A bipartisan group of lawmakers in the California Senate announced a package of legislation Monday to address the growing fentanyl crisis and untamed outbreak of organized retail theft.
Sen. Mike McGuire (D-Healdsburg), who was sworn in as president pro tempore last month, rattled off sobering statistics to reporters as he laid out proposals that he said would remedy the problems through a more rehabilitative approach.
“There are more than 12,000 drug overdose deaths a year in California. More than half of those deaths are related to fentanyl,” McGuire said. “Black and Latinx communities have seen a 200% increase in overdose deaths since 2017. Native Americans had a 150% increase in overdose deaths in the same period. “The Hoopa Valley Tribe faces a fentanyl death rate eight times higher than the state average.”
The Senate action comes after Assembly leaders this month laid out their plans to remedy the problems, an indication that the drug and theft crises will be priorities in this legislative session and in California's 2024 elections.
The set of 14 bills announced by McGuire and other Senate Democratic and Republican leaders takes a broad approach. The legislation, if passed and signed by the governor, would increase access to treatment, improve addiction services for those in the criminal justice system and criminalize criminal trafficking of xylazine or “tranq,” a laced horse tranquilizer with fentanyl.
Among those bills is SB 1144, authored by Senator Nancy Skinner (D-Berkeley), which will tighten regulations to help prevent the online sale of stolen goods.
Tinisch Hollins, executive director of the nonprofit Californians for Safety and Justice, called the package a “thoughtful approach to nuanced challenges.”
Hollins said the package is necessary “in an environment where special interests are misleading Californians with destructive and ineffective rollbacks.”
He was referring to law enforcement agencies that have pushed for amendments to Proposition 47, a controversial ballot measure that reduced certain charges of retail theft and drug offenses to misdemeanors.
Contra Costa County District. Lawyer. Diana Becton called for a strategic approach that moves away from a one-size-fits-all approach to public safety.
“I have seen firsthand the need to reimagine our approach to criminal justice,” he said. “Reexamine and rechallenge it through a lens of racial and socioeconomic disparity, with an eye toward restorative justice programs and rehabilitation programs for nonviolent crimes.”
