In that same five-hour period, legislators on Wednesday heard the sad account of a grieving mother, analyses from local officials and researchers and even one admission of teenage cannabis usage from an Assemblymember.
The marathon mega meeting on California鈥檚 fentanyl crisis 鈥� the first for a new select Assembly committee 鈥� addressed : addiction, public health, education and law enforcement response. But Republicans, who have , cast doubt that the hearing put enough emphasis on accountability and public safety. Ahead of the hearing, Assembly Republicans unveiled an online .
- Assemblymember , a Modesto Republican, in a statement: 鈥淚f I could describe today鈥檚 hearing in one word it would be: 鈥榝rustrating.鈥� Today鈥檚 special hearing was a lot of talk and once again short on any real action.鈥�
Laura Didier, an outreach coordinator at a nonprofit, recounted the story of her son who died from fentanyl poisoning.
- Didier: 鈥淭here are no words to express the excruciating pain of losing someone so young, so precious, with such promise, to a danger you didn鈥檛 even know existed鈥�. Fentanyl has irreversibly changed the drug landscape into this nightmare that we are witnessing today.鈥�
Legislators questioned experts, local officials and each other about the best way to . Republicans argued that prevention and harm reduction would only go so far against dealers and traffickers.
- Assemblymember , a Granite Bay Republican: 鈥�(They) aren鈥檛 going to benefit from some of these addiction treatments that we have. They鈥檙e not going to benefit from education either. They don鈥檛 care. They鈥檙e criminals and they should be punished for it.鈥�
In response, Keith Humphreys, a professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Stanford School of Medicine, said that locking up street-corner drug dealers will only fill up prisons and not do anything 鈥渢o alter the course of drug markets.鈥�
- Humphreys: 鈥淵ou can find a new street-corner drug dealer faster than you can fill a job flipping burgers. And we did that in the 鈥�80s and 鈥�90s and it had no positive effect and it destroyed a lot of communities who were disproportionately punished.鈥�
And when Brendon Woods, the chief public defender in Alameda County, was asked directly if increasing punishments would deter fentanyl dealers, he said no.
- Woods: 鈥淲e cannot incarcerate our way out of a public health crisis鈥�. Not one of the people who we represent are thinking, 鈥楪osh, I鈥檓 not going to sell X because I鈥檓 going to be sentenced to prison for 20 years.鈥欌��
From increased drug use and distribution to the lack of adequate treatment, frustrations ran high as legislators pointed out the state鈥檚 various failings in the fentanyl crisis, which .
- Assemblymember , a Bakersfield Democrat: 鈥淎re we going to keep having these committee meetings every single six months when a new drug emerges?鈥�. We鈥檝e submerged our culture with drugs. But where is the access to treatment for our people?鈥�
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