California Lawmakers, Community Leaders and Law Enforcement Reflect on 100 Days of Prop 36

Yahoo

04-04-2025

(FOX40.COM) — State and local elected officials, law enforcement and community leaders came together to celebrate the first 100 days of Prop 36 and discuss their continued efforts to bring the Golden State back into a golden era with fewer crimes and better drug addiction treatment.
The proposition, which was overwhelmingly approved by California voters, allows for felony charges and increased sentences for possessing certain drugs and theft under $950, if the defendant has two prior drug or theft convictions.
'[It's been] 100 days since the people gave us more tools to combat retail effect and 100 days to help us bring mass treatment instead of mass incarceration to those that are suffering in the throes of addiction,' Sacramento District Attorney Thien Ho said.
The Sacramento County DA said they're prosecuting 12 people who knowingly sold fentanyl on murder charges.
But their quest for better public safety is far from over. Those who spoke said several other important variables are still needed to carry out the law in the way it was intended, and they believe those missing elements can be addressed in two new pieces of legislation.
'One piece of legislation considering Prop 36 is in connection with the drug court-drug treatment aspect, and what it says is, look at every drug treatment court in California needs to employ best practices,' California State Senator Tom Umberg (D)- Santa Ana, tells Fox40. 'We want to do the best and most effective job we can.'
The second bill would provide additional funding to sustain successful treatment programs. Without it, they said, people will continue to die.
'We're championing a budget request for $250 million as an investment because, in terms of long-term public safety, there is probably nothing more important, nothing more effective than drug treatment,' Sen. Umberg (D)-Santa Ana, continues.
Fox40 asked the Sacramento County District Attorney if he believes putting $250 million towards this effort was the best use of funds rather than using that funding to stop the ultimate issue of drugs continuing to enter our communities in the first place.
'We have educational programs that we're getting to use on the prevention and intervention side, but we also need accountability to go after the peddlers of death, the peddlers of poison, and hold them accountable,' DA Ho told Fox40. 'But then we need treatment to get people off the drugs and off the streets, it's really a multi-front attack when it comes to public safety.'
No one knows this issue better than Tom Wolf, Director of West Coast Initiatives at the Foundation for Drug Policy Solutions.
Wolf was formerly homeless and in recovery from heroin and fentanyl addiction. He now supports prop 36.
'It's more cruel to leave someone on the street alone with their fentanyl or meth addiction than to hold them accountable and give them a pathway to turn their lives around,' Wolf said.
Those who spoke concluded that our elected officials owe it to all Californians to pass these next two pieces of legislation.
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