Editor’s note: Sacramento Snapshot is a weekly series during the legislative session detailing what Orange County’s representatives in the Assembly and Senate are working on — from committee work to bill passages and more.

It’s been no easy task to get any fentanyl-related legislation through key committees in the legislature this year, but there’s a new proposal up for debate — and it’s got a hefty price tag.

Dubbed the “Fighting Fentanyl Bond,” a $5.2 billion bond measure is meant to fund treatment, preventative and educational programs. Assemblymember Reggie Jones-Sawyer, a Los Angeles Democrat who chairs the Public Safety Committee, says the idea is to have a “comprehensive approach to the fentanyl crisis.”

“Avoiding the greater aspects of this problem, including the demand side and lack of treatment and education, has exacerbated the matter,” Jones-Sawyer said.

The bond, co-authored by Assemblymember Juan Alanis, R-Modesto, would allocate $2 billion to various treatment programs for those struggling with substance abuse and another $2 billion to expand educational programs for youth on recreational drug use as well as treatment and support services in schools.

Additionally, $500 million would be dedicated to services involving high-level drug traffickers, such as housing and treatment opportunities for people transitioning out of the justice system and substance use treatments in prisons and juvenile facilities, according to Jones-Sawyer’s office.

Harm reduction services would get $400 million, programs expanding access to fentanyl test kits and safe use supplies would see $200 million and $100 million would be dedicated to research on emerging drugs.

Should the bill pass the legislature and get Gov. Gavin Newsom’s approval, it would be up to voters to give it the final OK.

And for Assemblymember Diane Dixon, that’s a big ask of voters.

“It’s a recipe for financial disaster without any prescription for program effectiveness. It’s just too many unknowns,” the Newport Beach Republican said, adding that she wants to see the programs that would receive the funds more defined. “It’s too much money that cannot be managed effectively.”

Dixon is one of several GOP members of the Assembly pushing for a constitutional amendment that would implement what’s known as “Alexandra’s Law.” It would be up to voters, if the constitutional amendment passes, to decide whether convicted dealers should be issued a warning about the dangers of fentanyl, and if they keep selling drugs and someone dies, they could be prosecuted.

Sen. Tom Umberg, D-Santa Ana, has championed this legislation in the upper chamber, but — like many fentanyl-related bills this year — it stalled.

“This is a commonsense but mild approach to addressing the problem,” Dixon said of the effort named for a Temecula woman who died in 2019 after taking what she thought was Percocet. “Let the voters decide.”

Attempting to address the fentanyl crisis in a more holistic manner, she said, isn’t feasible.

“It’s in motion. Crime is happening. People are dying. We can’t just stand back and be intellectual about this; we need to address this now,” she said.

But Jones-Sawyer says focusing on prevention is the state’s best option.

“Preemptive measures to end demand and actions to help those suffering from addiction save lives and put a stop to the sales of fentanyl and other illicit drugs,” he said. “Locking up dealers happens after someone has died or their lives have been ruined.”

In other news:

• Newsom signed into law several new bills last week. But he also vetoed legislation from Assemblymember Sharon Quirk-Silva, D-Fullerton, that would have provided foster youth the right to return to schools to collect their belongings and say goodbye to teachers and classmates if they are being moved.

In his veto message, Newsom said: “While I appreciate the author’s intent to support foster youth who change schools midyear, AB 1506 creates a new right without setting forth the policies needed to effectuate it. Specifically, this bill does not identify who will be responsible for implementing this new right or set a manner to hold them accountable for failing to meet the requirement.”

• Attorney General Rob Bonta and Assemblymember Mia Bonta traveled to New Zealand to see their daughter Reina, a member of the Philippines (the country where the attorney general was born) team in the Women’s World Cup. The team scored its first win, against New Zealand, last week.

That moment after the Philippines’ historic first World Cup win when we see our girl and she sees us! pic.twitter.com/B6GxFmPaBp

— Rob Bonta (@RobBonta) July 27, 2023

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