Trump signs bill to toughen fentanyl-related crimes

President Donald Trump signed the Halt All Lethal Trafficking of Fentanyl Act, or HALT Fentanyl Act, on Wednesday, July 16. That legislation is designed to help curb the ongoing opioid epidemic, fueled in part by fentanyl.

HALT Fentanyl Act

The president held a ceremony at the White House with lawmakers and people who lost family members to fentanyl overdoses.

Among the many things this legislation does, it categorizes fentanyl and all related substances, including synthetic copycat versions of the drug, under Schedule I in the Controlled Substances Act.

“Anyone caught trafficking these illicit poisons will be punished with a mandatory ten-year minimum sentence in prison,” President Trump said during the ceremony. “We’ll be getting the drug dealers, pushers and peddlers off our street, and we will not rest until we have ended the drug overdose epidemic.”

Along with longer prison sentences for dealers, moving fentanyl to that categorization will give law enforcement more power to stop the spread of the drug. Specifically, they’ll have more tools when it comes to those copycat versions that help drug manufacturers get around the Controlled Substances Act.

A Reuters report shows much of the epidemic is fueled by chemicals from China making their way to Mexican drug cartels, who then synthesize those chemicals into fentanyl.

“We’ve been supportive of this legislation because law enforcement needs predictability about what fentanyl is, and having permanent scheduling of it is a critical feature not only for law enforcement but also for international partnerships to help reduce the supply to the country,” Kevin Roy, Chief Public Policy Officer at Shatterproof, told Straight Arrow News.

Shatterproof is a national nonprofit focused on reducing the impact of addiction on the country.

“These are just pieces of a national strategy,” Roy continued. “So, stopping fentanyl is a core element of that, and this is an important day in that regard, but it’s only one piece of a strategy.”

Fentanyl in America

The levels of fentanyl inside America have reached incredibly dangerous numbers and killed 450,000 people over the past decade.

In Texas alone, officials announced in January the results of Operation Lone Star, showing the expansive nature of the fentanyl smuggling trade. They say that operation helped them seize more than 622 million lethal doses of fentanyl, enough to kill every person in the U.S., Mexico and Canada combined.

President Trump has been extremely critical of Mexico, Canada and China over the flow of fentanyl into the U.S.

Just two milligrams of fentanyl, equal to just a few grains of salt, is enough to kill someone.

Fentanyl deaths more than tripled from 2016 to 2021, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

It remains the leading cause of drug overdose deaths in America. However, overdose deaths have dropped to their lowest levels since June 2020, according to the CDC.

“I think when you look at the slight decline in overdose deaths year over year, you know, we should celebrate any reduction in loss of life. However, we really need to keep it in perspective,” Roy said. “This is still catastrophically high in terms of the number of deaths.”

Drug research

While the HALT Fentanyl Act focuses on the crackdown of fentanyl in the country, it also adds special provisions for researchers working with fentanyl.

It can be difficult for researchers to get approval to obtain samples of Schedule I drugs, which now includes fentanyl.

The hope is that researchers will be able to learn more about the effects of fentanyl and other synthetic drugs on the human body.