A measure introduced by State Senator Scott Wilk, R-Santa Clarita, that would allow prosecutors to pursue murder charges against drug dealers who distribute narcotics that ultimately lead to a fatal overdose has failed to pass the Senate Public Safety Committee.

Introduced earlier in February by State Senators Wilk and Melissa Melendez, R-Riverside, Senate Bill 350 (SB 350) would add to the state’s Health and Safety Code, and would allow prosecutors to pursue murder charges against convicted drug dealers if a person they distributed narcotics to dies as a result of an overdose.

“Far too many families can speak to the tragedy caused by the sale of poisonous fentanyl-laced drugs by drug dealers. Today, Senate Democrats looked these heartbroken parents in the eye and said drug dealers in California have more rights than their loved ones who died from fentanyl poisoning,” said Wilk.

Despite emotional testimonies from parents who endured pain and grief after losing a child to fentanyl poisoning, the measure was rejected Tuesday, according to Wilk’s office.

“Why the drug dealer who willfully sells poison-laced drugs should be treated any differently than a drunk driver who gets behind the wheel of a car makes no sense,” Wilk said. “In this instance, the majority party chose to protect criminals over the rights of the victims or their families.” 

SB 350 needed three out of five votes to pass out of the Senate Public Safety Committee, however only received one from bill co-author Senator Rosilicie Ochoa Bogh, R – San Bernardino.

SB 350 has been granted reconsideration, providing another opportunity for the bill to be granted passage at a later date, according to the California Legislative Information website. 

See Related: ‘Drug-Induced Homicide’ Bill Co-Authored By Wilk Aims To Hold Drug Dealers Accountable

Currently, it is a crime in the state of California to possess controlled substances, such as fentanyl, peyote and various other opiates, for “sale or purchase for purpose of sale, transport, sell, furnish, administer, give away, manufacture, compound, convert, produce, derive, process, or prepare various controlled substances.”

SB 350 would require any person who is convicted of, or pleads either guilty or no contest to one or more of the above charges to receive a written advisory of the “danger of manufacturing and distribution of controlled substances.”

This advisory could then be used as proof of implied malice by prosecutors to charge these drug dealers should their actions lead to a person’s death in a following conviction. 

Fentanyl is an opioid that is up to “100 times more powerful than morphine,” and is toxic at a very low dosage, causing fatal overdoses at the smallest amounts. 

“It’s very easily accessible, it’s cheaper than heroin,” Johnathon Guerino, a counselor at Insight Treatment Center, told KHTS back in August. “It has the same effect as heroin. It’s pretty much laced in everything that’s used today. It really hits the younger population.”

Nationally, fatal overdoses increased by an estimated 18% in 2020 compared to 2019. In the greater Los Angeles area alone, fentanyl was linked to just under half of all fatal overdoses.

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