The tribes should pay Rodrigo Duterte from the Philippines to clean up the problems they're having on their reservations.
Posted on 08/19/2023 2:55:48 PM PDT by nickcarraway
A group of California lawmakers on Friday met with tribal leaders in Southern California to analyze how fentanyl is impacting their communities across the state.
The Assembly's Select Committee on Fentanyl, Opioid Addiction and Overdose Prevention held its second hearing in Alpine, which is about 30 miles east of San Diego. The group intends to travel around the state to hear how different communities are confronting the deadly drug. Tribes told the panel: They need help.
"It is a crisis for us," Viejas Tribal Chairman John Christman told lawmakers.
Tribal leaders noted communities have long struggled with addiction to either drugs or alcohol, but fentanyl has been devastating for some.
"Fentanyl has wiped out marijuana, heroin, crank and coke," said Shine Nieto, vice chairman of the Tule River Tribal Council. "Those drugs hardly exist on our res anymore because of fentanyl."
Those who testified to the committee Friday noted their reservations' proximity to the border, coupled with the cheap price of the drug has made it popular among drug users on reservations. San Diego County Sheriff Kelly Martinez told lawmakers one pill costs about 60 cents.
Tribal leaders said they can't tackle the crisis on their own. Despite having wellness programs, community intervention efforts, and some resource centers, there's still a need for more rehab and mental healthcare overall. Some noted that those addicted don't want help.
Recommended The latest maps, models and paths for Hurricane Hilary "We try. We say, 'Will you go in?' We say we will take care of your home. We will take care of anything, and they don't always agree," Christman said. "Placing them in inpatient treatment, it does not always work. So collaborating today means we all agree this is bigger than just all of us than the state, than the tribe, and the county, that we need to do this as a whole to try to come to some sort of solution to save some people who have become casualties of this war that we're in."
In the Tule River Tribe, Nieto told lawmakers he ran a boy's club to help prevent young tribal members from getting addicted to drugs. He said a recent lack of funding shut the program down. Of the 40 boys he mentored, he said four of them died from fentanyl overdoses, while 10 of them are severely addicted.
"We call them 'Res Zombies.' There’s nothing we can do for them. They took so much fentanyl, they’re in a 5150 state of mind," said Nieto, who struggled to talk about the most recent death of one of the boys. "Sometimes you blame yourself for things you can’t control."
A 5150 is a legal code describing someone with a mental health crisis, which can often lead to someone being involuntarily detained for psychiatric hospitalization.
Confronting drug dealers varies by tribe. Christman said the Viejas Tribal Council has security to observe and report, but noted they cannot arrest dealers. He said those who are caught either using or dealing face the maximum tribal-issued fine. Others were hoping state lawmakers this year would increase prison sentences for dealers.
"When you guys started putting these bills together, we were watching them like they were our sports team," Nieto said. "When they didn't pass, it was devastating to us. It was disgusting to me that these didn't pass because of the politics that go with it."
Sheriff Martinez told lawmakers this year alone her agency has seized about 4 million fentanyl pills near the border. She said investigators are seeing an increase in child trafficking to help smuggle drugs through the border and noted her agency now investigates overdose deaths as homicides.
Martinez said the sheriff's department has investigated 34 overdose deaths in the county so far this year. She said the homicide investigation involves looking through cellphones to identify the dealer.
"With the way the laws are written, you really have to show a lot of intent on the part of the dealer, which is difficult. Especially when we know they've been dealing for a while," Martinez said.
She also noted a regional program has been set up to investigate the deaths in the San Diego area.
Martinez also noted special state money to step up drug enforcement has been geared toward methamphetamine and suggested those programs be rewritten to help with fentanyl enforcement.
"Enforcement works, and we don't forget that in the equation of education and harm reduction, I think it's a three-pronged stool and we need to do all three," she said.
The chickennnnnnns have come home to roost.
Democrats don’t solve problems they just create them.
Indian tribes are, in theory, sovereign nations. Perhaps they should start executing the monsters who bring fentanyl into their lands.
After a fair trial, of course.
Tribes want to be fully sovereign nations. Solve your own dang problems, peeps. Don’t come looking for tax money from another nation. Mine.
The tribes should pay Rodrigo Duterte from the Philippines to clean up the problems they're having on their reservations.
Nayib Bukele took care of the crime in El Salvador by putting all MS-13 gangsters in prison. It's working so far. Crime is down over 50% over there.
...when Marijuana isn’t strong enough...
How about if we just let all thise inclined to use fentanyl in our country die? Give them all they want . Uncut. Free! Sayonara...end of problem
As sovereign nations they can pass and enforce laws to execute users and dealers. But that makes too much sense.
Scalp them
How about booze? That’s how I started down the road perdition.
The stuff damned near killed me.
Kills millions.
They tried outlawing booze at one time. Directly caused the creation of organized crime.
Al Capone.
You can’t stop people from trying to alter their states…
‘’Cure the soul by means of the senses’’. Oscar Wilde.
“I can resist everything except temptation.”
Oscar Wilde
It’s California’s problem, not the tribe. Public 280 turned over all criminal jurisdiction on tribal lands to California (and five other states). Man, do I HATE to use the FBI as a source, but... https://leb.fbi.gov/articles/legal-digest/legal-digest-indian-country-and-the-tribal-law-and-order-act-of-2010
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