Republicans take a cheap shot at Rep. Christine Marsh. They should apologize

Aaaaand the award for best melodramatic performance in Arizona’s official theater of the absurd this week goes to …

Senate Republicans.

The Arizona Senate on Wednesday approved a bill advertised as a way to crack down on the fentanyl that is flooding across the U.S.-Mexico border.

House Bill 2469 passed on a party-line vote.

Republicans, naturally, were aghast (or, perhaps, jubilant?) that Democrats opposed the bill.

Republicans blasted Marsh on social media

They quickly took to social media to trumpet the appalling “fact” that the (dis)loyal opposition is, apparently, in league with the soulless drug cartels that are poisoning America’s youth.

“Senate Republicans voted in support of declaring a public health crisis for the fentanyl trafficking that is claiming the lives of countless Arizonans, as well as requiring the AZ Dept. of Health Services to address this emergency,” they tweeted. “Senate Democrats did the opposite and voted in support of the drug cartels that are threatening our public safety, health and welfare.”

Republicans went on to single out the apparent ringleader in this lawlessness: Sen. Christine Marsh, D-Phoenix.

“It’s bizarre that any lawmakers in Arizona would vote against a bill that aims to address the public health crisis of fentanyl overdoses in our state,” they tweeted. “Young people are dying from this drug at an alarming rate. It’s our job as lawmakers to do everything in our power to stop this from happening but unfortunately, Senator Christine Marsh doesn't agree and wants to play political games that are costing lives.”

Marsh lost her son to fentanyl. She's offered bills

Nearly 2,000 Arizonans lost their lives to opioid overdoses in 2022, with fentanyl the most commonly reported drug in opioid overdoses, according to the Arizona Department of Health Services.

Can you imagine, someone playing “political games” while unsuspecting Americans are ingesting a highly addictive drug that may well kill them?

Sadly, I can, too.  Just not Senator Marsh.

Three years ago, Marsh’s 25-year-old son, Landon, a student at Northern Arizona University, died after taking a pill he thought was a pain reliever. Turns out it was laced with fentanyl.

Ever since then, Marsh has focused on legislation aimed at saving lives.

Real bills that do real stuff, like her proposal this year to appropriate $30,000 to distribute fentanyl testing strips on college campuses.

It never even got a hearing.

GOP bill looks more like performance art

Instead, our leaders were busy passing HB 2469, which looks more like performance art than an actual plan.

The bill, one of several addressing the fentanyl crisis, comes to us from Rep. Steve Montenegro, R-Goodyear, who I would guess sincerely wants to do something about this ugly epidemic foist upon us by the drug cartels.

The problem is, Montegegro’s bill doesn’t seem to actually do anything. At least, not that I can make out.

His bill would declare that trafficking of fentanyl across the border is a public health crisis and require the Arizona Department of Health Services “to do everything within its authority” to address the crisis.

Fentanyl smuggling: Exposes rift in US-Mexico relationship

So what, you might wonder, can a public health department that maintains statistics and licenses health-care facilities do to stop the smugglers?

Raise an army? Boobytrap the border?

The bill doesn’t say.

Even in this session, that's a low blow

“What is it specifically that they (DHS) are being prescribed to do?” Rep. Eva Burch, D-Maricopa, asked, during a recent hearing on the bill.

“What we are doing,” Montenegro replied, “is we’re codifying our authority, our sovereignty as a state, which I do think opens the door for us, whether it’s the Governor’s Office, whether it’s the Legislature, to then use all tools possible as we move forward. I don’t think there’s one answer right now.”

Certainly, there's not one in this bill.

Which is perhaps why Marsh and the Democrats voted no.

“This is a bill that I desperately want to be voting yes on,” Marsh said, during Wednesday’s floor vote. “I’m going to be voting no because I don’t think there is enough focus on the bill, period. It seems more like a statement piece and if we’re going to be addressing something as significant as fentanyl coming across the border I think we need to get it right.”

Or we could just put out a few cheap tweets making it sound as if the Democrats – including a legislator who lost her son to fentanyl – “voted in support of the drug cartels that are threatening our public safety, health and welfare.”

Even in a legislative session as politically poisonous as this one, that’s low.

Reach Roberts at laurie.roberts@arizonarepublic.com. Follow her on Twitter at @LaurieRoberts.

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Arizona Republicans sink to new low with swipe at Sen. Christine Marsh