SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The State of California will impose harsher punishments for people convicted of trafficking large amounts of fentanyl.
Assembly Bill 701 - Fentanyl sentencing
AB 701 classifies fentanyl on the same list of controlled substances that include heroin, cocaine and other drugs, which carry stiffer penalties and sentencing enhancements for dealers.
What's new
When the law goes into effect on Jan. 1, 2024, an individual convicted of dealing a kilo or more of fentanyl will face much stricter sentencing and harsher penalties.
The law, authored by Assemblymember Carlos Villapudua, aims at prosecuting drug traffickers and high-scale dealers to the same degree as heroin and cocaine drug dealers.
“We could not continue with a lenient approach while the poison kill 6,000 Californians annually. We could not continue wishing this problem away – we had to take action. By signing AB 701 into law, we responded with conviction to the cries of families across this state who have lost loved ones to this epidemic,” said Villapudua following the signing of AB 701.
Prosecutors and law enforcement uses sentencing enhancements as a tool to target drug traffickers.
“Extending this enhancement law to fentanyl traffickers was simply common sense. Our law enforcement can only protect and serve us as well as we equip them to,” Villapudua said.
The law now gives prosecutors the ability to impose sentencing enhancements on high-level traffickers without going after drug users and low-level dealers.
In 2021, an estimated 6,000 people died from fentanyl overdoses, according to the California Department of Public Health.
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