Alexandra’s Law, a bill that would open up options for prosecutors to bring murder charges against fentanyl dealers who provide illegal substances in cases that lead to fatal overdose, failed on Tuesday.

Senate Bill 44 (SB 44), also known as Alexandra’s Law, was set for a hearing in the Senate Public Service Committee on Tuesday, where the bill failed to pass.

“It is absurd that this simple measure was killed in committee. We have laws on the books holding people who knowingly drive drunk accountable. The same standard should apply to fentanyl dealers who know that their actions might kill someone,” said Senator Scott Wilk, R-Santa Clarita, a co-author of the bipartisan bill.

Alexandra’s Law is named after 20-year-old college student Alexandra Capelouto, who died from fentanyl poisoning in 2019, and was introduced by Senators Tom Umberg and Rosilicie Ochoa Bogh in the 2023 session with 41 co-authors.

Fentanyl was the number one cause of death in 2022 for people ages 18-45 in the United States. The synthetic drug causes a fatality every 7 minutes, and is linked to 64 percent of total drug fatalities, according to Wilk’s office.

“All Alexandra’s Law is saying is that if you sell fentanyl and are already being arrested and continue to do so then you could be held liable for murder,” said Cary Quashen, CEO of Action Drug Rehab. “It’s disappointing. We have to get tougher on crime, we have to get tougher on dealers, or more people will die.”

SB 44 would have introduced the California Fentanyl Admonishment, or Alexandra’s Law, modeled after the state’s current DUI Advisory, a Watson Advisement.

The 1981 California Supreme Court Case, People vs. Watson, determined that DUI drivers can, under certain circumstances, be charged with second-degree murder via “implied malice” if they caused an accident that took a life.

The admonishment that would have been required by SB 44 aims to similarly establish implied malice in cases of drug-induced death resulting from fentanyl sold or furnished by a previously-convicted dealer or trafficker.

The suggested admonishment reads:

“You are hereby advised that all drugs and counterfeit pills are dangerous to human life and become even deadlier because they are often, sometimes unknowingly, mixed with substances such as fentanyl and analogs of fentanyl. People can and have died from these substances, even in very small doses. It is extremely dangerous and deadly to human life to sell, furnish, administer, or give away any drugs, in any form, including real or counterfeit pills. If you do so in the future, and a person dies as a result of that action, you may be charged with a homicide, up to and including the crime of murder, within the meaning of Penal Code Section 187.”

San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins and San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria testified at Tuesday’s hearing, sharing harrowing stories of fentanyl’s effect on their cities and urged the committee to pass the bill. Senator Wilk was also in the room to voice his strong support.

“Almost every community has been affected by the tragedy of fentanyl overdoses, yet this reasonable bill could not even make it out of its first legislative committee,” Wilk concluded. “We need every tool available if we want to stop more senseless deaths.”

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