While thousands of Californians die each year from drug overdoses fueled by

the ubiquity of

fentanyl, a bitter battle has erupted in Sacramento over how lawmakers can hold dealers accountable without refilling state prisons and waging another “war on drugs.”

On one side of the debate are Republicans and

more

moderate Democrats are calling for tougher criminal penalties for dealers selling the deadly drug

which that

is up to 50 times stronger than heroin and has contributed to nearly 6,000 overdose deaths in California by 2021.

On the other hand, left-wing Democrats who have spent the past decade amending the state’s penal code to favor treatment and rehabilitation over long prison terms, and who are reluctant to embrace policies they fear will make black and brown can destroy communities.

The disagreement reached a boiling point in the Capitol this week, when Californians whose relatives died of fentanyl overdoses packed a hearing room where Democrats voted down a bipartisan bill.

that would

require convicted fentanyl dealers to be warned that they can

facing charges of murder

when they sell it again.

and meanwhile,

a

Keys

The Democratic legislature shelved several other bills to increase penalties for fentanyl dealers.

“I was around during the crack cocaine epidemic, and this is very similar to the crack cocaine hysteria,” said Councilman Reggie Jones-Sawyer, a Los Angeles Democrat who

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Committee on Public Safety. “And we rushed to come up with a solution, rather than look at it from both a public health crisis and a public safety crisis and bring them both together.”

A desire not to repeat that history led him to suspend several fentanyl bills for the rest of this year, Jones-Sawyer said. He said many of the proposals focused on “how to fill the prisons again” rather than a long-term solution to addiction.

As fentanyl overdose deaths continue to rise, attempts to reverse the trend are met with liability fears

Jones-Sawyer said he wants the legislature

s approach to taking actions that

align with recent funding and enforcement actions for fentanyl from Gov. Gavin Newsom and Atty. General Rob Bonta. Newsom proposed nearly $100 million in the 2023

20

24 budget for prevention, treatment and education efforts, and expanded California National Guard operations at the border. Bonta has also stepped up enforcement, leading to an increase in seizures of fentanyl pills and powder.

The legislature’s public safety committees have a record of sidelining bills that would extend prison sentences or create new crimes because the Democrats who control them don’t want California to incarcerate more people. But the severity of the fentanyl crisis has led to criticism of that commitment and forced a wider discussion about what role the criminal justice system should play in solving the problem.

“Fentanyl is causing an incredible number of deaths and unfortunately the trajectory is going in the wrong direction,” Sen. Tom Umberg (D-Orange) said at a hearing for Senate Bill 44 before it

voted against. failed in committee.

The proposal would require courts to issue a written notice to those convicted of fentanyl drug offenses, warning them of criminal liability if they sell a fentanyl product that kills another person.

Fentanyl deaths in LA County up 1,280% from 2016 to 2021, reports show

The proposal could make it easier to secure a future conviction because the warning could be used as evidence for prosecutors to prove that a defendant was aware of the risks of drug trafficking. It was modeled after the state’s DUI Advisory, which is used to determine repeated drunk driving. Two other versions of the bill have failed to pass committee in recent years.

State Senator Rosilicie Ochoa Bogh, a Republican from Yucaipa who co-authored SB 44, fought back tears during the hearing as family members spoke about

their loved ones

lost to overdoses. She said she was “heartbroken” by the bill’s defeat.

“Make no mistake. A policy like SB 44 would make a difference,” said Ochoa Bogh.

Omberg early

how hot

reconsideration of the bill, which means it could soon be put to a vote again. But he will likely have to accept an amendment proposed by Democrats to limit the bill to dealers they explicitly know

his wares

selling fentanyl or adulterated products, a recommendation he has so far rejected.

Narcan could be made mandatory in California schools after fentanyl overdose in teens

State Senator Steven Bradford (D-Gardena) said the proposal was reminiscent of the hard crime era of the 1980s and 1990s, which saw thousands of black and brown people serving life sentences for drug offenses.

“Simply making it easier to prosecute someone for murder doesn’t solve this problem,” Bradford said.

Jones-Sawyer intends to hold an informal hearing on this matter,

when the legislature is not in session, where he says

everyone with an interest in solving the fentanyl crisis is at the table

he says

.

in the meantime

That means hold off

until then

when considering legislation such as Assembly Bill 367, which would have increased criminal penalties for those who sell, provide, administer or give away fentanyl products that result in serious bodily harm.

“I felt like fentanyl is such a serious problem that it could make it through committee,” said Brian Maienschein, a San Diego Democrat and author of AB 367.

California families who lost loved ones to fentanyl-laced drugs urge lawmakers to act

Watching in the hearing room as the Senate panel killed SB 44, Matt Capelouto of

Province of Rivierenland.

The bill is called “Alexandra’s Law” in honor of his 20-year-old daughter, who died after taking a fentanyl pill she bought from a dealer on Snapchat while home from school for the holidays.

“What are the politicians on the Public Safety Committee, the people charged with protecting the lives and livelihoods of their constituents, actually doing? What are they actually doing against the drug dealers, the people responsible for knowingly endangering of the lives of the people they trade dollars with? for death?” Capelouto said after the hearing.

“I’ll tell you what they do,” he said. “Nothing.”