Editorial in Bee says Dems block drug penalty reforms
Interesting op-ed in the Sacramento Bee in which a California Assemblyman, Joe Patterson, describes various California bills introduced to reduce fentanyl dealing, defeated by liberal California pols. Have to say, some of the provisions for users sound like ‘Demolition Man’ claptrap.
We have also backed Alexandra’s Law, which would deliver a written notice to convicted fentanyl dealers that continuing to sell drugs is dangerous and could be tried as murder.
Yeah… like “Maniac, put your weapon down and step away from the terminal” worked so well (apologies, the movie was just on a few days ago and who can resist Sandy Bullock saying “Take this job and shovel it”?)
But there are a few other ones that make abundant sense:
I authored bipartisan plans to educate children about the dangers of fentanyl and to ensure public schools have the overdose medication Narcan on campus in the event that a student, staff member or campus visitor is exposed to this deadly poison
A bill to increase penalties on individuals caught with an ounce or more of fentanyl failed on a party-line vote. For reference, one kilogram of fentanyl (2.2 pounds) can kill 500,000 people, according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.
Now we’re talking. Pusher kills someone, try him for murder. Right? Wrong:
…liberal Democrats. They refuse to hold traffickers accountable, even those who repeatedly sell counterfeit pills that kill unsuspecting Californians. They claim that imposing meaningful consequences for dealers would be a return to the “war on drugs” and that Republicans want to “criminalize addiction.”
Love them party-line votes, huh… Sounds to me like they want to criminalize DEALING, a different animal. And what “war on drugs” – we played around and pretended to, but never did. I remember the Chinese fighting a fairly successful war on drugs – believe they killed off almost 50,000,000 users and dealers. Sounds a bit excessive to me…I figure the users are a self-terminating problem and can almost be ignored. Dealers? I would never advocate executing drug dealers out of hand, like in an open season…but I’ve always liked the ‘Silverado’ line about a ‘fair trial, followed by a first-class hanging.’ Powder and primers are in short supply. Ropes can be re-used.
Category: Crime, Liberals suck
China still has a major drug problem. Despite all that.
The demand creates the market, not the supply.
And as was said above, (ab)users are self-correcting.
This statement just says so much about how inept the politicians are in cali. Ignore the source of the drug (dealers) but stand by for the inevitable exposure / use by kids in school.
“Narcan on campus in the event that a student, staff member or campus visitor is exposed to this deadly poison”
Not to mention clean needles and a nice place use in school “for safety,” too…
Our school building had only two refrigerated functioning water fountains for 600 +/- children. The old pipes made the water taste like iron and lord knows what. The city Board of Education declined to pay for replacements / repairs.(Can they do that?)
Yet here I am, 80 years later. Thankful for bottled water!
But we want our dopers to be lovingly provided for ?
Here’s a novel idea….why don’t we just pass some laws making the use or sale of drugs illegal. That should solve the problem, after all, passing laws worked so well for gun crime and illegal immigration, right? Oh…wait…Never mind.
Our criminal justice system should seek to mete out justice to the benefit of society, but it’s flawed and decaying rapidly in today’s political climate.
The problem is that legislators have to create and pass the bills before executives sign them into law. Democrats don’t want to alienate their voter base, which increasingly consists of those who are pro-drugs and anti-guns. Most Republicans don’t want to alienate their voter base, which is usually anti-drugs and pro-gun. The Uniparty that most (D) and (R) pols now conform to finds the perfect mix of “legalize drugs” and “ban guns”. So, when it comes to creating laws, you can almost bet that an anti-gun bill will go through before an anti-drug one.
Exacerbating the problem is the lack of enforcement. We can be a nation of laws, where everything is strictly regulated by state and US Code, but if the prosecutors are soft on crime and the judges lack the cajones to impose strict sentences on those who deserve them, the system has failed before it started. A person with multiple felonies seems to get less time for a violent crime in some jurisdictions than an ex-cop on trial for making a mistake or using their judgement in a life-or-death situation. This, in turn, leads to cops being a bit more selective in who and how they make arrests.
No law is effective when the front-line enforcers are hesitant to risk life and liberty to uphold it. When an honest arrest is made, and the offender is able to plea down or have the charges outright dismissed, there is a failing at the prosecutorial level that must make the arresting officer feel like their time and energy was wasted for nothing. Pusha Man is back on the streets a couple of days after Officer Friendly risked his life, all because DA Harvey Dent is up for reelection this fall. Can’t piss off the masses across the tracks. Next week, DA Dent will decide to press attempted murder charges against Officer Friendly because he tased Pusha Man.
And let’s not forget that the shithole they’ve turned major cities in CA into is what the left wants to inflict on the rest of the USA.
They’ve already been successful with that here in Colorado.. USED to be a nice place to live, but now, the inmates are definitely running the asylum..
My family no longer go to Seattle.
Seattle city council (all extreme leftist dems +1 socialist) blocked imposing at least misdemeanor criminal charges for “personal possession” amounts of 6 grams or less of cocaine, crack, heroin and fentanyl.
So it continues… get caught for possession of small amount of fentanyl, the 1st 3 times police can only give you a pamphlet on where to get help to quit. No records kept on who gets them so they continue getting pamphlets.
Illegal to smoke cigarettes on city transit trains and busses but the city health department gave a thumbs up to smoking fentanyl on transit because if they OD, somebody would be nearby to administer narcan which is available for free in vending machines along with crack pipes.