WASHINGTON, D.C. – With help from 74 Democrats, including three from Ohio, House Republicans passed the Halt Fentanyl Act on Thursday.
The bill would make permanent what the government has done on a temporary basis since 2018, placing fentanyl-related substances into the category reserved for the most dangerous drugs.
“I consider illicit fentanyl to be a weapon of mass destruction. A huge danger to America,” Southwest Ohio Rep. Brad Wenstrup said at a Capitol Hill press conference.
Wenstrup and other Ohio Republicans spent the week urging the bill’s passage. They pointed out that the Ohio Department of Health says fentanyl was involved in 80% of unintentional drug overdose deaths in the Buckeye State in 2021, and the numbers keep rising.
“In March alone, 130 people died from fentanyl overdoses just in Cuyahoga County,” Northeast Ohio Rep. Max Miller said at a separate press event.
Supporters say the bill would help law enforcement hold accountable drug cartels that are deceptively pressing fentanyl into pills that Americans buy not knowing they are laced.
It would establish mandatory minimum prison sentences for those found guilty of distributing fentanyl-related substances. But some Democrats who voted against it worry this could be the latest chapter of the war on drugs that has disproportionately targeted minorities.
“We simply cannot incarcerate our way out of a public health crisis. The Halt Fentanyl Act does not provide any resources for research or for prevention or for treatments, recovery, or harm reduction,” New Jersey Democratic Rep. Frank Pallone said on the House floor.
Northwest Ohio Rep. Bob Latta (R), a lead sponsor of the bill, thinks the sentencing guidelines are common sense.
“When you look at what the mandatory is for a 10-year [sentence], it’s enough doses to kill 50,000 people. I think that warrants that to be a mandatory minimum,” Latta told Spectrum News.
The White House came out in support of the legislation, which could help it get through the Democratic-led Senate.
