On Friday, Assemblymember Brian Maienschein and Mayor Todd Gloria introduced a bill that would make stricter consequences for fentanyl dealers. If passed into law, this piece of legislation could add three to five years to their sentencing.
“Losing my son has been a daily struggle and I know that I can’t bring him back,” Laura Brinker-White said.
Her son, 17-year-old, Connor, is among the 70,000 Americans who died of Fentanyl in 2021.
“He was a bright student with a 4.2 GPA, a member of the football team, and an incredibly hard worker,” Brinker-White said.
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Two years ago, he got access to fentanyl-laced pills from a drug dealer who he thought was a friend trying to help him with his anxiety.
“He took that pill the morning of May 5, prior to going to school, which killed him within minutes,” she said.
Laura still remembers racing home after receiving the call.
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“My son was laying in the hallway next to his room with a plastic drape, a blanket draped over him and the police would not let me say goodbye because of the potential exposure to fentanyl,” she said.
Over the past five years, the number of deaths from accidental overdose has grown exponentially. In San Diego, those numbers skyrocketed from fewer than 50 in 2017 to more than 800 in 2021, according to Mayor Todd Gloria.
“There are thousands and thousands of more stories like that every single year, across our nation and hundreds right here in San Diego,” Gloria said.
Friday, Assemblymember Maienschein and Mayor Todd Gloria introduced AB 367, which would ensure drug dealers’ sentencing is treated as a more serious crime. Right now, dealing with fentanyl is probation eligible.
That means a person can get between three to five years, depending on the charge that’s brought against them. In Conner’s case, the drug dealer should have received a one-year sentence, but since he met the probation requirements, the dealer was released within six months.
“I didn’t have my son on thanksgiving, but because he was on good behavior, they allowed him to be released and that’s the common story,” he said.
This proposed piece of legislation would make it so that three to five more years would be added to the dealer’s sentencing if they cause bodily harm or injury.
“Hopefully sharing his story emphasizes how serious this is,” Laura said.
The bill will go to the Public Safety Committee in Sacramento. Then, to the floor of the assembly. After that, it has to go through the Senate. If passed, it will go to the governor’s desk for signing.
With a growing fentanyl crisis in San Diego County, NBC 7 wanted to dig deeper to understand how and why this emergency has unfolded. Take a look at Poison Pill.
