{"id":1920903,"date":"2023-04-28T22:13:56","date_gmt":"2023-04-29T02:13:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/harm-reduction-california-democrats-kill-legislation-to-crack-down-on-fentanyl-dealers\/"},"modified":"2023-04-28T22:16:44","modified_gmt":"2023-04-29T02:16:44","slug":"harm-reduction-california-democrats-kill-legislation-to-crack-down-on-fentanyl-dealers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/harm-reduction-california-democrats-kill-legislation-to-crack-down-on-fentanyl-dealers\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;Harm Reduction&#8217;: California Democrats Kill Legislation to Crack Down on Fentanyl Dealers"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">24<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fharm-reduction-california-democrats-kill-legislation-to-crack-down-on-fentanyl-dealers%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1920903&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><h2>California Lawmakers Revive and Kill Fentanyl Crackdown Bills<\/h2>\n<div>\n<figure><figcaption>\n\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/media.gettyimages.com\/photos\/a-seattle-man-smokes-fentanyl-picture-id1221877585?s=2048x2048\" alt=\"A Seattle man smokes fentanyl\"><br \/>\n\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>Progressive California lawmakers are facing political pressure to take action against fentanyl dealers as overdose deaths continue to accelerate in the state. However, despite the urgency of the situation, the State Assembly <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/california-may-soften-gun-crime-laws-citing-impact-on-people-of-color\/\" title=\"California May Soften Gun Crime Laws, Citing Impact On People Of Color\">public safety committee<\/a> has blocked two bills that would have strengthened punishments for dealers who kill or seriously injure someone with fentanyl or are caught with enough of the synthetic drug to kill thousands of people. The panel also loosened a proposed ban on dealers carrying guns before punting the bill along with a measure to increase penalties for fentanyl trafficking on social media.<\/p>\n<h3>Extremist Legislators Guarantee More Deaths<\/h3>\n<p>Assembly Republican leader James Gallagher expressed his disappointment in a statement after the hearing, saying, &#8220;Despite all the talk, the extremist legislators who opposed these bills guaranteed that innocent Californians will continue to die, victims of drug dealers profiting off poisoning our communities. These bills were not criminalizing addiction, returning to the \u2018war on drugs,\u2019 or any other lie told by the pro-fentanyl lobbyists. They were reasonable, bipartisan proposals to save lives.&#8221;<\/p>\n<h3>Democrats Remain Committed to Progressive Push<\/h3>\n<p>California Democrats, who dominate the state legislature and government, signaled once again on Thursday that they remain committed to a years-long progressive push to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/california-dems-go-easy-on-fentanyl-dealers-as-overdose-deaths-spike\/\" title=\"California Dems Go Easy on Fentanyl Dealers as Overdose Deaths Spike\">roll back criminal penalties<\/a> for drug-related crimes. This is despite public pressure to do something about the fentanyl epidemic, which has killed more people in California than in any other state.<\/p>\n<h3>Incremental Measures Against Fentanyl Dealers<\/h3>\n<p>The Assembly&#8217;s public safety committee did advance three relatively incremental measures against fentanyl dealers: one to boost their sentences to match those of cocaine and heroin sellers; another to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/harm-reduction-california-democrats-kill-legislation-to-crack-down-on-fentanyl-dealers\/\" title=\"'Harm Reduction': California Democrats Kill Legislation to Crack Down on Fentanyl Dealers\">push law enforcement cooperation<\/a> against them; and a third to launch a task force to study fentanyl trafficking. However, public safety committee chair Reggie Jones-Sawyer promised a follow-up hearing in May to look at a &#8220;holistic&#8221; strategy that includes more money for treatment, education, and overdose medication.<\/p>\n<h3>Doing Something is Not Enough<\/h3>\n<p>Assemblyman Jim Patterson, the only Republican to present a bill to the committee, criticized Democrats\u2019 harm reduction approach as inadequate. &#8220;The reality is that we have dealers in Fresno with 2,000 pills, that the worst you can do is a misdemeanor,&#8221; he told the panel. &#8220;They\u2019re out in two days. If we really cared about the addicts, wouldn\u2019t we also care that their dealers are out on the street, churning more and more?&#8221;<\/p>\n<h3>Conclusion<\/h3>\n<p>While California lawmakers are taking some action against fentanyl dealers, it remains to be seen whether their efforts will be enough to curb the epidemic. With overdose deaths continuing to rise, it is clear that more needs to be done to protect Californians from the deadly effects of this synthetic drug.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A Seattle man smokes fentanyl \/ Getty Images Progressive California lawmakers bent to political pressure and revived a handful of bills this week to crack down on fentanyl dealers\u2014only to turn around and kill or weaken most of the measures. With overdose deaths accelerating in California, the State Assembly public safety committee on Thursday blocked<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1604,"featured_media":1920904,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[544],"tags":[4045,7271,10376,3685,10250,8890,3759,4762,14230],"class_list":["post-1920903","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-free-beacon","tag-california","tag-crack","tag-dealers","tag-democrats","tag-fentanyl","tag-harm","tag-kill","tag-legislation","tag-reduction"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1920903","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1604"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1920903"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1920903\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1920904"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1920903"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1920903"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1920903"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}