California families affected by fentanyl overdose deaths joined lawmakers in front of the state Capitol in Sacramento on April 18 to protest the Assembly Public Safety Committee’s recent decision to not hear bipartisan fentanyl bills proposed by legislators.
Attendees were invited to place flowers in baskets commemorating fentanyl victims, and the group said it intends to present the memorial to the committee.
“We have been told by this committee that we need to wait. The families need to wait,” Assemblyman Jim Patterson (R-Fresno)—author of one of the bills vetoed by the committee—told The Epoch Times in a statement April 18. “With all due respect, we don’t have time left to waste, and waiting shouldn’t be an option.”
Chair of the committee, Assemblyman Reginald Jones-Sawyer (D-Los Angeles), vetoed the bills in March, preventing them from being presented to the legislature.
“Moving forward, I intend to work on this issue by bringing those who understand the causation, prevention, and treatment components together with policy makers to ensure we have a tactical solution in hand,” Jones-Sawyer told The Epoch Times in an emailed statement after announcing the vetoes.
During the protest, politicians, district attorneys, and advocates for changes in fentanyl regulations were flanked by visual aids demonstrating the immensity of the problem.
A dump truck demonstrating the volume of 28,000 pounds of fentanyl recovered by authorities in California last year served as the backdrop for the event.
The amount seized in 2022 is enough to potentially kill more than 6 billion people, according to the Department of Justice’s recent calculation that a pound of fentanyl could take more than 200,000 lives.
“California is in the midst of a fentanyl crisis that is creating havoc in communities across the state,” Assemblyman James Gallagher (R-Yuba City) said at the event. “We need to ensure that our communities, and our children are safe. We must come together and save our children.”
Nearly 6,000 people died from fentanyl in California in 2021, according to the most recent data from the California Department of Public Health, a 50 percent increase from 2020.
Laura Didier, mother of a 17-year-old fentanyl overdose victim, spoke about the need for support from state representatives.
“We are out there in the community, we are doing hard, heartbreaking work, and we need our elected officials to stand with us,” she said during the protest.
As each voice approached the microphone, the frustration was palpable, and each story offered a glimpse into the sorrow felt by families and friends affected by the drug.
“All of us standing here today are sick and tired of losing loved ones to fentanyl,” Natalie Page, who lost her brother to a counterfeit pill, told the crowd. “Fentanyl has destroyed our families, changed our lives, and taken our loved ones away from us.”
Access to illicit narcotics has increased with the advent of social media, and more than 98 percent of all pills sold on such platforms are fake, according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.
Many overdose victims believe they are purchasing legitimate, pharmaceutical medications, and unintentional overdose cases are not uncommon, according to justice department officials.
Perla Mendoza’s son Elijah was one such case. He purchased what he believed to be a Percocet pill via Snapchat in September 2020, but subsequently died of fentanyl poisoning.
Mendoza told the crowd that she confronted her son’s murderer, yet he continued selling drugs on social media platforms.
“For two and a half years I witnessed this man selling his tainted products up and down Orange County and Los Angeles County,” she said.
The drug led to the death of more than 67,000 across the nation in 2021, according to the National Safety Council, a nonprofit safety advocate based in Illinois.
“Drug dealers and traffickers are bombing our communities with this dangerous chemical,” Angela Webb, founder and CEO of Arrive Alive California—a non-profit focused on saving lives through education and prevention—said at the gathering.
“This is not a red issue, it’s not a blue issue, it’s a red, white, and blue issue,” she said. “It’s time to hold these death dealers accountable.”
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