Call Assembly Member Lorena Gonzalez to suspense file for SB519

SB519

This bill will allow the legalization and social sharing of certain hallucinogenic compounds such as LSD, psilocyn mushrooms and ecstasy (MDMA). These are controlled for obvious reasons. It is believed that certain compounds may be of interest to depressed people and those suffering from PTSD. It is possible some compounds may hold promise for some people but going about it this way is a tremendous danger to the public. Compounds holding promise can and should be examined with proper supervision, in clinical laboratory settings under qualified staff. To by-pass this would be dangerous and ill-advised.

• -Compounds such as MDMA and other compounds are coming from the Mexican cartels from the southern border. By not keeping restrictions and penalties for those involved in this business, it financially incentivizes and rewards these dangerous criminal gangs to keep producing these compounds. Cartels will continue to be rewarded for people and families negatively affected by these drugs. Why would CA want to incentivize cartels?
• -The way the illicit drug market works, is they have chemists looking to enhance potency or create new compounds to avoid prosecution. These chemists can alter existing compounds to create novel ones not seen before. Dangerous, unknown side effects will result, along with “bad trips”, dependency and drugged driving. These are all extremely concerning public safety issues even for those not involved in drugs. There are enough people already driving impaired with alcohol and marijuana and now we must be concerned with other drugs.
• -Illicit drugs are made in clandestine labs. There is no quality control. There is not guarantee of what is being consumed in street drugs. Or it is never known how much of a particular drug is in the tablet. Over-dosing is another problem, and may be fatal. My Laboratory constantly sees tablets that do not contain what is believed by the sellers or users. It can be a deadly cocktail of drugs like fentanyl or harmful fillers or other pharmaceuticals used in veterinary medicine or other counties (but not approved in the US). I’ve seen compounds designated for research only but are showing up in street drugs. A user is literally gambling with their health and possibly life when consuming these compounds.

Assembly Member L. Gonzalez Sacramento Office

(916) 319-2080

M. Romo

Forensic Criminalist