Sen. Brown discusses FEND Off Fentanyl Act in Zanesville

ZANESVILLE – U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) recently visited Zanesville to meet with local leaders and law enforcement personnel to discuss his bipartisan Fentanyl Eradication and Narcotics Deterrence (FEND) Off Fentanyl Act. It is a sanctions and anti-money laundering bill aimed at combatting the country’s fentanyl crisis and saving lives in Ohio.

The bill targets the illicit fentanyl supply chain, from the chemical suppliers in China to the cartels that transport the drugs from Mexico. Brown was joined by Zanesville Mayor Donald Mason and Zanesville Police Chief Scott Comstock.

“I hear over and over from Ohioans that we need new, more powerful tools to prevent the flow of these drugs our communities,” said Brown. “Our bipartisan bill targets these drugs at the source. We are going after the illicit fentanyl supply chain, from China through Mexico, to help stop increasingly dangerous forms of this drug before they ever reach our communities.”

Mason said Zanesville is diverting hundreds of thousands of dollars of resources into combating fentanyl sales and use in the local community.

"It is our top cause of crime - the reduction in quality of life and is making our neighborhoods unsafe. We welcome efforts at the federal and international level to choke back the source which are the Chinese and Mexico drug cartels who are activity and aggressively attacking the American culture and economic growth by polluting our people with deadly drugs. We must win this battle or we will lose our nation,” Mason said.

Comstock added, “The Zanesville Police Department is committed to fighting the opioid epidemic and recognizes the negative impacts fentanyl has had on communities. We support any measures that can be taken to limit the suppliers and any sanctions that can be imposed on the proceeds of these illegal gains that are being made at the expense of our citizens."

The prevalence of increasingly-dangerous forms of fentanyl, often mixed with other substances, is a serious and increasing public health threat to Ohio communities. In 2021, fentanyl was involved in 80% of Ohio unintentional drug overdose deaths. The DEA and law enforcement partners seized more than 87,000 fentanyl-laced pills in Ohio in a period of less than four months last year.

By strengthening current law and directing the treasury department to target, sanction and block the financial assets of transnational criminal organizations and target those that launder money to facilitate illicit opioid trafficking, the FEND Off Fentanyl Act aims to stop the flow of deadly fentanyl into Ohio communities by penalizing those that traffic in synthetic opioids.

Brown – who chairs the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee – introduced the FEND Off Fentanyl Act with Ranking Member Tim Scott (R-SC) and the leaders of the Senate Committee on Armed Services, Chairman Jack Reed (D-RI) and Ranking Member Roger Wicker (R-MS). The bill has 40 bipartisan co-sponsors.

Brown also recently reintroduced bipartisan, bicameral legislation to provide state and local law enforcement with high-tech devices to detect and identify dangerous drugs like fentanyl. The Providing Officers with Electronic Resources (POWER) Act would establish a new grant program through the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) to help state and local law enforcement organizations secure these high-tech, portable screening devices.

Information and photo submitted by the office of Sen. Sherrod Brown.

This article originally appeared on Zanesville Times Recorder: Sen. Brown discusses FEND Off Fentanyl Act in Zanesville