WASHINGTON D.C. — Sens. Martin Heinrich, D-N.M., Bill Cassidy, R-La., and Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, introduced the bipartisan Halt All Lethal Trafficking of Fentanyl Act to permanently classify fentanyl-related substances as Schedule I drugs under the Controlled Substances Act Jan. 30. This permanent scheduling will give law enforcement the tools they need to keep extremely lethal and dangerous drugs off our streets and ensure scientists can research and better understand these substances. “We’re losing nearly 75,000 Americans each year to illicit fentanyl overdoses,” Heinrich said. “I refuse to accept this reality, and that’s why I’m working to deliver tools law enforcement personnel need to keep deadly fentanyl off our streets and out of our communities. Permanently scheduling fentanyl and its analogues will help federal and local law enforcement crack down on illegal trafficking and allow prosecutors to build stronger, longer-term criminal cases. Our HALT Fentanyl Act will help stop the flow of these deadly drugs into our communities and save lives.” The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that there were over 107,000 overdose deaths in the U.S. in 2023. Fentanyl and fentanyl-related substances accounted for nearly 75,000 of those deaths. Since 1999, the overdose crisis has increasingly been characterized by deaths involving these illicitly manufactured synthetic opioids, such as fentanyl-related substances, which are commonly sold through illicit drug markets for their fentanyl-like effect, and are often mixed with heroin or other drugs, such as cocaine, or pressed in to counterfeit prescription pills. During this same period, overdose deaths involving synthetic opioids (excluding methadone) increased 103-fold. By comparison, overdose deaths involving heroin and prescription opioids increased 2.5-fold and 4.1-fold, respectively. Traffickers are continually altering the chemical structure of fentanyl to evade regulation and prosecution, sometimes with tragic results. Since 2013, China has been the principal source of fentanyl, fentanyl-related substances, and the precursor chemicals from which they are produced. Chinese product is commonly shipped to Mexico and smuggled into the U.S’s illicit drug market. Traffickers have favored fentanyl-related substances to skirt around committing the crime of trafficking fentanyl and fentanyl analogues. In 2023, the Drug Enforcement Administration seized nearly 12,000 pounds of illicit fentanyl, including fentanyl powder and more than 78 million pills laced with illicit fentanyl. The 2023 seizures were equivalent to more than 388.8 million lethal doses of fentanyl. In 2018, as an initial response to this unprecedented crisis, the DEA issued a temporary scheduling order that placed fentanyl-related substances in Schedule I, under the Controlled Substances Act, after classifying it as an imminent hazard to public safety. Previously, Congress has only closed this loophole temporarily by designating fentanyl-related substances as Schedule I drugs. Congress has extended the FRS temporary scheduling order several times, most recently on Dec. 21, with a measure that expires March 31, 2025. Heinrich’s HALT Fentanyl Act would finally make permanent the scheduling of illicitly produced fentanyl-related substances as Schedule I drugs and streamline the regulatory process for scientists seeking approval from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to research Schedule I substances. CLEAR AND ENFORCEABLE CRIMINAL PENALTIES FOR FENTANYL TRAFFICKING A permanent scheduling of fentanyl-related substances is necessary to make penalties for criminals clear and enforceable under the DEA, reducing the supply and availability of illicitly manufactured fentanyl-related substances. The HALT Fentanyl Act places the strongest controls and penalties on fentanyl-related substances, which have no accepted medical use and a high abuse potential.
Specifically, the HALT Fentanyl Act will permanently impose the following quantity-based federal trafficking penalties on fentanyl-related substances:
- Mandatory minimum penalties: five years for 10 grams or more (10 years for second offense); and 10 years for 100 grams or more (20 years for second offense).
- Discretionary maximum penalties: 40 years for 10 grams or more (life for second offense); and life for 100 grams or more.
- Allowing researchers in the same institution to participate in multiple scientific studies.
- Permitting researchers with ongoing studies to examine newly added schedule I substances.
- Allowing researchers to manufacture small quantities of FRS without a separate registration.
