The message from Sacramento has been clear: powerful state lawmakers have no appetite for a return to the War on Drugs, even as a way to combat the deadly fentanyl epidemic.
For years now, law enforcement, prosecutors and families of fentanyl victims have pleaded for harsher penalties for dealers of the synthetic opioid, which is 100 times stronger than morphine and 50 times stronger than heroin. In 2021, fentanyl killed 5,722 people in California, many of whom thought they were taking prescription medications or other drugs.
The graveyard for such legislation has been the Senate and Assembly public safety committees, which have repeatedly rejected bills that would result in more incarceration of fentanyl dealers.
On Tuesday, April 25, the Senate Public Safety Committee blinked slightly by approving SB 226, which makes it a felony to possess fentanyl with a loaded, operable firearm. Basically, the bill by state Sen. Marie Alvarado-Gill, D-Jackson, expands an existing law, adding fentanyl to a list of less harmful drugs that cannot be possessed while having a firearm.
Victim families disappointed again
That distinction — that the committee was not creating a new law or new penalties — was stressed by committee member Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, in rejecting another bill, SB 44, the latest iteration of Alexandra’s Law. The committee vote Tuesday came despite the impassioned pleas of families carrying pictures of children killed by fentanyl poisoning.
Under Alexandra’s Law, proposed this time by Sen. Tom Umberg, D-Santa Ana, dealers convicted of selling fentanyl would be given a warning — much like the warning given by judges to first-time drunken drivers — that they could be charged with homicide if they again sell fentanyl resulting in death.
It was the second time this year that the committee torpedoed Umberg’s bill, despite modifications meant to appease committee members.
“I’m stunned,” Umberg said. “It’s very difficult to…
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