Amended  IN  Assembly  April 01, 2024

CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE— 2023–2024 REGULAR SESSION

Assembly Bill
No. 1800

Introduced by Assembly Member Jones-Sawyer

January 08, 2024

An act to add Section 11366.3 to the Health and Safety Code, relating to controlled substances. An act to add Section 1714.12 to the Civil Code, relating to social media platforms.


LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


AB 1800, as amended, Jones-Sawyer. Controlled Negligence: controlled substances: social media companies.
Existing law, the California Uniform Controlled Substances Act, classifies controlled substances into 5 schedules and imposes restrictions or prohibitions on various actions related to those substances, including their sale, possession, transportation, manufacture, or cultivation.
Existing civil law provides that everyone is responsible not only for the result of their willful acts, but also for an injury occasioned to another by their want of ordinary care or skill in the management of their property or person, except so far as the latter has, willfully or by want of ordinary care, brought the injury upon themselves.
This bill would entitle a person who suffers injury that is proximately caused by the illegal purchase of a controlled substance through a social media platform, as defined, to recover specified statutory and actual damages if it is shown that the injury was occasioned, in whole or in part, by the want of ordinary care or skill in the management of the platform pursuant to the above-described civil law provision. The bill would also entitle a prevailing plaintiff to reasonable attorney’s fees and costs. The bill would state that its provisions are severable. The bill would make related findings and declarations.

Existing law, the Uniform Controlled Substances Act, classifies controlled substances into 5 schedules, and places the greatest restrictions and penalties on the use of those substances placed in Schedule I. Existing law prohibits various actions related to those substances, including their sale, possession, transportation, manufacture, or cultivation.

This bill would impose criminal liability and civil penalties on a social media company that operates a social media platform on which users offer controlled substances for sale. The bill would impose increased liability if, as a result of a sale of a controlled substance that occurred because of an offer made on a social media platform, an individual suffered an overdose or died. The bill would additionally impose daily civil penalties for each day that users offer controlled substances for sale on a social media platform. By expanding the scope of criminal liability, this bill would create a state-mandated local program.

The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement.

This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.

Vote: MAJORITY   Appropriation: NO   Fiscal Committee: YESNO   Local Program: YESNO  

The people of the State of California do enact as follows:


SECTION 1.

 The Legislature finds and declares both of the following:
(a) Fentanyl was the cause of 77.14 percent of drug deaths among teenagers in 2021.
(b) The unprecedented spike of children dying from overdosing on fentanyl has been documented to be the fault of social media. According to, for example, the New York Times article titled “Fentanyl Tainted Pills Bought on Social Media Cause Youth Drug Deaths to Soar:”
(1) Law enforcement authorities say an alarming portion of fentanyl overdoses unfolded from counterfeit pills tainted with fentanyl that teenagers and young adults bought over social media.
(2) Social media is almost exclusively the way teenagers and young adults get the pills.
(3) Overdoses are now the leading cause of preventable death among people ages 18 to 45, ahead of suicide, traffic accidents, and gun violence, according to federal data.
(4) There are drug sellers on every major social media platform. As long as a child is on one of those platforms, the child is going to have the potential to be exposed to drug sellers.
(c) Multibillion-dollar social media platforms are not, in the use of their own designs, features, products, or affordances, sufficiently financially motivated to exercise ordinary care to prevent these deaths and other injuries or deaths caused by ingesting controlled substances.

SEC. 2.

 Section 1714.12 is added to the Civil Code, immediately following Section 1714.11, to read:

1714.12.
 (a) Any person who suffers injury that is proximately caused by the illegal purchase of a controlled substance through a social media platform where it is shown that the injury was occasioned, in whole or in part, by the want of ordinary care or skill in the management of the platform pursuant to subdivision (a) of Section 1714 shall be entitled to recover any of the following from the platform:
(1) One hundred thousand dollars ($100,000) per violation in statutory damages.
(2) Five hundred thousand dollars ($500,000) per violation in statutory damages or double the actual damages, whichever is greater, if the violation resulted in death.
(3) One million dollars ($1,000,000) per violation in statutory damages or treble the amount in actual damages, whichever is greater, if the violation results in the death of a minor.
(4) Two million dollars ($2,000,000) per violation or treble the amount in actual damages, whichever is greater, if the violation resulted in a death of a minor who at the time of death was too young to be a user of the social media platform without their parent’s or guardian’s permission and the platform has not used the best available technology or reasonable measures to obtain permission directly from the parent or guardian.
(b) (1) A prevailing plaintiff who suffers injury as a result of a violation of subdivision (a) shall be entitled to reasonable attorney’s fees and costs.
(2) The rights and remedies provided by this section are cumulative and shall not be construed as restricting any other rights or remedies provided by law.
(c) The provisions of this section are severable. If any provision of this section or its application is held invalid, that invalidity shall not affect other provisions or applications that can be given effect without the invalid provision or application.
(d) For the purposes of this section, the following definitions apply:
(1) “Controlled substance” has the same meaning as that term is defined in Section 11007 of the Health and Safety Code.
(2) “Minor” means a person under 18 years of age.
(3) “Social media platform” means a social media platform, as defined in subdivision (e) of Section 22675 of the Business and Professions Code, that has annual gross revenues in excess of one billion dollars ($1,000,000,000) in the preceding calendar year, as of the January 1 of the calendar year when a person brought an action pursuant to this section.

SECTION 1.Section 11366.3 is added to the Health and Safety Code, to read:
11366.3.

(a)A social media company that operates a social media platform on which users offer controlled substances for sale is guilty of a misdemeanor.

(b)A social media company that violates subdivision (a) and as a result of a sale of a controlled substance that occurred because of that violation an individual overdoses and requires medical care shall be punished by imprisonment pursuant to subdivision (h) of Section 1170 of the Penal Code for 16 months, two years, or three years, or by imprisonment in a county jail for not more than one year.

(c)A social media company that violates subdivision (a) and as a result of a sale of a controlled substance that occurred because of that violation an individual dies shall be punished by imprisonment in state prison for a term of two years, three years, or six years.

(d)In addition to the penalties in this section, a social media company shall be liable for civil penalties for each day that users offer controlled substances for sale on a social media platform it operates.

(e)This section does not apply to actions authorized pursuant to Division 10 of the Business and Professions Code.

(f)As used in this section, “social media company” and “social media platform” mean the same as in Section 22675 of the Business and Professions Code.

SEC. 2.

No reimbursement is required by this act pursuant to Section 6 of Article XIII B of the California Constitution because the only costs that may be incurred by a local agency or school district will be incurred because this act creates a new crime or infraction, eliminates a crime or infraction, or changes the penalty for a crime or infraction, within the meaning of Section 17556 of the Government Code, or changes the definition of a crime within the meaning of Section 6 of Article XIII B of the California Constitution.