Trump signs HALT Fentanyl Act; reclassifies opioid as Schedule I drug
President Trump signs 'halt fentanyl act'
President Trump signed the 'halt fentanyl act' on Wednesday. POTUS hosted families affected by the fentanyl epidemic for a bipartisan bill signing to close loopholes and increase prosecution charges of criminals trafficking fentanyl.
WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump signed HALT Fentanyl Act on Wednesday, reclassifying it as a Schedule 1 drug.
What they're saying:
Trump said the bill will toughen prison sentences by permanently reclassifying illegal, fentanyl-related drugs.
"We’ll be getting the drug dealers, pushers and peddlers off our streets," Trump said before signing the bill into law Wednesday.
What's in the bill?
Dig deeper:
The new bill automatically places all fentanyl-related copycat drugs into the government’s most highly restrictive category of banned substances, which also includes heroin.
The legislation does not affect fentanyl when used for medical purposes.
What is fentanyl?
Why you should care:
According to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, fentanyl is a potent synthetic opioid drug approved by the Food and Drug Administration for use as an analgesic (pain relief) and anesthetic.
It is approximately 100 times more potent than morphine and 50 times more potent than heroin as an analgesic.
In public, it can be referred to as: Apace, China Girl, China Town, Dance Fever, Friend, Goodfellas, Great Bear, He-Man, Jackpot, King Ivory, Murder 8, Poison and Tango & Cash.
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An overdose can cause stupor, changes in pupil size, clammy skin, cyanosis, coma, and respiratory failure leading to death.
Where does fentanyl come from?
Trump’s imposed tariffs on goods from Mexico, Canada and China is partly aimed at combating the illicit flow of fentanyl into the U.S., where the opioid is blamed for some 70,000 overdose deaths annually.
The ingredients in fentanyl are largely produced by companies in China and used by pharmaceutical companies to make legal painkillers. But a portion of those chemicals is purchased by the Sinaloa and Jalisco cartels in Mexico.
Cartels make the synthetic opioid in labs and then smuggle it into the U.S., largely at official land crossings in California and Arizona. The small amounts of fentanyl in any shipment — the drug is 50 times more potent than heroin — and its lack of odor, make detection and seizures extremely challenging.
Fentanyl is also made in Canada and smuggled into the U.S., but to a much lesser extent. U.S. customs agents seized 43 pounds of fentanyl at the Canadian border during the last fiscal year, compared with 21,100 pounds at the Mexican border.
Efforts to combat fentanyl crisis
The Senate passed a bill that would result in more prison sentences for fentanyl traffickers as both Republicans and Democrats seek to show they can act to rein in distribution of the deadly drug.
The bill passed the Senate on an 84-16 vote, with all the nay votes from Democrats. It next heads to the House, where a similar version of the bill has already passed with significant Democratic support.
Critics say the proposal repeats the mistakes of the so-called "war on drugs," which imprisoned millions of people addicted to drugs, particularly Black Americans.
Called the HALT Fentanyl Act, the bill would permanently place all copycat versions of fentanyl — alterations of the drug that are often sold by traffickers — on the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration’s list of most dangerous drugs, known as Schedule 1. The drugs had already been temporarily placed on the list since 2018, but that designation was set to expire at the end of the month. The move would mean an increase in criminal convictions for distributing fentanyl-related substances, according to the Congressional Budget Office.
The Source: The Associated Press contributed to this report. The information in this story comes from multiple sources, including statements from independent journalist Marisa Kabas and political commentator Adam Schwarz, who expressed concerns about the potential implications of Trump's executive order. Facts about fentanyl’s potency, street names, and overdose risks are attributed to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. This story was reported from Los Angeles.