California Bill Addresses Child Fentanyl Overdoses After Death of 3-Month-Old

A California Democrat has introduced legislation aimed at combating fentanyl overdoses among children after the deaths of three Bay Area infants and toddlers. 

San Jose Democrat Sen. Dave Cortese’s bill, Senate Bill 908, calls on California’s Department of Public Health to release guidance, data, and informational materials to counties about how to tackle fentanyl exposure among young children, the Vallejo Times-Herald reported. 

“The San Jose Democrat said his legislation was inspired by ongoing reporting by the Bay Area News Group about the deaths of three Bay Area infants and toddlers, including 3-month-old baby Phoenix Castro, of San Jose, who was sent home with her drug-using father last year despite warnings from social workers,” according to the report. 

Cortese said one of the goals of the legislation is to create a unified state response.

“Public health is as close as we’re gonna get to a statewide agency that can actually step in and say, we’re going to take the best practices, the best criteria, the best guidelines … (and) export those across all 58 counties,” he said.

Cortese’s bill is reportedly one of several introduced this legislative session targeting fentanyl, as more and more children are overdosing on the highly potent opioid.

“The overdose death of baby Phoenix last May, and the Bay Area News Group’s investigation that followed, led to calls for an overhaul of Santa Clara County’s Department of Children and Family Services and the prosecution of her father, David Castro, on felony child endangerment charges,” according to the report. “Baby Kristofer Ferreyra, 1, of Fremont, died last October after ingesting a lethal dose of fentanyl while at home with his mother. Baby Winter Rayo died on Aug. 12, after ingesting a lethal dose of fentanyl. Her parents have been charged with murder.”

Steve Baron, a member of the Santa Clara County Child Abuse Prevention Council, welcomed the bill, noting that the state health department could instruct on how to use the overdose-reversing medication Narcan on young children, “including toddlers like Phoenix Castro.” 

Other local experts have raised concerns about the bill. Dr. Jeoffry Gordon, a family physician and member of the California Critical Incident. said the legislation does not actually address issues that lead up to fentanyl-related deaths, and credited recent tragedies to “dysfunctional” county policies rather than a lack of state guidance. 

“To me, the idea that something like this gets a law is putting a small band aid on a festering wound,” Gordon said.