Lawmakers to decide the fate of six fentanyl bills this Thursday

The Assembly Public Safety Committee will hold a special hearing on six fentanyl-related bills on Thursday, April 27, after sustained pressure from the League of California Cities and others. Cal Cities strongly supports four of those bills in direct response to the growing fentanyl crisis in communities throughout the state.

Fentanyl overdoses kill approximately 6,000 people in this state every year according to the California Department of Public Health.

Asm. Reggie Jones-Sawyer announced the hearing after a high-profile gambit by Republican lawmakers to force a vote on fentanyl-related measures by the entire Assembly. Legislators on both sides of the aisle have voiced growing frustrations with Jones-Sawyer’s unilateral decision in March to take no action on fentanyl-related measures, which would have effectively killed the bills for the year.

Yesterday, San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria was in Sacramento, making the case for another fentanyl-related measure: SB 44 (Umberg). He noted that illicit fentanyl is “ravaging” California, and that the synthetic opioid is now the number one killer of Californians between the ages of 18 and 45. Despite this compelling testimony, the Cal Cities-supported bill failed to pass out of the Senate Public Safety Committee.

Tomorrow’s special hearing is an important legislative step towards stopping the tide of illicit substance-related deaths and bringing relief to the many communities mourning tragic, preventable deaths.

Cal Cities has supported more than a dozen fentanyl-related bills this session, primarily aimed at allocating additional funding and resources to address the crisis through appropriate prevention and intervention efforts, educational campaigns, and increased access to life-saving overdose treatment aids, such as naloxone.