We're Out of Time - How Alexandra Capelouto's Memory Became A Focal Point In California's Prop 36

Episode Date: April 29, 2025

🎙️ In this powerful episode of We're Out of Time, Richard Taite speaks with Matt Capelouto, a father turned activist, whose life was forever changed by the tragic loss of his daughter, Alexandra, to an accidental overdose.Matt shares heartfelt memories of Alexandra—her deep empathy, her dream of helping others, and the silent struggles she faced with emotional pain. Through his grief, Matt found a new purpose: fighting for change. His tireless advocacy has helped spark new legislation, holding drug dealers more accountable and protecting other families from similar heartbreak.💬 This isn’t just a conversation—it's an unflinching look at how mental health challenges and the opioid crisis are devastating young lives and families across the nation. It's a story of unimaginable loss, but also of courage, hope, and a father's mission to turn tragedy into transformation.🔔 Join us for an episode that will open your heart, challenge your perspective, and inspire action.👇 Tap in for links, resources, and more:🔗 All things Richard Taite, We're Out of Time, and Carrara Treatment Wellness & Spa:https://linktr.ee/richardtaite📧 Reach out to Matt Capelouto: https://stopdrughomicide.org/

Alex, she was very smart. She had an IQ that was off the chart. Keep in mind, she got into college on a full academic scholarship. She was very witty. She was so quick-witted. She would say everybody's special, not just her. So many people who turn to substances, I believe, are these deep end paths. She bore the weight of everybody else's problems on her shoulders.

She cared about other people more than herself. It led to her self-medicating to deal with this pain. I want to say this about my daughter. The day before she died, had this conversation with her mom. Mom, I don't know what it is going to be, but God spoke to me and said I was going to save lives. She said, I have no idea what I'm going to do, but I'm going to save lives. I would be foolish to believe that my daughter was his only victim. And for any parent to think this cannot happen to their family, to their kids, they've simply

forgotten what it's like to be a teenager. It's not about me. It's not about you. It's about the lives that are going to be lost if we don't step up and do something now. Like you said, we're out of time. Thank you for listening to the We're Out of Time podcast with Richard Tate. If you haven't already, please follow the podcast, rate and review. And if you're getting value out of where out of time, share it with someone else you know.

For Fentanyl Awareness Day, a special message from our new Los Angeles District Attorney, Nathan Hawkman. In the drug world today, there is almost nothing as powerful and lethal as fentanyl. It's 50 times stronger than heroin, a hundred times stronger than morphine, and two milligrams, which is two grains of rice, can kill you in two minutes. This is not a minor threat, but an exosoling. threat to our community. In fact, it's the leading killer of people under 45 and six or seven unhoused people in Los Angeles County. We'll dive a fentanyl overdose today and every day

for the rest of this year. So we look at the fentanyl dealers, not as dealers, but as poisoners. And we will begin a massive enforcement effort to go after them, but we're going to couple that with a massive education effort to get out in the middle schools and the high schools, schools to let the students and parents know about the perilous of fentanyl presents. Working together in partnership with law enforcement with nonprofits with parents who've gone

through this tragedy is the only way we can hope to solve it. Okay, today's fentanyl awareness day. And what we're going to do for that is we're going to honor the families who have lost their loved ones to fentanyl. And the best way to do that is to introduce you to a gentleman by the name of Matt Capiludo, but I know him as Alexandra's dad. So, welcome, Matt. How you doing, man? Thank you. Thank you for having me, Rich. Appreciate it. It's a big deal, huh? It is a big deal. I mean, I'm not crazy about having a day. Yeah. Okay, that seems kind of lame and, you know, gratuitous.

I wish there wasn't a need for it. Well, I mean, every day should be fentanyl awareness. Tell me about Alexandra and what made her so special. Well, if you asked that to Alexandra, she would say everybody's special, not just her. Alex, Alex, she was very smart. She had an IQ that was off the chart. Keep in mind she got into college on a full academic scholarship. Wow.

She was very witty. Her sense of humor. was uncanny. She was so quick-witted. I couldn't argue with my daughter because she would always have better comebacks than me. But she was, when she was a teenager, and we saw signs early on with cutting herself,

she was diagnosed with what's called major depressive disorder. And she had suffered from clinical depression. She had nothing to be depressed about, but she just, well, she bore the weight of everybody else's problems on her shoulders. And I listened to a podcast with you kind of explaining this, and it clicked with me. You guys were similar in this way, and so many people who turned to substances, I believe, are these deep end paths. And it was tough because she cared about other people more than herself. and ultimately it led to her self-medicating to deal with this pain.

And, you know, some of the specifics to her case were that we found out once it was being investigated. She was seeking Percocet. What's Percocet? It's a painkiller, right? She took this by herself before going to bed two nights before Christmas in 2019. It's not like she was out partying. Like, you know, people, people put this stigma on those who use drugs that's completely unjust. I reflect back on my youth.

And I had, I said I never did drugs. But you know what? I did a lot of other stuff that was really shitty. And from an ethical standpoint, far worse than doing something that's going to harm myself. But yet for some reason, society puts, such, you know, the stigma on people who use substances, and it's unfair. The only thing my daughter is guilty of is hurting because she cared so much. Let me ask you a question. Was she on psych medication?

She was prescribed psych medications for a period of time, and she got off of those, and we thought that was a good thing. Because those all along was she on them? probably about a year and she finally said you know I do not like the way these make me feel and so we thought that was good

how many times did you guys go through the process of trying this psych medication and then that that didn't work or that didn't have a it did make her feel good

and then went to the second one to try that and rule that one out and then go to the third. Did you have that experience? Yeah, I'll tell you two or three times and the problem was, and I wish my wife was here, she was the one who really tried to help Alex out as much as possible with these issues. But we went from doctor to doctor and Alex even said, mom, these doctors aren't listening. They don't get it. They're not understanding. They're not listening. They just want to prescribe me something and have me go away. Yeah, they're full of shit. Yeah. They're desensitized. I have a handful of doctors who have never lost the love. They're not desensitized to the process of helping another human being. They're the only five I've

ever met. And the second I meet them, I hire them. It's amazing. 58 years old I found five guys Ah, Craig? I want to say this about my daughter The day before she died Yeah Had this conversation with her mom Mom

I don't know what it is going to be But God spoke to me And said I was going to save lives She said I have no idea what I'm going to do But I'm going to save lives Mission accomplished Mission accomplished Yeah

about that. She was going to school for social work because she wanted to help others. And she wanted to figure out what was wrong with her. Yeah. Yeah. Multiple times she would say,

I just want to feel normal. I just want to feel normal. You said the percassette is a pain killer. It's built for physical pain, but it works better on emotional pain. The reason she was using that and why she would have continued

to use that is because if that quiets the mind and you're telling yourself what a piece of garbage you are all day long, this is wrong with me, that's wrong with me, you know, all this other stuff, and it quiets the mind,

you're going to do that until the wheels fall off. Was she scoring pills on the street prior to this, and if so for how long? You know, it's heartbreaking to, as her father, to hear that, you know, you don't want to see any of your kids suffering. I believe Alex was introduced to opioids while away at college.

She started hanging around kind of a bad group of kids. Yeah, I want to say bad. So we live in Temecula, Southern California, and she wanted to go to Arizona State University. She applied for a few colleges. They gave her a full academic scholarship, and she wanted to go away and just get away from everybody. Funny story real quick.

She's a natural blonde. When she was going off to college, she dyed her hair brown. And we asked, why heck did you do that? She said, Mom, Dad, I just want to have a new identity. And her mom spoke up, well, you do realize nobody knows you there, right? Sounds so funny. But I believe it was there at college. Somebody introduced her to opioids.

And, you know, was in her sophomore year. that she was at home on Christmas break and this blindsided us. She had spent the day of December 22nd, all day Christmas shopping with her mom. And it was that night, she went to bed and we found her the next week. Is that the only pill you found that half a pill?

They found a bag with 10 other pills. So we don't know if she took half a pill or one pill and then wanted to get a little higher and then took another half. I don't believe she would have had time to take another one. No, maybe she took the other one first. I doubt that

because I don't think she would have been, all these pills, they sent them out for laboratory testing, they all contain very lethal amounts of fentanyl. All of them. Yeah, and, you know, the dealer who was eventually arrested denied selling her pills. Then he said, no, I only sold her a couple. And but when they sent the pills out for lesingia, yes, he was eventually charged federally, but distribution of fentanyl resulting in death. How long is he in jail for? Well, this is good to touch on. He originally faced 20 years to life in prison. There was a plea deal.

And this plea deal was important to me. The plea deal reduced the 20-year-to-life sentence, which would be mandatory, to up to 20 years to the discretion of the judge. How long did he get? I want to first read you. We'll take one minute. I want to read you as part of the plea deal, what this defendant signed and acknowledged.

And he did this. The deal was we would. removed that 20-year-to-life sentence. Keep in mind all the way up into this point, he tried to deny everything. Specifically, on the night of December 22nd, 2019, Alexander Capiluto asked defendant if he could sell her Percocet pills, a prescription pain killer. Defendant agreed to sell Alexander Percocet pills.

Defendant drove to Alexander's home in Temecula, California, and sold her what turned out to be approximately 11 counterfeit oxycodone pills, that he later described to law enforcement as blue oxies or M30s. Defendant knew it was illegal for him to sell the pills and that they contained fentanyl or some other federally controlled substance. Upon going to bed the night of December 22nd, 2019, Alexander Capiludo ingested half of one of the pills, the fentanyl entered her system, poisoning her body, and caused her death.

This was back in 2019. I don't believe there are too many drug dealers out there that don't know the crap they are selling does or could contain fentanyl. How about there's not one? Yeah, I agree. But the reason this was important to me, one of the arguments by those senators against Alexandra's law was, well, these drug dealers don't even know what they're selling. I wanted this confession from a 20 year old drug dealer

to be able to shove in their face and say not in my daughter's case don't give me this BS that they don't know what they're selling whatever happened to ignorance of the law is no excuse and he got nine years eligible for parole win he'll serve seven and a half

you have to serve 85% of your time federally which is better than in California And you're ready. Very good. Very good. And all I can hope is that in 2030 when he's released that he's learned his lesson and never does this again. You won't be there to say this is where my daughter would have been X. You know, old, this guy's been doing this forever. He said right here, he knew what he was doing. You think my daughter's the only one? You can't, you're not going to do that? There's nothing that can add to his sentence. no but you can keep them there an extra year and a half if I can I will and another thing we did was and we set federal precedence in this we filed a civil wrongful death lawsuit

against this drug dealer and we won but he tried to dismiss it by filing bankruptcy while he was behind bars so this would mean by the time and we won a $5.8 million judgment and by the time he's release that would have been wiped clean.

We took him to federal bankruptcy court and we argued in front of a federal bankruptcy judge who ended up rolling in our favor and without going into all the details, the bottom line is this, he will not be able to dismiss this judgment ever. That will follow him for the rest of his life. If he ever owns a house,

to put a lien on it, it comes into an inheritance. We can collect, on it and we can garnish wages. Good. This guy gets a job. You should be taking 25% of his salary for the rest of his life. Okay, but let's get into a couple things because I wanted to talk about him. The first thing I was reading today, because the DA Nathan Hawkman introduced us well before he was running for DA.

He was running for Attorney General. For Attorney General. Yep, State of California. That's right. Which he should have won. But that's how long he's cared about this thing, right? And one of the great days was the introduction to you. And I was reading today in April of 23,

you guys had a setback with Alexandra's law. Okay? Before you get into that setback, can you tell the audience what Alexandra's law is

the problems you had with it in April and exactly what it does now included into Prop 36? Sure. And the problem actually date back to 2020, 2021, in terms of when we started having problems trying to get

this law passed. In California, it's very difficult to hold a drug dealer accountable for somebody's death because you have to prove something called implied malice. And that is, prosecutors and law enforcement, in order to hold a dealer accountable for someone's death, have to prove that the drug dealer knew the drugs that they provided or were selling were dangerous enough. New, knew, or should have known, maybe. That it could cause death. That's right. Okay.

And inherently, we pretty much all know drugs are dangerous. That's why it's illegal to sell them. But actually proving that is what's challenging and very difficult. It doesn't seem like it's hard to prove right now. Not now. there's somebody dying every seven minutes in this country. Hard to say anybody these days dealing drugs is ignorant to the dangers of fentanyl. Right.

But my daughter's death occurred in 2019 before we have the awareness that we have now. That's right. And so we came up with a law to help address this. If somebody is convicted of a drug offense, they're going to get an admonishment given to them in court, making them aware that dealing drugs, furnishing drugs, providing drugs, manufacturing drugs is dangerous and can result in someone's death. And if your continued activity leads to someone's death, you can be held accountable for murder. This would be the second degree murder. Yes, it does fall under second degree murder, which still comes with a 15-year-to-life sentence.

And I want to touch on real fast, the difference between first-degree murder and second-degree murder. First degree murder, you intended to kill the person. Second degree murder, you knew what you were doing could result in someone's death. And despite that knowledge, you did it anyways. I can't believe I don't remember that from 1991 in criminal law. Some states refer to it as reckless homicide. It's how we convict those drunk driving if they killed somebody for vehicular homicide or vehicular manslaughter. But so we came up with this admonishment that would be given to a convicted drug dealer in a court by a judge and written provided in writing to the defendant.

And they have to acknowledge it. And this now, ultimately, what we hope is that it will deter somebody from continuing to deal deadly drugs. Well, let's go back for a minute. This to the listeners doesn't sound like common sense. Does sound like common sense. It doesn't. Because even the passage of this seems so light and so just ridiculous. Give me some examples, if you know of them, in red states that just aren't having any of this.

Do you know anything like that? well in many red states they've passed legislation that's actually tougher that's my point and what give me some examples because that's where you're going to find the common sense right i believe Texas uh Florida um a number of other states to pass legislation and that um mimics more closer are federal statutes federally we have some better laws for for dealing with drug related deaths. But here in California, you know, realize our law is simply a warning. If you abide by it, you have nothing to worry about. It's only if you disregard the warning, you continue to deal in deadly drugs and someone dies as a result. It's only then can that admonishment be used against

you to prove that burden of implies analysis. Okay. You guys were given another setback. What was that? Well, we had multiple hearings for Alexandra's law before Senate and Assembly Safety Committee is in Sacramento. Right, because the first run got shut down. Very quickly. Yes, this was too harsh. The slap on the wrist was too harsh. Yes, the warning was. This is so funny.

Dylan, we have to put this on the camera, okay? We have to get a real. It's a get out of jail free card, just like you would have in Monopoly. This is genius. I like this. Chance. Sell drugs, kill Americans go directly to jail. Do not pass go.

Do not collect $200. And then you've got this to our website. To your website. Yeah. Alexandra's Law website. We actually have two websites. That goes to stop drug homicide.org. And then we have Alexandra's Law.

which specifically focuses on Alexandra's law. Very good. Very good. And what was this? That's what is documented in court records. That is provided to the defendant

upon conviction. They sign it and that will remain on their record for the rest of their lives. This is actually what the judge or the bailiff will read these folks, these dealers being charged with this.

Okay? This is good. Oh, okay. It's better. Okay. Yeah, I have a feeling that in some of these red states, it's like you deal fentanyl and you're like locked up for over a decade. We still have a long ways to go because now we have to enforce the laws. And we have made tremendous progress with law enforcement.

But the reality is there's many law enforcement municipalities. at the local level that still do not investigate these deaths as homicides or crimes. Tell me about the federal law. Distribution of a controlled substance resulting in death. The drug dealer involved in my daughter's death was eventually charged under this. Distribution of fentanyl resulting in death. And it's pretty simple. You distribute drugs illegally and that results in someone's death.

You face a 20-year-to-life sentence. I want to go over the Spentanyl thing federally for a second because I've been doing some research for a long time. And what I did was I was putting these things down and then I cross-referenced them with what President Trump is currently doing for the fentanyl crisis and what he's going to be doing in short order. And I'm very encouraged by what he's been doing. So the first thing he's done is he's disrupted domestic fentanyl labs and pill mills with DEA task forces. That's fantastic, right? He's increased funding to law enforcement for drug interdiction and border enforcement. That's good.

Okay. He's strengthened the border detection tech and came. units at ports of entry. And really, I was just viewing the news the other night, the illegal entry into the United States from the southern border has essentially stopped. He expanded access to naloxone and makes it available over the counter. He's done more of that. Funded state-level harm reduction programs.

Okay, that's not true. going on right now. He's not going to have an ear for that. Okay. And you shouldn't because there's many ways to do harm reduction, right? Fentanyl strips are not the way to go, okay? Because they don't work. That's correct. It's a false sense of security. They don't work all the time. And, you know, there are several measures, harm reduction measures that I support, but I only support them if we have a clear pathway to not just enable these people to continue using drugs, but to get them into recovery and get them help. That's right. Well, that's a, that's, this is a holistic plan. Right. And these are the things he's doing currently. Let me tell you what he's going to be doing.

He is going to broker a deal with China to stop exporting fentanyl, uh, precursor chemicals. Okay. I've said all along that is the most surveilled country in the world. They know where everybody is and what they're doing at all times. They're looking the other way. And right now this is affecting our military, so it's a national security issue. If he hasn't already, he will be classifying fentanyl trafficking as a national security threat. He's going to be, if he hasn't already, designating Mexican cartels as foreign terrorist organizations. I think I heard something about that just recently.

This is my all-time favorite. Authorize cross-border strike capabilities for cartel labs in coordination with Mexico. Or not in coordination with Mexico. I care not at all. I care not at all. Yeah, not at all. Okay. Launch a nationwide fentanyl education and warning campaign from middle and high schools,

which is exactly what you and I are doing every day, right? This is, you know, here's the reason. If you're not affected by fentanyl, if you don't have a child or a loved one who's gone, you don't feel it. Your life is busy. You're like, okay, this sucks. This is a bad deal. It's horrible. Right?

You know, but it doesn't land. Right. And I've got young children. And it seems insane to me for parents with young children, young children, youngish children, teenagers, early 20s. It's like, if you're not interested in this and you've had children, why'd you have children? Listen, I've never done drugs in my life, yet somehow drugs have upended my life.

And for any parent to think this cannot happen to their family, to their kids, they've simply forgotten what it's like to be a teenager. There's not too many of us who grew up, and if we did it ourselves, we have friends who did, siblings who did. You knew people that did dabbled in drugs, experimented, you know, whatever you want to call it, party and getting high,

or just trying to deal with, you know, life's issues, depression, anxiety, and anxiety and depression these days are off the charts with young people. Absolutely. And with your daughter, the important thing to know is she wasn't an active drug user. See, the people that are active drug users, fentanyl users, don't typically die because they know how to use fentanyl. It's the kids from college or high school that go to a party or whatever that are not sophisticated at this.

They're the ones dying. So it's really harming the kids that, you know, didn't bargain for this and did you know better. There's no doubt my daughter was naive in her experiment, self-medicating, which I'll say kids today are making choices that are no different than our generation when we grew up. The differences, the drugs have changed. And we're out of time because they're dying. That's why. Do you know we call this we're out of time? Great name. Well, because you. That's why. Due to everything was because of you. Everything. I've done after hearing your story.

Everything I've done is because of you. Let's go, I want to finish this thing because I want to create some hope around this thing nationally. Because we're at a time where our president, okay, is not like other presidents. He creates a vaccine in nine months that takes 20 years to do. Okay. He doesn't care about Congress or the courts telling him what he can't do. He's going to do what he wants to do, right? You know, I call it a more modern democracy.

It's going to be a modern democracy going forward. Okay, that's just what this is. Real quick, mandate digital warnings on social media platforms where pills are sold, Snapchat, telegram, etc. Okay, that would be amazing, right? What would be amazing if social media, if we change the rules that protects social media. Right now, any number of crimes can take place on their platforms and they're not held accountable at all. Right, but they're smart enough to have AA algorithms that when people are looking at that specific content,

I'm not talking about an Elmo video or an unboxing video for five-year-olds, right? I'm talking about something that comes up in or around that subject, and then it's like warning where it's flashing, okay? Support that 100%. And he's going to do it. And there's no reason not to do it because it's not around other content. So it's not going to affect their bottom line. This is something that needs to be done. I mean, come on.

Mark. Support it 110%. Social media platforms are modern playgrounds for young people. That's where they're at. Alexandra's law or something stricter, obviously, nationally. Okay, and it is right now. Congressman Darrell Isa is...

Right here in California. Yes. In your neck of the woods. Yes, has introduced a federal version of it. So anybody arrested on federal charges and convicted would also receive this admonishment. And the great thing about that is state prosecutors would be able to use that to help them with state prosecutions, which is what we need because ultimately our federal agencies, they don't have the manpower to take on all these cases. Wouldn't it be great if the president instituted something where the federal government had to oversee specifically that they were doing these cases and that they weren't just blowing it?

on. Yeah. If they made sure these cases were investigated as crimes. He'll do it. This is the perfect president for the fentanyl issue. He's perfect. Okay? For this. Okay. You cannot find a better man.

You can't. I will say this. Yeah. You know, in just the first week or two of his administration, we heard fentanyl more times than we did in the previous four years under the previous administration. So that is a plus.

Okay. Create a phenol-specific federal charge with mandatory minimums. He's doing it. Launch a national treatment infrastructure build out 1,000 new centers in five years. I don't know if he's going to do that. It's a challenge.

It's ambitious. I just don't know if that's in his wheelhouse. I do know this. I do know that if he knew that there were building after building after building vacant at the VA, I know for certain he'd be like, throw him in there. Treat those people. I mean, just he's, that man must be aggravated all day long, all day long. One of the things people don't realize, through all this fentanyl awareness,

we hear about all of the deaths, record number of deaths. What we don't hear about as much is the record levels of addiction that are taken place because of these deaths. And deaths are on the decrease. So for the last year, we have seen a bit of a decrease. Yeah, you know why that is? You know why that is? Oh, here you're what you'd like to say on that?

They're dead. Yes, I... Okay, and there's more awareness around it, thank God. There's more access to... in arcand. Right. But what continues to fuel that is spreading out of hand is addiction. These drugs are so addictive. It is so hard to get off of these drugs. Your 30, 60, 90 day treatment programs from what I understand. And I'm no expert on addiction. That's okay. There's one in the room. You know, we're talking upwards of at least a year to get off of these drugs for your brain to

rewire itself. Right. And that's why we need to to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, focus heavily on education to stop people from taking these drugs before they even start. All right. So that's, that is clear. Okay. That needs, it needs to be hit on every level. Yeah. Okay. Because that's how wars are fought, right? It doesn't take a year to go off fentanyl. Okay. Depending on the length of usage and the amount of usage, it could take you a year to, for your head to completely clear, okay. But it's rare. very rare. Okay. This thing typically can be knocked out in 90 days, okay, with a good aftercare program because it's like anything else. If you don't use it, you lose it, right? You walk out of a

treatment center on fire, I'm good, I'm going to kill it, right? And then, you know, 90 days later, they're back where they were because, you know, you don't go through 40 hours of treatment a week and then just walk into nothing. That's not reality. There's one thing I'll never know, right? But remember, you called me and didn't you want me to spend money on a billboard? Didn't you do that? Yes. Right?

And it was like 50 grand a month, right? I don't think it was quite that much. You could lose it zero there. But we wanted to. Oh, it was $55 grand a month? Yeah. But we wanted to call out the senators that kept voting against Alexandra's law not passing it through to the floor for a vote. And it was, it was recommended to me that I do not

do that as, uh, since it was being adopted by Prompt 36. Right. It passed in November. Yes. Do you remember the day? November 5th, 2012. November 5th, 2024. Excellent. Now, when did it start gaining traction at the beginning of 2024? Was it a little before that? Because I remember in April, in April 2020, you had that huge setback. So when did it start where you said, okay, this now has a shot? Well, keep in mind, despite the setback in 2023, we were getting a lot of support. We actually had the majority of our state Senate on board as co-authors of the bill. We just couldn't get it passed out of the Public Safety Committee controlled by five senators

because three of those five, actually four of those five, would not support it. So we couldn't get it to the full floor for a vote. If we got it there, it would have passed. Do you know the names of the four people that didn't support it? So Scott Weiner represents a district in San Francisco. Stephen Bradford represents a district here in Los Angeles. Nancy Skinner represents an area near Berkeley. And Aisha Wahab.

Aisha Wahab was the other. Wahad? Wahab. Wahhab. Wahhab. And I think her district is somewhere, is either Oakland or around Oakland. All right. So if you're listening to this podcast and you've had enough of that nonsense,

there are the four people to get rid of as quickly as possible. Not all of them are still on the safety committee anymore, but they're still moving on in politics. and these people do not belong in politics. No, they don't. They don't belong anywhere. So what ended up being great, a blessing in disguise, and it's amazing how things have just worked out the way they have. When did it start?

Well, you know, we first introduced this in 2020, and it first had its first hearing in early 2021. But every time we reintroduced it, we watered it down a little bit to just try to get something to pass. To make it more palatable. Make it more palatable. Ultimately, by the end, it was specific to just fentanyl. Originally, we had it.

Somebody would get the admonishment for dealing methamphetamine, cocaine, fentanyl, and a couple other hard drugs. We narrowed it down to just fentanyl. So not car fentanyl or xylase. No, any analogs of fentanyl, they would get the admonishment. But also primarily because fentanyl is now being put into all these other drugs. All of them. Right. Anybody who's dealing drugs, we want to get the admonishment. But in an effort to make it pass, because this is one of the arguments by the Senate Safety Committee, they mentioned that it might be more palatable to them if we just narrowed it down to fentanyl, which we did. We did some things to make sure a minor wouldn't get this admonishment. They were dead set on if somebody's under 18 caught dealing drugs, they shouldn't get the admonishment. Keep in mind, I'm of the opposite belief on that. As a parent, if my child was dealing drugs, I want this. You know,

Give them this warning. It's just a warning. Scare the heck out of them. I don't want them to continue dealing with that. Exactly. Exactly. It's just more insane. But if you can drive a car at 16, okay, which it has deadly capabilities, okay,

then you should be able to, like, can't you go to war at 18? Yeah. Yeah. And we can't give a warning to somebody between 16 and 18. And convicted of dealing drugs? Yeah. Just because they happen to be 17, 16. Yeah.

16 and 18, 16 through 18 should be a different standard. Right. So when Prop 36 came along and the people who were behind it, they added Alexandra's law to it and they kept in its original format. When did this thing start really taking hold? There was a ton. Was it in 2024? Yes.

Yeah. as Prop, when Prop 36 was announced, and we started to get more, and when was it announced? Oh, gosh, it had to, probably around March of 2024, and there had to be a lot of money raised because we need, you know, the ballot measure process, California doesn't make it easy. Realize a ballot measure is a way around our legislature. So our legislature sets the rules on how you get something to qualify for the ballot. And it takes lots of signatures to get signatures these days. It takes lots of money. You have a very short period of time to do it.

And you really have to have to have all to start. And you have to be about 100% over the figure that they give you because they do this Jedi mind trick nonsense. Where if you write out of the line this much, they don't count signatures. Right. But this passed insane. Prop 36 passed overwhelmingly. Just over 70% of Californians voted and supported.

Wow. is like one of the highest ballot measures that California supported in history. So really what they're saying is there's 70% of the people in California who have common sense. Yeah. You know, that's good news. I didn't think that that was that high. And Prop 36 for your listeners and viewers so they know it. But that's important though.

Let me just go back because these are people. this was a this was not a liberal idea the liberals were very much against this in California so to have where 60 where two thirds of the state is Democrat to have 70% of the state say uh-uh this is a bridge too far you're dealing this stuff you're going to jail and i and i think it's your extreme liberals we did have a lot of democratic support. The mayor, San Diego. You're exactly right. You're exactly right. It's common sense. But we've let Sacramento run amok with these handful of legislators that just have too much

power. And ultimately, now they abuse their power because they can. They're in positions of control. But so your viewers know, Prop 36 dealt with a few things. It also dealt with the rampant retail theft that's been taking place in California. And what people don't, what are, what our legislators fail to take. tie into the, to the reshelfthft is a good portion of that is because of drug use. You know, people are stealing to fuel their addiction. And so you curb one, you're going to help the other. And in addition to Alexandra's lobbying part of it, one of the things I think this is really great,

and I'm going to be very curious to get your take on it. On your third arrest for a drug offense, drug offense dealing, or using either. Okay, where you can never lent those two, but go on. Okay. It is, you now have a choice between going to prison or getting treatment. Mm-hmm. Whereas prior to Prop 36, you faced no prison time, and there was no incentive to go into treatment.

I mean, you really had to go in on your own free will, but, you know, so many of these people are never going to get to that point or could perhaps die first. So not on your first, not on your second. your third conviction of a drug of fats. Conviction. Conviction. Okay. Who the hell goes through three convictions of anything? 99% of cases settle.

Remember, this is California, but it was only then you get the option of court-mandated treatment or you're going behind bars. And we believe this is going to nudge more people to get treatment. Treatment sounds better than going behind bars. Well, treatment's always better. But here's the thing. That's not going to make a big difference. And the reason it's not going to make a big difference is exactly what I told you.

Okay. They're going to plead. Okay. So they're never going to be in that situation. Now, a lot of the times the pleading will result in that. Yes. And keep in mind, another aspect of this is if you successfully complete the treatment, you can have the record expunged. Because we don't want this to hold it.

career on what the hell does successfully complete the treatment mean. Well, that's out of my realm of expertise. Well, wait, so that's not in there yet. No, it is in there. Okay, so what does it say? What does, what is the definition of completely, uh, completed their treatment? Oh, I imagine, you know, if it's, if it's a number of steps. So we don't have, we don't have that spelled out in the law.

It is spelled out. Uh, I believe that includes. So you'd have to read more in the details of prop their, I want. you to send that and I don't want to put them on the screen. So, because that's, that's bull. And let me tell you, walk, depending on how you define that, okay, it doesn't mean anything. It's like saying, what is your success rate in a rehab? People ask me that all the time. I'm like, what criteria? Because every single rehab uses a different criteria to serve them and make them look good. My definition is a year sober with regular testing every week, okay, so that you know, you don't think you know, you know it's real, right?

So a year sober, you know, six months in a rehab and six months in a sober living without patient, okay? that to me sounds like, okay, you're good. I would even say further, it might be an extra two years, okay, right? So if you fall in the next two years, it's not expunged, right? So these are the types of things that I would be interested to know. Sure. And I will tell you this, the people behind Prop 36, they have gotten experts involved, and they have really top people in the field working on this.

Excellent. We'll see. But one of, I'll be the judge of that if you don't mind one bit. You should be on the panel advising them. Well, I wasn't asked. Everybody thinks they're smarter than me, but that's fine. Well, maybe I can even, it's so, maybe I can go to introduction. But something else to that.

Dylan. We don't talk enough about the street, drug dealers driving this crisis. The dealer who sold to my daughter, weeks after knowing she was dead, reached out to his supplier to purchase more of these pills. It took two years for him to finally be arrested. I would be foolish to believe that my daughter was his only victim.

For sure. For sure. and we need to, you know, we talk about holding China accountable. My beliefs are in the cartels, we are not going to stop these drugs from coming into our country. We've never been able to stop drugs from coming into our country. And now we're talking about a drug that is fatal and microscopic dosages. We seal our border. It's going to come by boat. It's going to come by plane.

It's going to be manufactured here. In addition to the robust education that we need in our school system to our youth, we need to hold these dealers accountable, these street-level dealers. But that's what this law just did. Absolutely. But we still need law enforcement to make arrests so they get this admonished. Well, Nathan's not going to tolerate. Nathan's, you know, there are good DA is coming on board.

But here's a statistic that I hope we improve on. Less than 2% of all drug deaths result in. the conviction of a drug dealer. Less than 2% of these drug dealers should be getting away with murder. But that goes back. That's not, that's illusory. Okay.

It's illusory because 98% or 99% are being settled out. They're not going to trial. They're not being arrested. You're saying they're not even being arrested. That's correct. You didn't say convicted. You said arrested.

Arrested. Both. Both. 98% of the Fetanol dealers that don't even get arrested. Absolutely. So they're out there and the cops are just,

I don't want to deal with this right now. They write it up as an accidental overdose. Blame the user. And we need to shift that. Why are they writing it up as an accidental over? How would they know? Why wouldn't they just write it up as an overdose and then let the legal process take its course?

Because if it's marked non-criminal, there's no further investigation. What do you mean? How do you mark an overdose non-criminal before you've investigated it? It's done every day. Most of these deaths are why? Because they put the burden of blame on the person who they say chose to take the drugs. Okay. So, but they don't know.

So why not Nathan? There's your next deal. That's why many counties have now formed fentanylough task force. to properly investigate. Okay. Let's, let's, let's, this is, wow. All right. We're one of the lucky few that got some semblance of justice.

Okay, this is not. The majority do not. Come on, I don't even know any year for this. There's nothing like, you know, this type of trauma and it's really murder. It's poison. It's not, it's not, they're not over. they're being poisoned, right, to death. Yeah.

So I've never heard of something like this, and then somebody gets an admonishment in court, and people are like, yay, this is nonsense to me. Yeah. Well, keep in mind, the admonishment will be given a lot of people are mistaken, and they think a death has to occur to get the admonishment. No, it's just a dealing. There's the dealy.

Right. But then you deal it again, but nobody dies. There is, it doesn't take into effect, it doesn't take effect, does it? Well, if you deal again, if somebody does die, you know, and they can forget that. In this scenario, the guy goes in, he sells, he sells fentanyl, nobody dies, he gets arrested, and he's read an admonishment court. There is no, there is no conviction. It's in stone. It's part of the deal.

If you want to leave today, this is the deal you're cutting. And then they do that. Five minutes later, he's out on the street dealing again, but nobody dies. What did the admonishment... Well, keep in mind. So we mirrored our current... I'm talking about the law right now. We mirrored our current DUI legislation.

When somebody gets convicted of driving under the influence, they get something called the Watson admonishment. Once we enacted that and people started getting the Watson admonishment, we saw a dramatic reduction in DUI fatalities. I believe wholeheartedly, the more people to get this admonishment, not everybody, I'm not nice. No, but you're right, you're right, you're going to see a signet. And I'll tell you why that is in a minute, but go on. There's going to be an element of people that are going to be like, oh shit, I better not deal again. However, that's true. And I'll tell you why that that's happening. But, True or untrue, you get an admonishment, you leave the courthouse, before you hit the car,

sure caught dealing again, you're arrested back in court, but nobody dies. Other than what did the admonishment in that scenario mean? Well, obviously this person didn't learn their lesson and they're willing to risk it, But if they are able to tie this person to a death, now prosecutors will have a better chance of convicting this person of murder. The answer is nothing. The answer is nothing, correct? If you don't, if you get the admonishment,

I'm not talking shit about the admonishment, dude. I'm the president of the fan club right now about admonishment. Somebody doesn't have to listen to it. They don't have to. I understand. But they're setting themselves up for trouble in the future. I understand that. but true or untrue, does there anything different happen to them if they leave the courtroom,

they just got the admonishment, they're back the next day, but no one dies. Did anything change? Under Prop 36, there are also new laws that have been enacted that come with harsher penalties for someone with multiple drug violations. So there is something. Yeah. Okay. That's good.

That's good news. I was hoping there'd be something because, you know, you said to yourself that there's not investigating a ton of these things. So, yeah, they still have to investigate. So it starts there. Law enforcement, you are correct in that. Nothing will happen if there's no investigation. And law enforcement has just widespread, then slow to start investigating all these. They'll start doing it now.

Because now they have the support of knowing they're going to be convinced. right before they knew it was a waste of their time so why would they do it i get it and there's too many of their constituents who have now lost a loved one that are demanding it now let me tell you why there were so many people okay that stopped drinking and driving once the admonishment happened only five to ten percent of the country rise to the level of addiction or drug drug addiction or alcoholism, only about 10%. What does that mean? Well, there's the rest of us, the other 90% of us, that have high bottoms.

We're not dependent on it. We're not thinking about it all day, right? So those people immediately, over half of those people are going to immediately go, never again, right? Those are the rule followers among us. and the rest to various degrees are going to be compliant. So because of that and because it's in our consciousness from back of mind to front of mind,

what happens is you're always going to have a huge positive result when you do something like that. I think I might have said something earlier in the podcast to conflict that and I was wrong. Well, you drive home a very good point with what you just said. There is an element of people. that are going to have that way in on them, on their conscience, and they are going to abide by it. Sure. I'll give you an example. You and I both get caught drinking and driving. We both go in

front of the court. The judge looks at you and says, Matthew, if you ever drink and drive again, you're going to jail for a decade. Do you hear me? And you're like, yes, sir, my ass is kicked. and you can actually make a decision in that moment. Never drinking and driving again. Me? I'm told that. I'm going to jail. I know it.

I'm factoring it in. Go to jail. Right? I mean, check. Right? It's just a matter of time. So I don't have a choice. How can other families support your mission?

Reach out to me personally. And I'm not big on social media. I do Facebook. I'm easily found on Facebook. I can be reached. Where can you be found on Facebook? Matt Capoludo. And I'm part of a nonprofit called

Stop Drug Homicide. Stopdrug Homicide.org. We'll have my contact information. I work with a network of parents that are all out there fighting the good fight. We work together. We support each other. And I unfortunately welcome more parents

into our fold. We're here to offer support. And, you know, I hope there's a day when I don't need any more parents. But if you're out there and you're in seek of the support group, please reach out. Now, you know, the podcast is here because of you and your daughter. We've been doing it. At the end of this month, we'll be seven months. How many subscribers do we have right now on YouTube?

Over 32,000. They're coming. I can't believe it. And I got to say, I can't take all the credit. The right doors have opened. There are many, many parents and advocates out there who are fighting the good fight. I want to recognize them.

And I know I had them all on my, Yeah, you helped me to find them. I got all those people on that PSA that I ran up in Sacramento for a year. Ventanile changes everything. No parent should ever have to give CPR to their own child to try to save their wife. They need to start holding these dealers accountable. I'm sorry that you had to go this way. I still text you every day like you're here.

I wish you'd come back. My question to them is, what about my black child? Who's protecting our black and brown children that are dying from this? They've completely failed us. Do you know when I was running those? When Alexandra's love was being hurt. From October 23 through and including December 24. Yeah.

Wow. You know, I didn't even know your name forever. What did I used to call you? Alexandra's dead? Nothing could be more of an honor. It's not about me. It's not about you at this point. It's about the lives there to be lost if we don't step up and do something now.

Like you said, we're out of time. So before you go, I wanted to tell you about an idea I had, right, that I think would be really good. I want you to write a beginning, a middle and an end, to, a documentary or a short film about your daughter and fentanyl don't get into the to the passage of anything and none of that noise

okay just how wonderful your daughter was right I'll want video afterwards of her maybe as a baby and with her parents and pappy and right and then as she grows

up and what made her so special, right? And then what happened? So, beginning, a middle, and an end. Okay? I'm thinking 10, 15 minutes max, right? When you do that, I'll have it made into that movie, that short film, and we'll show it in every school in the country. How's that?

Good. Save lives. Let's do it. I'm going to hold you to it. Oh, you don't have to hold me to it. When can I get that from you? I'm going to work on it immediately. Good.

When can I get it? Yeah. Shoot, uh, let's hope for her in the next couple weeks. Why not? I think that's realistic. Okay, well, it's Fetanol Awareness Day. So it's called May, June. How's by July 1st?

So we can get this thing out. Let's call it. September 1st. Okay. Huh? Good goal? Yeah. You got to set a goal.

Yeah. I think you know what that lines up well with? Everything. The beginning of the new school year. Let's have it ready to go by the beginning of explorer. That's when kids need to see this. I'll be back in school. All right.

After you write this thing, you start dealing with your school people and let's get it in your area first. Then I'm going to call a couple friends of mine that deal with the school district, and I'm going to get that done. And if they don't, what are we going to do, Dylan? If they don't do it. We'll make sure they do it. We'll make sure they do it.

For sure. We'll move accordingly. We will move accordingly. That is correct. We will move accordingly. Great. Okay. You good?

Yeah. See you next Tuesday, everybody. We're out of time. Please subscribe on YouTube, click the thumbs up, and leave a comment. Please subscribe on Apple Podcast and Spotify, and leave a rating and a review. And share the We're Out of Time podcast

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