Several California lawmakers have introduced a series of bills intended to combat the state’s fentanyl crisis, but some critics question whether the proposed laws would actually do anything substantial.
The legislation was introduced in the wake of two drug busts last month in which the Orange County Sheriff’s Department and Costa Mesa police seized 45,000 rainbow-colored fentanyl pills and new deadly drugs such as “tranq”—fentanyl mixed with the animal tranquilizer Xylazine—and Isotonitazene, or “ISO,” another deadly synthetic opioid, that are hitting the streets across the nation.
The bills, proposed by politicians on both sides of the aisle as the 2023–24 legislative session began in January, range from imposing more severe penalties on fentanyl dealers to requiring naloxone—better known by the brand name Narcan—to be available at certain businesses and public schools to prevent users from overdosing.
Costa Mesa police confiscate three large bags of fentanyl—containing smaller distributable bags—in Costa Mesa, Calif., on Jan. 24, 2023. Courtesy of the Costa Mesa Police Department
Senate Bill 237, authored by state Sen. Shannon Grove, a Republican, would toughen penalties for fentanyl possession, distribution, and trafficking. The bill would lengthen sentences for those convicted of possession from the current range of two to four years in county jail to four to six years, for transportation and distribution from three to five years to seven to nine years, and for fentanyl trafficking from three to nine years to seven to 13 years.
Senate Bill 234, authored by state Sen. Anthony Portantino, a Democrat, and Assembly Bill 19 by Assemblyman Joe Patterson, a Republican, both would require public K–12 schools to keep naloxone on site. Portantino’s bill would also require the same for charter schools, community colleges, private colleges, and California State University and University of California campuses, stadiums, concert venues, and amusement parks.
“We should equip schools and other impacted places with the tools they need to save lives. No parent should worry that a successful emergency treatment isn’t available to help a victim survive an overdose,” Portantino said in a statement.
Nearly 108,000 people died from drug overdoses in the United States in 2021, an increase of nearly 15 percent from about 94,000 in 2020, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention National Center for Health Statistics.
Fentanyl alone killed more than 71,000 in 2021 and nearly 58,000 in 2020.
State Sen. Tom Umberg, a Democrat and co-author of SB 234, said that as the deputy drug czar under former President Bill Clinton, he knows how substance abuse destroys the lives of users and their families.
“This anguish is only amplified with the inclusion of fentanyl-laced substances in our drug stream. It’s clear that we have a major epidemic on our hands in California,” he said in the statement.
Mock sizing of a potentially lethal dose of fentanyl is shown in this illustration on April 1, 2022. John Fredricks/The Epoch Times
Assembly Bill 24, authored by Assemblyman Matt Haney, a Democrat, would additionally require naloxone to be on hand at bars, gas stations, public libraries, and single-room occupancy hotels in counties hit hardest by opioid overdoses as determined by the state department of health.
Assembly Bill 33, by Assemblywoman Jasmeet Bains, a Democrat, seeks to establish a statewide fentanyl task force “to identify and address the fentanyl crisis as part of the opioid epidemic,” according to the bill.
Senate Bill 226, authored by state Sen. Marie Alvarado-Gil, a Democrat, would toughen penalties for fentanyl possession while carrying a loaded firearm.
Jacqui Berlinn, founder of Mothers Against Drug Addictions and Deaths, told The Epoch Times that she supports efforts to put more naloxone in schools and businesses but said the rest of the new bills are paying “lip service” to appease the voting public rather than taking serious action to address the root causes of the fentanyl crisis.
“We don’t need new laws,” she said. “We just need to enforce the ones that are on the books, which includes stopping illegal immigration—a lot of the drugs are coming in through the open borders—and arresting drug dealers ... and closing open-air drug markets.”
Regarding longer incarcerations for users and dealers, Berlinn said she doesn’t think such changes would be an effective deterrent to drug dealers.
“In San Francisco, there are a lot of really young kids out there that are selling, and I don’t think increasing the sentence is going to help anything,” she said.
But, Berlinn said she likes Haney’s bill, AB 24 because it would put naloxone in gas stations and bars, especially in the counties hardest hit by fentanyl overdoses.
“If somebody gets into some and they’re at school or at a sporting event, the fastest response to save them is absolutely naloxone,” she said.
But, to Berlinn, creating a task force sounds like “top-heavy government” with “lots of talking and not doing.”
“I’m skeptical,” she said. “Isn’t that what the DEA [Drug Enforcement Administration] is for?”
Jacqui Berlinn talks to former city supervisor David Campos while surrounded by media in front of the Tenderloin Linkage Center in San Francisco on Feb. 5, 2022. Cynthia Cai/The Epoch Times
“I’m extremely frustrated,” Berlinn said. “I’m sitting here scratching my head because I’m not seeing anything ... that’s going to avert this crisis. They don’t really know what they’re dealing with. I don’t think they’ve done their due diligence.”
Erica Sandberg, a San Francisco resident and founding member of the California Peace Coalition, a group that has been fighting policies it sees as enabling fentanyl users and dealers in open-air drug markets, told The Epoch Times that throwing naloxone at the problem is a Band-Aid solution for a “gaping wound.”
“You’re not going to Narcan your way out of this at all. It’s not going to happen. It’s not going to help. It is wasting time when we should be focusing on other methods of alleviating this crisis. This isn’t it,” she said.
Sandberg said bills mandating schools, gas stations, and bars to supply naloxone are “completely useless.”
“The streets of San Francisco are flooded with Narcan. We’ve got plenty of it. Has it changed anything? No,” she said. “It saves somebody for a moment. That’s it. An hour later, two hours later, the next day, you’re back in the same position, so you’re spinning your wheels with these bills.”
Sandberg, who has a relative in Chicago who’s recovering from fentanyl and meth addiction, said the Narcan legislation is “chasing the past” because it’s less effective on some new drugs, such as “ISO” and Tranq, which has left hundreds of users in Philadelphia with open wounds that could lead to amputations.
She did say she supports longer sentences for fentanyl trafficking and possession.
“You’re looking at just straight-up drug traffickers, people who are working for big cartels, dangerous cartels,” Sandberg said. “Get them off the street, make them nervous ... put them behind bars for as long as possible.”
She said supports any laws that will disrupt and deter criminals and drive fentanyl dealers out of San Francisco, even if it means enforcing immigration laws and deportations.
“We’re in a sanctuary city, so it’s going to be a bit tough,” Sandberg said.
Greg Burt, of the California Family Council, a Christian watchdog group, told The Epoch Times that the current batch of fentanyl bills seems to contradict the direction the state has been headed to decriminalize drug use.
Greg Burt of the California Family Council holds up a copy of Abigail Shrier’s book “Irreversible Damage” at a California Assembly Judiciary Committee hearing in Sacramento, Calif., on June 8, 2022. Screenshot via California State Assembly
Burt said Wiener, who sits on the Senate Public Safety Committee, wants to end the war on drugs.
“He wants to get rid of laws on possession and selling and step by step, everything he is doing is going in that direction,” Burt said. “I think some legislators are now pushing back because the fentanyl issue is so destructive to the community.”
Brad Jones
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Brad Jones is an award-winning journalist based in Southern California.
