SACRAMENTO—As more young people succumb to the fatal effects of fentanyl, California’s lawmakers are proposing harsher penalties on fentanyl trafficking to combat the worsening opioid epidemic. “The scourge of fentanyl is poisoning our communities, killing our kids, and wreaking havoc all across the state of California,” Assemblywoman Cottie Petrie-Norris (D-Irvine) said in a Zoom press conference on March 29 while introducing a new bill to halt the crisis. Petrie-Norris was joined by Orange County Sheriff Don Barnes, Orange County Superintendent of Schools Al Mijares, and Victims of Illicit Drugs President Jaime Puerta to announce the Fentanyl Poisoning Prevention Act, or Assembly Bill 2246. “Just two milligrams is enough to kill. That’s two grains of salt,” Petrie-Norris said while explaining the harsher penalties the bill will enforce on drug traffickers. The bill makes the possession of two grams of fentanyl to be a felony and aligns the silent killer as a …