Terra Lawson Remer represents District 3 on the San Diego Board of Supervisors. On her county website, she claims to have “dedicated her life to working for social, environmental, and economic justice.” Yet when it comes to the pressing and increasing scourge of fentanyl and other opioid deaths in San Diego County–let alone in California and nationwide—parents with dead sons and daughters have received no social justice. Small and large businesses alike, plagued by smash-and-grab crimes allowed under California law, have seen no economic justice. They have either shut their doors, raised their prices to cover losses, or just left California altogether for other states that abide by less Lilliputian laws. Moreover, the political environment in our state and county would seem to prefer to build bike lanes that no one uses rather than to protect the children, citizens, and enterprises of San Diego.
On August 16, 2024, Governor Gavin Newsom, no doubt looking at the polls of Californians worried about smash-and-grab crimes, signed into law some 10 measures to reduce retail crime. The polls suggested Californians wanted answers. Newsom’s measures, however, looked more like desperate back-peddling, and too little too late. What about property crimes, related offenses, and the 270,000 nation-wide deaths incurred by the unchecked trafficking of fentanyl? Silence came from the Governor’s office, mirroring the voiceless victims who perished in shadowy alleyways, frantic hospital ER facilities, and police-taped dorm rooms. Proposition 36 aims to update outdated laws to prevent future fentanyl-related tragedies and help law enforcement stop the rampant wild-west chaos created by smash-and-grab criminals.
In San Diego, on Tuesday, August 27, Republican San Diego Supervisors Jim Desmond (District 5), Joel Anderson (District 2), with the non-voting support of San Diego District Attorney Summer Stephan, called on the Board of Supervisors to vote to endorse Proposition 36 on the November 2024 ballot. Prop 36 would reclassify the drug-trafficking of fentanyl and smash-and-grab crimes as felonies that would require time in prison. It would update and revise Proposition 47, passed on November 14, 2014, almost a decade ago and five years before the COVID pandemic. Prop 47 sought to reduce California prison overcrowding by making certain drug crimes and thefts misdemeanors. This law has become obsolete.
Since then, however, the drug fentanyl, 20 to 40 times more powerful than heroin, and 100 times stronger than morphine, has murdered 270,000 Americans. An October 2022 study conducted by an advocacy group Families Against Fentanyl concluded by reviewing Centers for Disease Control (CDC) data that the leading cause of death in the age group from 18 to 45 in 2020 and 2021 came from unintentional drug overdoses due to synthetic opioids, including fentanyl. Public Health advocates have sounded the alarm, but most Democrat politicians have proven slow to respond.
Supervisors Jim Desmond and Joel Anderson, however, have taken notice, and have started educating San Diegans. In one fentanyl policy roundtable, Desmond gathered DEA Officials, Homeland Security Investigators, The U.S. Attorney’s Office, state policymakers and medical professionals to discuss the threat to San Diego. One important takeaway: Fentanyl deaths have increased 873% over the last five years, with over 800 deaths in San Diego this last year. Moreover, in San Diego, an increase in non-lethal drug addictions has pushed more people into the streets and increased homelessness–up 50% since Prop 47 became law. All one needs to do is walk around just about anywhere downtown to notice it.
The Public Policy Institute of California reported that shoplifting of merchandise of up to $950 (allowed under Prop 47) had “soared over 28% in the past five years.” Most recently, a Rancho Bernardo jewelry store suffered a smash-and-grab robbery on August 21, 2024. UTC, Fashion Valley, and National City malls have suffered similar crimes, along with big-box stores like Walmart, Target, and Home Depot, as well as local grocery stores and pharmacies.
If we do not deter drug trafficking and crime from happening, we simply will invite it to happen again. Who pays? We all do! In deaths, ruined lives, business losses, inflation, and ultimately in our compromised public safety. Prop 36 rightly seeks to close the loopholes in existing state law that criminals exploit to avoid taking responsibility for fentanyl trafficking and repeat retail theft.
Yet on August 27, Teresa Lawson-Remer, along with the two other Democrats on the Board of Supervisors—Monica Montgomery Steppe (District 4) and Board Chairwoman Nora E. Vargas(District 1) voted against Desmond, Anderson, and District Attorney Stephan’s resolution to support Proposition 36 on the November ballot. The measure lost 3-2. Instead, Lawson-Remer and her two colleagues, just like Governor Newsom, demurred on dealing with fentanyl, and delayed supporting law and order. The Three Democrats passed a substitute motion, by a vote of 3-2, essentially “to study it,” a typical delaying tactic in Washington, D.C., Sacramento, and now The World’s Finest City. They asked the Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) to provide a thorough analysis “of how Prop 36 may impact funding on county services such as behavioral health, housing and development services, and homeless-related programs.” Does this language really address the issues at hand? Nope.
The deadline for the CAO report is October 8. If and when it appears, we should all read it, and the Supervisors should vote again on supporting Proposition 36. For those who want San Diego to prosper, to protect the public safety of its citizens, and to press forward on public progress, we encourage you to weigh in on this debate, and most importantly, this November, vote your conscience on Prop 36 as well as for whom you want to best represent you on the County Board of Supervisors.
