A bipartisan group of California senators announced Monday a series of bills to address the growing fentanyl crisis and the unchecked outbreak of organized retail theft.
Sen. Mike McGuire (D-Healdsburg), who was sworn in as president pro tempore last month, read the sobering statistics to reporters as he introduced proposals he said would solve the problem through a more rehabilitative approach.
“More than 12,000 people die each year in California from drug overdoses. More than half of those deaths are fentanyl-related,” McGuire said. “Since 2017, overdose deaths have increased by 200% in Black and Latinx communities. Overdose deaths among Native Americans have increased by 150% during the same period. Hoopa Valley tribes are using fentanyl eight times more than the state average. facing mortality rates due to
The Senate's action comes after legislative leaders this month laid out a plan to remedy the problem, making the drug and theft crisis a priority this Congress and the 2024 California election. It suggests that it will happen.
A series of 14 bills announced by McGuire and other Democratic and Republican Senate leaders takes a sweeping approach. If passed and signed by the governor, this bill would increase access to treatment, strengthen addiction services for people in the criminal justice system, and increase access to treatment and strengthen addiction services for those in the criminal justice system, including ”) will be punished.
Among the bills are SB1144Written by Sen. Nancy Skinner (D-Berkeley), it would strengthen regulations to prevent stolen goods from being sold online.
Tignish Hollins, executive director of the nonprofit Californians for Safety and Justice, called the package “a thoughtful approach to a sensitive issue.”
Hollins said the policy is necessary “in an environment where special interests are gaslighting Californians with destructive and ineffective rollbacks.”
She was referring to law enforcement agencies that have been campaigning for changes to Proposition 47, a controversial ballot measure that would reduce certain retail theft and drug offense charges to misdemeanors.
Contra Costa Township Atty. Diana Becton called for a strategic approach that departs from a one-size-fits-all approach to public safety.
“I have seen firsthand that we need to rethink our approach to criminal justice,” she said. “Reexamining and condemning restorative justice programs and non-violent offender rehabilitation programs through the lens of racial and socio-economic disparities.”
