Senator Aisha Wahab Leads Effort to Modernize Prop 47

Sacramento, CA — Senator Aisha Wahab (D-Silicon Valley), Senator Angelique Ashby (D-Sacramento, and Assembly Rick Zbur (D-Hollywood) presented joint legislation—Senate Bill 1381—to place a new initiative on the ballot to modernize Proposition 47 (Prop 47).

Planned for the November ballot as Proposition 2, SB 1381 is a balanced approach to the ongoing retail theft and the fentanyl crises that increases resources for drug treatment programs, implements new penalties for repeat retail offenders, and enhances felony prosecution for fentanyl dealers. This measure strikes a balance between ensuring criminal penalties fit the crimes committed and keeping our communities safe from theft and lethal drugs—while not regressing to ineffective policies that previously over criminalized California’s low-income communities of color and youth.

“No one is above the law. This is a fair and responsible approach to prioritizing victims and holding these perpetrators accountable, without resulting in mass incarceration,” said Senator Wahab, Chair of Senate Public Safety. “Fentanyl is a deadly synthetic drug that results in over 70,000 avoidable deaths per year.”

This is the promise of 1381: increasing public safety. The aggregation lookback provision specifies that the value from the theft or shoplifting crimes must have occurred within 3 years of each other. This measure also introduces enhanced penalties for those who knowingly sell or provide drugs mixed with fentanyl, without informing the buyer. The measure will require courts to issue a warning to individuals convicted of selling fentanyl, and will facilitate prosecutors’ ability to bring forward murder charges for repeat dealers, if a death occurs.“

SB 1381 gives law enforcement and prosecutors the tools they need to prosecute property crime, as well as enforce stricter punishments for traffickers who knowingly sell fentanyl in our neighborhoods,” said Senator Ashby.

SB 1381 ensures our focus on prevention, diversion, rehabilitation, and anti-recidivism is balanced with consequences for those who willfully break and defy our laws.

SB 1381 must pass the legislature by the end of session on July 3, 2024 to be placed on the ballot.