Lawmakers, parents run out of patience with leaders on stalled punishment for fentanyl dealers

By Ashley Zavala

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    SACRAMENTO, California (KCRA) — As California’s Democratic Party-led Legislature continues to be divided on establishing more punishment for illegal fentanyl dealers, a group of Republican lawmakers and a group of parents who have lost loved ones to fentanyl are planning on launching separate efforts Tuesday to address the issue.

At the center of each effort is a proposal that would require courts to notify convicted fentanyl dealers that if they deal again and someone dies, they could face murder charges. Supporters of the measure have noted the advisement is similar to the notice drunk drivers receive once convicted under California law.

The proposed law, also known as Alexandra’s Law, is named after Alexandra Capelouto, a 20-year-old woman from Temecula who died of fentanyl poisoning in 2019. The proposed law was filed by a Republican in the Assembly and a Democrat in the Senate. The Republican’s version was blocked by the Assembly Public Safety Committee in one of its first hearings of the year. The Democrats’ version was blocked twice by the Senate Public Safety Committee.

In the bill’s last hearing, two Democratic lawmakers said they couldn’t support the version written in the Senate, with concerns it wouldn’t stop fentanyl-related deaths and didn’t exactly mirror the state’s advisement for those convicted of driving under the influence. In the Assembly, some lawmakers in the public safety committee said the Republican’s measure was too broad. The leader of the committee, Democratic Assemblyman Reggie Jones-Sawyer, said he had concerns about filling up prisons and was interested in a public-health related approach.

The last-minute legislative effort

On Tuesday, Republican lawmakers in the Assembly plan to force Democrats to flex legislative rules to force lawmakers to vote on ACA 12, a proposed ballot initiative to allow voters to ultimately decide whether Alexandra’s Law should go into effect.

Assemblymember Diane Dixon, R-Newport Beach, filed the proposal in June but said it had been “held hostage” since. Despite conversations with Democratic leadership, she said they have refused to give the proposal a hearing with two weeks left in the legislative session.

“The people of California have a right to be free from the dangers of poisoning from illicit and counterfeit substances and the message is extended far and wide,” Dixon said.

KCRA 3 has reached out to California Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas’ office, but we have not heard back as of Monday night.

On the state Senate side, after Alexandra’s Law was blocked in the Senate Public Safety Committee, Senate Pro Tempore Toni Atkins said in May the Senate would establish a fentanyl working group. With two weeks left in the legislative session, she has not provided an update on where the effort stands.

State Sen. Brian Jones, R-Santee, sent Atkins a letter last week with a series of questions.

“I put off holding her feet to the fire on this as long as I could, and we’re running out of time,” Jones said. “So, that was the purpose of the letter: Who is in the fentanyl working group? When are they meeting? Can we have a bipartisan solution here, which is what I think would work best?”

The parent-led effort

A group of parents and family members who have lost loved ones to fentanyl are set to file a proposed ballot initiative on Tuesday with the California Attorney General’s Office to crack down on fentanyl dealers. Details of their proposal were not immediately available, but Alexandra’s law is included.

The group includes Matt Capelouto, Alexandra’s father, as well as Chris Didier, who lost his son Zach to fentanyl poisoning in 2020.

Both Capelouto and Didier have been key witnesses to testify in support of Alexandra’s Law. Capelouto stormed out of the hearing in the Senate earlier this spring as lawmakers discussed rejecting the bill.

The group is also scheduled to be joined by the young daughter of late rapper, DMX. Sonoma Hillman Jr lost her father earlier this year after a mixture of drugs were found in his system following a heart attack, including cocaine and fentanyl. She now serves as a fentanyl awareness advocate.

The daughter of the late rapper DMX was also included in the list of speakers released Monday afternoon.

Parents and communities across California have watched all year as proposals to crack down on dealers have stalled at the state capitol. Some Democrats have argued that increasing punishment would return California to the failed war on drugs, which inflated prison populations and devastated Black and brown communities. Others have argued the drug is unlike any other, with the state’s latest statistics showing an average of 110 Californians die of fentanyl every week.

Some local law enforcement groups have taken matters into their own hands. San Diego’s sheriff recently told lawmakers the department now investigates every fentanyl-related death as a homicide, while Placer County’s district attorney secured the state’s first-ever murder conviction for a fentanyl-related death.

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