California kills bills that would punish fentanyl dealers

As hundreds of Californians die annually from drug overdoses fueled by fentanyl, a bitter combat has emerged in Sacramento over how lawmakers can maintain sellers accountable with out refilling state prisons and waging one other “battle on medicine.”

On one facet of the talk are Republicans and reasonable Democrats calling for stronger prison penalties for sellers who promote the lethal drug, which is as much as 50 times stronger than heroin and contributed to just about 6,000 overdose deaths in California in 2021.

On the opposite are left-leaning Democrats who’ve spent the final decade retooling the state’s penal code to favor therapy and rehabilitation over lengthy jail sentences, and who’re reluctant to embrace insurance policies they concern may devastate Black and brown communities.

The disagreement reached a boiling level this week on the state Capitol, as Californians whose members of the family died from fentanyl overdoses packed a listening to room the place Democrats voted down a bipartisan invoice that will require warning convicted fentanyl sellers that they may face murder expenses in the event that they promote it once more. In the meantime, a Democratic lawmaker shelved a number of different payments to extend sentences for fentanyl sellers.

“I used to be round throughout the crack cocaine epidemic, and that is actually similar to the hysteria round crack cocaine,” mentioned Assemblymember Reggie Jones-Sawyer, a Los Angeles Democrat who chairs the Public Security Committee. “And we rushed to provide you with an answer, as an alternative of it from each a public well being disaster and a public security disaster and to convey them each collectively.”

A need to not repeat that historical past led him to shelve a number of fentanyl payments for the remainder of this yr, Jones-Sawyer mentioned. He mentioned lots of the proposals targeted on “how can we refill the prisons once more” as an alternative of a long-term resolution to habit.

Jones-Sawyer mentioned he needs the Legislature’s method to align with current funding and enforcement actions on fentanyl from Gov. Gavin Newsom and Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta. Newsom proposed practically $100 million within the 2023-24 finances for prevention, treatment and education efforts, and expanded the California Nationwide Guard’s operations on the border. Bonta has additionally ramped up enforcement, resulting in the elevated seizure of fentanyl pills and powder.

The Legislature’s public security committees have a file of sidelining payments that will lengthen jail sentences or create new crimes, as a result of the Democrats who management them are not looking for California to incarcerate extra folks. However the severity of the fentanyl disaster has invited criticism of that dedication and compelled a broader dialogue over what position the prison justice system ought to have in fixing the issue.

“Fentanyl is inflicting an unbelievable variety of deaths, and the trajectory is, sadly, headed within the improper route,” state Sen. Tom Umberg (D-Orange) mentioned at a listening to for Senate Bill 44 earlier than it was voted down.

The proposal would have required courts to supply a written admonishment to these convicted of fentanyl drug offenses, warning them of prison liabilities in the event that they promote a fentanyl product that kills one other particular person.

The proposal may make it simpler to safe a future conviction, as a result of the warning may very well be used as proof for prosecutors to show {that a} defendant was conscious of the dangers in drug dealing. It was modeled after the state’s DUI Advisory, which is used to discourage repeated drunk driving. Two different variations of the invoice have didn’t cross the committee lately.

State Sen. Rosilicie Ochoa Bogh, a Yucaipa Republican who co-authored SB 44 , fought again tears throughout the listening to as members of the family spoke of these misplaced to overdoses. She mentioned she was “heartbroken” by the invoice’s defeat.

“Make no mistake. A coverage like SB 44 would make a distinction,” Ochoa Bogh mentioned.

Umberg requested for reconsideration of the invoice, which implies it may quickly get one other vote. However he’ll seemingly have to just accept an modification proposed by Democrats to restrict the invoice to sellers who explicitly know they’re promoting fentanyl or laced merchandise — a advice he has to this point rejected.

State Sen. Steven Bradford (D-Gardena) mentioned the proposal was paying homage to the tough-on-crime period of the Nineteen Eighties and ’90s that led to hundreds of Black and brown folks serving life sentences for drug offenses.

“Merely making it simpler to prosecute somebody for homicide won’t deal with or clear up this drawback,” Bradford mentioned.

Jones-Sawyer plans to carry a casual listening to this fall, when the Legislature isn’t in session, at which everybody who has a stake in fixing the fentanyl disaster may have a seat on the desk, he says. Meaning holding off till then on contemplating laws like Assembly Bill 367, which might have elevated prison penalties for individuals who promote, furnish, administer or give away fentanyl merchandise that lead to nice bodily damage.

“I felt like fentanyl is such a severe problem that it may cross the committee,” mentioned Assemblymember Brian Maienschein, a San Diego Democrat and creator of AB 367.

Watching within the listening to room because the Senate panel killed SB 44 was Matt Capelouto of Riverside County. The invoice is named “Alexandra’s Law” in honor of his 20-year-old daughter, who died after taking a fentanyl tablet that she purchased from a supplier on Snapchat whereas she was residence from college for the vacations.

“What are the politicians of the Public Security Committee, the folks charged with defending the lives and livelihoods of their constituents, truly doing? What are they doing in regards to the drug sellers, the folks accountable for knowingly jeopardizing the lives of the folks they commerce {dollars} for demise to?” Capelouto mentioned after the listening to.

“I’ll inform you what they’re doing,” he mentioned. “Nothing.”