California Senate committee again bottles up fentanyl bill

A bill introduced by an Orange County senator that would increase the penalty for fentanyl dealers whose customers die failed again Tuesday to receive approval from the Senate Public Safety Committee.

Rosilicie Ochoa Bogh, R-Yucapia, was the only of the five committee members to vote for SB 44. The other four members did not vote. The bill needed three votes to pass. Ochoa Bogh joined Sen. Tom Umberg, D-Santa Ana, in introducing the bill.

The committee also rejected Alexandra’s Law on March 28 as well. The bill seeks to provide fentanyl dealers with a warning that if they get caught dealing again and one of their customers dies, they could face an upgrade in punishment from manslaughter to second-degree murder. It has been compared to the so-called Watson Advisement given to drunken drivers.

“I’m stunned,” Umberg said. “It’s very difficult to comprehend the committee’s view on this simple admonishment. We have worked on this measure for the past six months, engaged in hundreds of conversations, and taken numerous rounds of amendments. It’s discouraging that my colleagues don’t see the reality of the epidemic and the benefit of stopping repeat fentanyl dealers.”

The California Public Defenders Association has opposed the bill.

The association wrote that the bill “would be used as a predicate to establish the mental state of malice, required for a murder charge, when the person involved in the drug transaction had no intention of ever killing or injuring the person who knowingly obtained the controlled substance.”

The association said it sympathizes with the bill’s intentions, but allowing prosecutors to upgrade charges to murder for a drug deal overdose would “resurrect the failed public policy of the past and return to mass incarceration as a solution for societal problems. From our experience as public defenders we know that many of those who engage in the illegal drug trade are often low-level users of drugs themselves. To punish them for the unintended consequences of engaging in illegal narcotic sales and for outcomes that they never intended is contrary to sound public policy and humane treatment in our criminal justice system.”

Umberg said, “We can’t wait for another 25,000 Californians to die from this poisoning epidemic. We simply must use every tool to address this crisis — prevention, education, treatment and stopping repeat drug dealers who poison our kids.”

Law enforcement authorities have pointed out that the crisis is fueled by drug traffickers who have untrained people lacing other drugs with fentanyl, leading to overdoses when too much is included. Many victims have thought they were buying another drug, not knowing it was laced with fentanyl and overdosing.