Pass act, restore common sense to fighting drugs, homelessness and crime

It’s no secret that California faces serious challenges surrounding drug abuse, homelessness and crime. Drug overdoses now kill upward of triple the number of Californians as car accidents. Our state suffers from rampant homelessness, with official estimates numbering over 181,000 people as of last year.

Meanwhile, crimes against retail seem to grow more blatant by the week, prompting a wide range of negative outcomes for state business owners. Just this week, Newsweek reported that Taco Bell would close indoor dining options at multiple California locations due to high crime; three separate Target superstores have closed in just the last few months for the same reason, and there are countless other examples.

Short-sighted policies have left California residents feeling like they have fewer rights than the criminals themselves. Many of these challenges can be traced back to Proposition 47, which was passed in 2014 and reduced certain theft and drug-related offenses to misdemeanors, emboldening those who seek to break the law. It is no coincidence that since its passage, already high levels of dysfunction have grown worse; by one metric, while national homelessness has fallen by 11% since 2014, California’s has risen by 51%.

Thankfully, here in Kern, our county has taken proactive steps to push back. We’ve strategically increased law enforcement funding to make our departments more competitive and attract the best officers to deter criminal activity. Our Board of Supervisors has incorporated new anti-camping ordinances to protect business owners, while making historic expansions to housing options for the homeless. More is needed however, and one of the most promising new initiatives is being championed from our very own Kern County District Attorney Cynthia Zimmer.

Zimmer is gathering signatures for The Homelessness, Drug Addiction, and Theft Reduction Act, a new statewide initiative which rightly identifies the link between illegal substance abuse, theft, and homelessness, which too often function in a vicious circle. This takes action to start rolling back the negative pattern.

The act is a project of Golden State Communities, a political action group involving several California district attorneys who serve on the front lines of the fight, along with backing from essential job creators and law enforcement.

If passed, it would give public officials essential tools to make meaningful changes. Among them, the act would provide new drug and mental health treatment to addicts of hard drugs, including the now-rampant fentanyl.

The act would grant the ability to mandate treatment in felony prosecutions involving third-time hard drug convictions; it would increase penalties for repeat thieves and tighten legal code against “smash and grabs”; the act would also empower judges to use their discretion to send large scale, hard drug traffickers to state prison rather than county jails, and warn manufacturers and dealers that they can be charged with murder for an overdose among their users.

In short, this initiative enables us to smash criminal activity, grab the criminals and put them back behind bars where they belong! The act brings much needed updates to the penal code to address the fentanyl epidemic, which has taken the lives of thousands of Californians, including right here in Kern.

All of this adds up, creating enhanced deterrence against would-be criminals, and restoring balance to our legal code to protect the law-abiding business owners and private citizens of California from those who have for too long exploited the loopholes of Proposition 47.

The initiative is well-crafted to withstand efforts by the state legislature to water down or weaken its provisions, ensuring that if voters of this state decide to enact the ballot proposition, their voices will not be overturned in Sacramento back room deals. In Kern we have led the way in innovative solutions to the challenges we face, but more is needed.

This initiative would be a game changer for California, and I am proud to stand with DA Zimmer and many other leaders across Kern and beyond in saying enough is enough; let’s pass The Homelessness, Drug Addiction, and Theft Reduction Act and restore common sense to our approach to drugs, homelessness and crime.