CA Senate Rejects Bill Cracking Down on Fentanyl Dealers

Yesterday Senator Melissa Melendez presented Senate Bill 350 to the California Senate Public Safety Committee in hopes it would be met with support. However, that was not the case for the majority of democrats on the committee. As defined in the article written yesterday by Katy Grimes of the California Globe, “[This bill] would require a court to issue an advisory to individuals convicted of selling or distributing controlled substances, to serve as a warning that if their action result in another person’s death, they could be charged with murder.” The goal of this bill in California is to address the high rise in Fentanyl-related deaths by holding the drug dealers accountable to the same degree the People v. Watson holds a drunk driver responsible under ‘implied malice’ (see last week’s blog post for more detail). 

Senator Melendez came prepared to the committee meeting with data about the rise in Fentanyl-related deaths in California, letters and testimonies from the family members who have lost a loved one to the deadly drug, and justification for why this bill must be passed to address these deaths. Among the members to reject the bill was Senator Sydney Kamlager (D-Los Angeles) who stated, “Most overdoses are accidental, so it does not equate manslaughter or murder.” The issue with this attitude toward Fentanyl overdoses is many of the drug dealers who sell this drug are aware that death, at minimum overdose, is a likely outcome. The purpose of this legislation is to have the ‘implied malice’ option for prosecutors to use in these such cases. 

There have been multiple Fentanyl-related deaths that are tied to the same drug dealer, and in some cases these dealers are so aware of the fatal consequences associated with this drug that they keep Narcan on hand to ensure their own survival. In an article by Joe Nelson of the Press Enterprise he explained the details in one such case, “In Costanza’s case, sheriff’s investigators learned that, prior to Vazquez’s death, there were seven overdoses at Costanza’s home over a one-year period, including a woman who fatally overdosed in July 2020.” This is not an isolated case, there are many more that are similar. Senate Bill 350 is a movement toward ensuring individuals like Costanza are held responsible for the deaths they cause. Grimes, in her article, quoted the Riverside County District Attorney’s Office, “SB 350…will enhance murder prosecutions against those who knowingly distribute fentanyl to other which result in death, despite full knowledge that fentanyl is extremely dangerous to human life”.  

SB 350 is the most viable option available at this time to combat and slow the number of Fentanyl-related deaths in California and hold individual responsible for the lives they cut short. According to Grimes, “Melendez told the Globe she is not giving up on SB 350. She had a book made of photos and stories of California kids who died from Fentanyl poisoning. And during the hearing she held up a stack of letters from parents, telling the stories of their children’s deaths due to the drug.”