Should fentanyl dealers face murder charges for overdosed users? Fresno DA says yes
Fresno County District Attorney Lisa Smittcamp joined prosecutors from around the state on Wednesday to issue a warning about the dangers of fentanyl and call for stronger punishments for dealers.
Smittcamp and the district attorneys from Placer, Sacramento, and Yolo counties lamented the failure of Senate Bill 350, which would have allowed prosecutors to pursue manslaughter or murder charges for drug dealers whose actions led to an overdose death. The bill failed Tuesday to pass the state senate’s public safety committee.
Opponents argued the bill would perpetuate mass incarceration instead of tackling the root causes of addiction.
“The denial of SB 350 is mind-boggling to me because it should not be a partisan thing,” Smittcamp said in a joint news conference via Zoom. “This isn’t a rich and poor thing. This isn’t a black and white thing. This isn’t a Republican or Democrat — this is not a political issue.
“This is a public safety issue. This is a health and welfare issue, and this is an issue that will save our children,” Smittcamp said. “So we need to insist that the people that we elect to go to Sacramento really change their minds on this type of legislation, and we get it passed.”
Fentanyl in Fresno
Smittcamp painted a bleak picture of the rising dangers of the deadly and often disguised opioid.
In 2020, law enforcement officials seized about 5,000 fentanyl pills. In 2021, that number jumped to 25,000, she said.
Fentanyl-related deaths also are rising at “an alarming rate” since 2018 in Fresno County, she said.
In 2018, two Fresno County residents died from fentanyl overdoses. That number spiked to 15 in 2019, 35 in 2020, and will likely surpass 40 in 2021, Smittcamp said.
Fentanyl is particularly dangerous, the prosecutors said, because it’s often disguised as Percocet or other prescription drugs, and even tiny amounts can be deadly.
“These are not the drugs of the ‘80s and the ‘90s and the 2000s where it took a significant time period, or it took numerous uses to cause destructive and fatal consequences for the user,” Smittcamp said. “This is this is a situation where it is Russian roulette, and these users can be can be killed by one simple pill.”
Young people are becoming more susceptible to fentanyl overdoses since many dealers use social media applications such as Snapchat to complete transactions and even deliver the drugs to a person’s home, the district attorneys warned.
Fresno law enforcement agencies partner with several federal agencies for a task force to combat fentanyl overdoses and distribution. The task force is called the Fentanyl Overdose Response Team, or FORT.
Fresno County also began an aggressive education and awareness campaign, Smittcamp said. County staff are also speaking to “anyone who will listen” about the dangers of fentanyl. Part of the campaign included several billboards warning of the dangers of fentanyl.
“We have had some of our law enforcement officials on the streets of Fresno hearing from dealers and members of dealers’ families that they themselves are just learning about the dangers of fentanyl and the dangers of selling these pills,” Smittcamp said.
The district attorney’s office also asked local emergency rooms to include fentanyl testing in regular toxicology tests when an overdose is suspected. That helps with both the medical care of the patient and the law enforcement’s investigation to locate the source of distribution, Smittcamp said.
Resources
If you encounter someone that is suspected of overdose, you should immediately call 911.
If someone you know needs help with opioid or other substance use disorder, contact 1-800-654-3937 to access behavioral health services.
There are several providers in Fresno County that distribute Naloxone, an FDA-approved drug that reverses the effect of an opioid overdose. Naloxone isn’t always effective or may only work for a short time because street fentanyl is typically very potent.
Fresno County residents can get Naloxone at the following locations:
- The emergency department at Community Regional Medical Center offers Naloxone for free at 2823 Fresno St.
- The Fresno/San Joaquin Valley Needle Exchange offers Naloxone by prescription only. Call 559-412-6226.
- Visit Fresno County Department of Public Health at 1221 Fulton St.
- Contact your physician or pharmacy.