CAGOP Chair Patterson on Failed Legislation to Deal with Fentanyl Crisis

 Listen: CAGOP Chairwoman Jessica Millan Patterson

Late last week Assembly Democrats in the Public Safety Committee failed to pass multiple bills that would have increased penalties and prison time for drug dealers pushing Fentanyl that currently kills more than 100 Californians a week.

   

Here’s how each piece of legislation did, from the Assembly caucus:

 

The committee killed the following bills: 

• AB 367 (Maienschein) – add a sentencing enhancement for fentanyl dealers who kill or seriously injure people they sell the drug to.
• AB 1058 (Jim Patterson) – increase penalties for those possessing large quantities of fentanyl.

 

The committee punted on the following bills, making it unlikely they will make a difference in the fentanyl epidemic:

• AB 675 (Soria) – prohibit carrying a gun while in possession of fentanyl, amended to make violations more difficult to prove.
• AB 955 (Petrie-Norris) – increase penalties for fentanyl dealers who sell on social media, placed on interim study to kick the can even farther down the road.

 

The bills advancing out of the committee were: 

• AB 33 (Bains) – to establish a Fentanyl Addiction and Overdose Prevention Task Force.
• AB 474 (Rodriguez) – prioritize cooperation between state and local law enforcement to disrupt fentanyl trafficking organizations.
• AB 701 (Villapudua) - enhance penalties for selling large quantities of specified controlled substances.