HB166

HB166 adds substances in Texas Penalty Group 1-B—including fentanyl and specified related opioids—to the drug-related circumstances that can support a legal presumption of imminent danger in an endangerment prosecution. It changes an evidentiary rule within the existing offense, rather than making every instance of drug possession an automatic endangerment conviction. The law took effect September 1, 2025. Final act · Penalty Group 1-B

The three circumstances now cover:

• Manufacturing, possessing or introducing a Penalty Group 1-B substance into anyone’s body in the presence of a child, elderly individual or disabled individual, alongside the existing methamphetamine provision.
• Conduct involving the proximity or accessibility of such a substance to the protected person, together with a test of that person’s blood, urine or other bodily substance showing its presence, alongside the existing methamphetamine provision.
• Introducing a Penalty Group 1-B substance into the human body when the actor was not in lawful possession of it, alongside the existing Penalty Group 1 provision. The express unlawful-possession condition belongs to this third circumstance; HB166 does not repeat it in the other two. Section 1

The underlying offense still requires intentional, knowing, reckless or criminally negligent conduct placing a protected person in imminent danger of death, bodily injury, or physical or mental impairment. For this offense, a child is 14 or younger and an elderly individual is 65 or older; “disabled individual” has a specific statutory definition covering listed conditions and certain substantial limitations in self-protection or self-care. Penal Code Sections 22.041 and 22.04(c)

A presumption is not a mandatory guilty verdict. Under the Penal Code’s general rule, the facts supporting it must be proved beyond a reasonable doubt, the jury may—but need not—find the presumed element, and the state must still prove every other element beyond a reasonable doubt. Penal Code Section 2.05(a)

The endangerment offense remains a state jail felony. Its ordinary statutory punishment range is 180 days to two years in state jail, with a possible fine up to $10,000; separate enhancement rules can affect punishment. HB166 does not change that classification or range. Its changes apply only to offenses committed on or after September 1, 2025; if any element occurred before then, the former law governs. Section 22.041(f) · Section 12.35 · Final act, Sections 2–3