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2024 Brings Stiffer Penalties for Fentanyl Dealers in California as Overdose Crisis Rages
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Leroy N. Soetoro
Dec 31, 2023, 9:58:01 PM12/31/23
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https://sfstandard.com/2023/12/31/california-fentanyl-dealers-penalties-
new-law-2024/
People convicted of distributing fentanyl in California will face stiffer
criminal penalties in 2024 under a new law shaped by rising overdose
deaths.
The law increases the penalty for selling or distributing more than one
kilogram (2.2 pounds) of fentanyl by an automatic addition of three years
to the original sentence.
The penalties continue to increase with weight, topping out at an
additional 25 years for trafficking in weights exceeding 80 kilograms.
Addiction experts warn the law could have deadly consequences if the
“threat of police involvement and harsh prison sentences” makes someone
reluctant to help an overdose victim by calling emergency responders.
The bill passed the Senate unanimously in September. Gov. Gavin Newsom
signed it in October, along with several treatment-focused fentanyl bills.
Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid that can be fatal in small doses when taken
on its own. Heroin and cocaine dealers have also sometimes laced products
with fentanyl —which is cheaper than either drug—leading to accidental
overdoses by people who unwittingly ingest it. Now, fentanyl is the most
common drug causing fatal overdoses in California.
Tehama County District Attorney Matt Rogers told Redding television
station KRCR-TV that the bill “will give us a better deterrent factor for
those who are thinking about trafficking and fentanyl.”
??“My hope is that it would deter people from selling fentanyl, that it
would keep it out of our community—out of every community, but especially
ours,” Rogers said. “It would keep it off the highways and off the
streets, and we would see a reduction in fentanyl cases, as well as
fentanyl overdose deaths.”
The bill, authored by Assemblymember Carlos Villapudua, a Stockton
Democrat, moved through the Legislature even though other efforts to
increase criminal penalties for fentanyl failed.
“If there are not consequences, there will be repeat supply available,”
Assemblymember Jim Patterson, a Fresno Republican and author of one of the
rejected bills, said after an April hearing on fentanyl bills in the
Legislature.
Law enforcement groups, including the California Association of Highway
Patrolmen, generally supported the new law. They said increased penalties
will deter traffickers.
Those who opposed the bill, including the California Public Defenders
Association, said increasing penalties does little to deter people from
using or selling drugs, including fentanyl.
“Relying on ever-increasing penalties for drug offenses has been
extensively researched, and we can therefore make some educated
predictions about the outcome of bills like AB 701,” the public defenders
association wrote in opposition to the bill.
“It would not reduce the distribution of fentanyl nor would it prevent
overdoses; it would reduce neither the supply of drugs or the demand for
them; and worse, it could actually discourage effective methods of dealing
with the opioid crisis.”
The public defenders association went on to say that the distinction
between users and low-level dealers is too blurred to make a
difference—they argue that most small dealers are also users, and sell
drugs to support their addiction.
The bill goes into effect Jan. 1.
--
We live in a time where intelligent people are being silenced so that
stupid people won't be offended.
Durham Report: The FBI has an integrity problem. It has none.
No collusion - Special Counsel Robert Swan Mueller III, March 2019.
Officially made Nancy Pelosi a two-time impeachment loser.
Thank you for cleaning up the disaster of the 2008-2017 Obama / Biden
fiasco, President Trump.
Under Barack Obama's leadership, the United States of America became the
The World According To Garp. Obama sold out heterosexuals for Hollywood
queer liberal democrat donors.
President Trump boosted the economy, reduced illegal invasions, appointed
dozens of judges and three SCOTUS justices.
new-law-2024/
People convicted of distributing fentanyl in California will face stiffer
criminal penalties in 2024 under a new law shaped by rising overdose
deaths.
The law increases the penalty for selling or distributing more than one
kilogram (2.2 pounds) of fentanyl by an automatic addition of three years
to the original sentence.
The penalties continue to increase with weight, topping out at an
additional 25 years for trafficking in weights exceeding 80 kilograms.
Addiction experts warn the law could have deadly consequences if the
“threat of police involvement and harsh prison sentences” makes someone
reluctant to help an overdose victim by calling emergency responders.
The bill passed the Senate unanimously in September. Gov. Gavin Newsom
signed it in October, along with several treatment-focused fentanyl bills.
Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid that can be fatal in small doses when taken
on its own. Heroin and cocaine dealers have also sometimes laced products
with fentanyl —which is cheaper than either drug—leading to accidental
overdoses by people who unwittingly ingest it. Now, fentanyl is the most
common drug causing fatal overdoses in California.
Tehama County District Attorney Matt Rogers told Redding television
station KRCR-TV that the bill “will give us a better deterrent factor for
those who are thinking about trafficking and fentanyl.”
??“My hope is that it would deter people from selling fentanyl, that it
would keep it out of our community—out of every community, but especially
ours,” Rogers said. “It would keep it off the highways and off the
streets, and we would see a reduction in fentanyl cases, as well as
fentanyl overdose deaths.”
The bill, authored by Assemblymember Carlos Villapudua, a Stockton
Democrat, moved through the Legislature even though other efforts to
increase criminal penalties for fentanyl failed.
“If there are not consequences, there will be repeat supply available,”
Assemblymember Jim Patterson, a Fresno Republican and author of one of the
rejected bills, said after an April hearing on fentanyl bills in the
Legislature.
Law enforcement groups, including the California Association of Highway
Patrolmen, generally supported the new law. They said increased penalties
will deter traffickers.
Those who opposed the bill, including the California Public Defenders
Association, said increasing penalties does little to deter people from
using or selling drugs, including fentanyl.
“Relying on ever-increasing penalties for drug offenses has been
extensively researched, and we can therefore make some educated
predictions about the outcome of bills like AB 701,” the public defenders
association wrote in opposition to the bill.
“It would not reduce the distribution of fentanyl nor would it prevent
overdoses; it would reduce neither the supply of drugs or the demand for
them; and worse, it could actually discourage effective methods of dealing
with the opioid crisis.”
The public defenders association went on to say that the distinction
between users and low-level dealers is too blurred to make a
difference—they argue that most small dealers are also users, and sell
drugs to support their addiction.
The bill goes into effect Jan. 1.
--
We live in a time where intelligent people are being silenced so that
stupid people won't be offended.
Durham Report: The FBI has an integrity problem. It has none.
No collusion - Special Counsel Robert Swan Mueller III, March 2019.
Officially made Nancy Pelosi a two-time impeachment loser.
Thank you for cleaning up the disaster of the 2008-2017 Obama / Biden
fiasco, President Trump.
Under Barack Obama's leadership, the United States of America became the
The World According To Garp. Obama sold out heterosexuals for Hollywood
queer liberal democrat donors.
President Trump boosted the economy, reduced illegal invasions, appointed
dozens of judges and three SCOTUS justices.
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