During the State of the Chamber on Thursday, June 15, Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes discussed several major challenges that Arizona faces under her watch. She covered Arizona’s drug crisis, water crisis, increase in behavioral health and consumer fraud, election threats and social media impact on the youth.

Mayes began her address by thanking those in attendance and reminding everyone that she had won the AG race by only 280 votes over her Republican opponent, Abe Hamadeh, one of the closest elections in state history.

“They may not ever call me ‘Landslide Mayes,’ but I am honored to be your attorney general,” she said.

Fentanyl crisis

“We have a fentanyl crisis in the State of Arizona,” Mayes said, adding that in 2022, half of all the fentanyl seizures by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) in America occurred in Arizona.

Fentanyl is largely being produced in Mexico, Mayes said, and is smuggled across the border through the U.S. ports of entry. Mayes, whose office is responsible for major drug investigations and prosecutions, said the federal government needs to “modernize” those ports of entry and increase security at the border.

“[Fentanyl] is not as detectable as other drugs by drug-sniffing dogs, for instance,” Mayes said. “We need more resources all across the board.”

More must also be done on the addiction side, Mayes added, who ostensibly has access to $40 million per year in settlement agreements that the AG’s office – including her predecessor, Mark Brnovich – negotiated with opioid companies to boost treatment and aid in the opioid crisis.

“It’s killing our kids, it’s killing folks of all ages and it is contributing to the homelessness crisis,” she said.

Water issues

Mayes emphasized her approach to protecting Arizona’s water supply, taking direct aim at foreign-owned farms in Western Arizona that use unlimited groundwater to grow alfalfa to feed cattle overseas.

“As you may have noticed, I’ve been pretty darn critical of the decision by our state government and in particular, ADWR and the state land department, to allow the Saudis to grow alfalfa in Western Arizona,” Mayes said. “We are giving the water away for free to the Saudis…I don’t know about you, but I think it’s outrageous that our state government would allow that to happen.”

Mayes discussed the challenge of protecting water quality by reducing forever chemicals such as Per- and Polyfluorinated Substances (PFAS), which are commonly found on products that resist heat, oil, stains, grease and water. Mayes says these forever chemicals started in firefighting foam and began contaminating water wells around military basis and fire stations.

Mayes has already filed a lawsuit on behalf of the state of Arizona against 3M, Johnson Controls, DuPont and Dow, saying these companies knew the chemicals were carcinogenic but “did not stop them.”

“They’re the ones who are responsible, not our local businesses, not our local municipalities, and we’re going to make them clean it up,” she said.

Fraud and scam

Mayes outlined a crisis involving fraud at AHCCCS, the state’s Medicaid agency, in which fraudsters established so-called sober living homes for Native Americans, especially Navajos. They were enticed by gift cards and other incentives, possibly through kidnapping, Mayes said, and then billed AHCCCS for this fee-for-service scam.

According to Mayes, 41 LLCs and companies have already been prosecuted and an additional 15 target letters have been sent to shut down fraud that, in her words, could be north of a billion dollars.

Mayes said there has also been an uptick in consumer fraud in the economy, especially amongst seniors who are common targets for robocalls, romance scams and more recently, artificial intelligence scams.

“We are going to continue to crack down on those kinds of scams and frauds out of my office because it's so important to help our economy,” she said.

Election threats

Two-thirds of Maricopa County’s top election officials have stepped down as a result of death threats, threats of intimidation or threats of violence, Mayes said, adding that democracy cannot be maintained if there are not “good people willing to step up and take these positions.”

“As your attorney general, we will no longer tolerate death threats or threats of violence against our elections officials. I will prosecute it going forward,” she said.

Mayes reiterated her support of voting by mail, which is popular among Arizona voters.

When it comes to supporting local businesses, Mayes said she is currently forming a business advisory council committee within the AG’s office in support of businesses across the state and will provide representation for businesses when it comes to utility rates.

Social media

In closing, Mayes said she is beginning to investigate the major social media platforms and their algorithms in correlation to heightened suicide rates among the youth.

Mayes specifically named TikTok and Meta, the parent company of Facebook, in her investigation and is considering injunctive relief such as social media age limits and parental controls to aid in this crisis.

“The science and the evidence is showing that it is having a dramatic impact on our kids, especially young girls, and is leading to body dysmorphia, mental health issues and even suicide,” Mayes said.