Walberg: Combating the fentanyl crisis
For the first time ever, drug overdose deaths in the United States topped 100,000 last year. Tragically, fentanyl overdoses are now the leading cause of death for Americans between the ages of 18 and 45.
These startling statistics come after seeing some encouraging trends for a few years prior to the pandemic, due in part to increased awareness and sweeping congressional action like the SUPPORT Act and other proactive bipartisan legislation. The SUPPORT Act was a landmark law we passed in 2018 comprised of bipartisan solutions to the opioid crisis, including “Jessie’s Law” which I coauthored with Rep. Debbie Dingell.
There is not a single solution to reverse this devastating trend, but one pressing place to turn our attention is the overrun southern border. Much of this illicit fentanyl originates from China and is smuggled across the border. Increasingly, the Mexican drug cartels are producing it themselves.
Over the past year, President Joe Biden’s lax border policies have created a mounting catastrophe, allowing for fentanyl and other lethal drugs to pour across the border and into our communities.
In fact, in Fiscal Year 2021, 11,201 pounds of fentanyl were seized by U.S. Customs and Border Protection, a staggering 134% increase from the previous fiscal year. And this was just what was seized — imagine what made it through the porous border undetected. This amount is enough to kill every American nearly seven times over. For an individual, just a few milligrams can be fatal.
Securing the border must be a top priority to stop the flow of these deadly drugs into the nation. In addition, as the problem continues to evolve, Congress must keep pace to ensure law enforcement has the tools it needs to combat those flouting the law.
To skirt full enforcement of trafficking fentanyl, many drug cartels have created analogues to fentanyl. Congress took initial action by creating an emergency scheduling classification for these fentanyl-related substances, which gave law enforcement officials greater ability to crack down on this scourge. But this classification was only granted on an emergency status, meaning Congress has been facing deadline after deadline as the classification faces expiration.
To address this issue, my colleagues and I on the Energy and Commerce Committee have introduced the HALT Fentanyl Act. The commonsense legislation would make it illegal for fentanyl to be used outside of research and authorized medical purposes by making permanent an emergency class-wide scheduling order for fentanyl-related substances as Schedule I substances. This would effectively ban the selling of molecularly altered fentanyl substances manufactured by criminals, as well as better equip law enforcement to keep these extremely lethal drugs off our streets and from crossing the border in the first place.
Sadly, Speaker Nancy Pelosi recently blocked this legislation, and instead opted to once again kick the can down the road and temporarily extend the deadline, just a week before the current deadline’s expiration.
There is no reason for this to be a partisan issue. As we have seen over the years, the opioid epidemic has impacted Americans of all walks of life in every corner of our state and country — regardless of political persuasion. Failing to take needed action will only perpetuate this crisis further, exacerbating the humanitarian and national security failures at the southern border.
Instead of playing politics with people’s lives, we need to secure the border, pass the HALT Fentanyl Act, and stem the tide of the growing fentanyl crisis. There’s not a moment to waste.
U.S. Rep. Tim Walberg, R-Tipton, represents Michigan’s 7th District, which includes Monroe and Lenawee counties, and is a member of the Energy and Commerce Committee.
This article originally appeared on The Monroe News: Tim Walberg: Combating the fentanyl crisis
