State Senator Promotes Bill to Create Fentanyl Task Force in Southern California

This photo provided by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration's Phoenix Division shows some of the 30,000 fentanyl pills the agency seized in one of its bigger busts, in Tempe, Ariz. Drug Enforcement Administration via AP

Sen. Pat Bates (R-Laguna Niguel) has introduced a measure in the California Legislature to create a task force in Southern California to combat the region’s growing problem with the deadly opioid fentanyl.

Senate Bill 75 (SB 75), a bipartisan measure, would form a task force under the auspices of the California attorney general to coordinate law enforcement efforts and assist local agencies in their work to reduce reduce fentanyl-related deaths.