa Hardy, R-Henderson, and Assemblyman Glen Leavitt, R-Boulder City, would create a registry of animal abusers similar to the existing sex offender registry.
Any person on the registry would be barred from owning, working with, or living in the same home as an animal. It would be overseen by a nonprofit organization selected by the director of the state Department of Agriculture.
The bill also increases the felony classifications for many animal cruelty charges.
Assisted suicide
Assembly Bill 351, introduced by Assemblyman Edgar Flores, D-Las Vegas, would allow patients with a terminal illness to self-administer drugs that would result in death.
Under the bill’s provisions, the patient must be at least 18, cannot be coerced into taking the medication and must make two verbal and one written request for the medication. Only the patient to whom the medication was given may administer it.
This issue has come up in every legislative session since 2015, though it has failed to pass each time. According to advocacy group Death with Dignity, eight states and Washington, D.C. have implemented assisted suicide laws, while assisted suicide laws are legal in Montana by court decision.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
