CALIFORNIA’S FENTANYL FIGHT: Politicians V. Parents

One of the hardest-fought political battles in 2024 happened inside California’s Capitol between a group of grieving parents who lost their kids to fentanyl and a handful of powerful politicians who were opposed to increasing criminal penalties.

This year-long investigation, led by CBS News California investigative correspondent Julie Watts, combines gripping statehouse investigative reporting with groundbreaking AI-assisted data journalism from our partners at CalMatters, to provide an unprecedented look at how California’s one-party supermajority legislature systematically avoids transparency and accountability by killing controversial legislation without voting on the record.

They fought for fentanyl legislation, but it was killed before lawmakers even got to vote. Four grieving moms wanted to know why. 

We begin with their uncovering of the truth using a new AI tool designed to help everyday Californians hold lawmakers accountable.

In 2024, CalMatters’ new Digital Democracy Database gave us the tools to analyze hundreds of thousands of votes and dozens of hours of legislative hearings in ways that simply weren’t possible before. However, it was Alexandra’s Law that gave us a case study exposing California’s supermajority politics at its best, or worst, depending on who you ask.

If you ask Alexandra’s parents, they’ll tell you lawmakers used their daughter as a political pawn.

While California lawmakers would not increase criminal penalties for fentanyl, they did decriminalize fentanyl test strips, which were considered drug paraphilia until 2022. Along with Narcan, state law now requires test strips on college campuses.

However, as fentanyl test strips are normalized, our testing found that test strips alone can provide a false sense of security. That is one of the many lessons learned from the increasing number of fentanyl death investigations… Lessons grieving parents and law enforcement hope you’ll share. 

contributed to this report.