Gov. Mark Gordon signed 10 bills into law on March 19. Gordon has until midnight Friday to take action on the bills remaining on his desk.
Signed: Prescribing for off-label uses
HB 164 allows healthcare providers to prescribe some legal medications for off-label purposes. Schedule I and II narcotics, gender transition medications specifically for minors and medications intended to induce a abortion do not fall under the new law.
A recent high-profile example of a medication being prescribed for off-label use is Ozempic, a drug meant to manage Type 2 diabetes, but has been used for weight loss.
According to LexisNexis, Wyoming joins Alabama in protecting the practice in law. The outlet says at least a dozen other states are considering similar legislation. Backers say it enshrines in law what many providers are already doing without fear of losing their license.
Signed: Post-conviction DNA testing
SF 101 extends the cutoff year to request post-conviction DNA testing to 2008, the year the original law was enacted. Previously the cutoff was 2000.
The measure saw full support from both chambers, with no one voting against it.
The bill’s sponsor, Sen. Bill Landen (R-Casper), called it an access to justice bill that fixes a hole in existing statute.
“This provision is designed to prevent post-conviction testing from being misused as a second chance for individuals who strategically avoided testing at trial. That rationale is sound. It's a good statute, other than the fact that the chosen cut off date of 2000 creates the unintended consequence that individuals convicted before 2008, when the act was passed in Wyoming – it would have been impossible to make a strategic or tactical decision based on a statute that didn't exist yet,” Landen testified while introducing his bill to the Senate Judiciary Committee on Jan. 30.
Signed: Prostitution amendments
HB 62 adds “sexual contact” to the state’s definition of prostitution and solicitation. Previously the definition was limited to “acts of sexual intrusion.”
Sexual contact is defined in the law as “touching, with the intention of sexual arousal, gratification or abuse, of another person's intimate parts by the actor, or of the actor's intimate parts by the other person.”
Prostitution is a misdemeanor that carries a fine of up to $750 or six months imprisonment, or both.
The governor signed the following bills on Mar. 19. Click this link and search by bill number or title to see drafts of the bill. A regularly updated list of bills Gordon has signed, let become into law without his signature and vetoed is here.
HEA0069 HB0062 Prostitution amendments.
HEA0074 HB0164 Medical prescriptions-off-label purposes.
HEA0077 HB0137 Revisor's bill.
SEA0075 SF0165 Cancellation of registration notice-amendments.
SEA0078 SF0053 Trademarks and trade names-administrative cancellation.
SEA0085 SF0104 Probate code revisions.
SEA0086 SF0167 Board of chiropractic examiners-criminal history records.
SEA0087 SF0107 Noncompete agreements prohibited.
SEA0088 SF0101 Post-conviction DNA testing-procedure amendments.
SEA0089 SF0171 Boundary survey amendments.
