O.C. lawmakers champion bills raising penalties for fentanyl dealers and accountability from online platforms

Orange County lawmakers and people close to victims of an ongoing opioid epidemic rallied Friday behind two bills in the California state Assembly that would increase jail time for people convicted of selling fentanyl and require proprietors of social media platforms to retain records that might enable authorities to track dealers down.

Assembly Bill 955 would raise the penalty for the possession of fentanyl for sale from between two to four years in jail to a three- to nine-year sentence. AB 1027 would require social media companies that wind up facilitating untraceable marketplaces for illicit drugs to keep records of communications on their platforms that would be accessible to law enforcement investigating drug dealers.

“The reality is that dealers don’t need to lurk in dark street corners or remote parking lots. Now they are connecting with our kids on platforms like Snapchat, Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp,” Assemblywoman Cottie Petrie-Norris said during a news conference Friday.

Both proposed bills were introduced by Petrie-Norris and brought up for discussion by assembly committees Thursday. An altered version of AB1027 was pushed forward to another round of debate. If it proceeds past that point, it may be brought to the Assembly floor for a vote.

AB 955 was held back for further review. Petrie-Norris said she was “disappointed by the outcome of those hearings.”

She was joined Friday by friends of young people who died as a result of fentanyl poisoning and Orange County Dist. Atty. Todd Spitzer, Supervisor Katrina Foley and representatives of Irvine and Costa Mesa in urging state officials to continue progress in combating a persistent crisis.

“In 2021 in Costa Mesa we had 204 fentanyl poisonings,” Costa Mesa Police Chief Ron Lawrence said. “That’s an average of 17 a month in my little city. In 2022 we had 171.”

“Between 2018 and 2023 our Costa Mesa police seized 283 pounds of fentanyl and 522,000 fentanyl-laced pills,” he added.

From right to left, Costa Mesa Mayor John Stephens, Irvine Police Chief Michael Kent, Costa Mesa Police Chief Ron Lawrence and California Assemblywoman Cottie Petrie-Norris urge policy makers to take action against the fentanyl crisis during a news conference Friday in Irvine.

(Eric Licas)

Speakers at Friday’s news conference also championed the distribution of Narcan, a brand-name version of the opioid inhibitor naloxone. It is a nasal spray that immediately counters the effect of the drug and helps a person experiencing an overdose to start breathing again.

California State Parent Teacher Assn. President Carol Green shared the story of a colleague who had recently facilitated an information session on Narcan. That same night, she came home to strange noises coming from the bathroom downstairs.

“She went down to see her son, a 22-year-old, making gasping noises and didn’t know what was going on,” Green said. “She dug through her backpack and gave her son the Narcan, and he is alive today because of that.”

Holding back tears, Green added, “This is not somebody else’s kid. This is your child, this is my child.”

“This is not about an overdose,” Costa Mesa Mayor John Stephens said. “This is poisoning by people who are dealing these drugs on social media and murdering our children.”