CHEYENNE, Wyo. — Legislators from both sides of the political aisle are backing a bill relating to addiction therapy in Wyoming in an effort to address addiction within prison populations.
On Monday, Feb. 24, the Wyoming Senate tackled SF 107, a “penal institutions – addiction counselor license reciprocity” bill. This bill would require the Wyoming Mental Health Professions Licensing Board to issue certification to a counselor who holds a license in good-standing from another state. The bill also establishes four types of addiction therapy certification.
Bill co-sponsor Sen. Anthony Bouchard introduced the bill during the Senate’s afternoon floor session when they were in the Committee of the Whole.
The other bill co-sponsors include Rep. Patrick Sweeney, Rep. Scott Clem, Sen. Chris Rothfuss and Rep. Bunky Loucks.
Sen. Bill Landen questioned the original language in the bill, which required that addictions counselors not have any felony or misdemeanors relating to addictions therapy. He worried that this would limit access to addiction counselors, as some of them have prior records but reformed their lives after getting in legal trouble.
Sen. Charles Scott and Sen. Tara Nethercott backed Landen, with Nethercott pointing out that it is their own experience which allows addiction counselors to understand and relate to people.
“Having gone through these experiences themselves, these people are better at relating to people who currently have an addiction problem and are in the prison system,” Scott told the Senate on Monday afternoon.
An amendment will be drawn up for either the Senate’s second or third reading.
The Senate voted to pass the bill through the Committee of the Whole. A second reading will take place by Wednesday, Feb. 26.
An earlier version of this story identified Wyoming State Senator Eli Bebout was identified as the sponsor for this bill. This is incorrect. Anthony Bouchard is the sponsor for the bill. The story has been updated to reflect this, and Oil City regrets the error.
This article originally appeared on Oil City News. Used with permission.
