The Leader’s Floor Lookout: Thursday, February 6, 2025

Cracking Down on Fentanyl to Save American Lives

Thanks to Biden’s border crisis, fentanyl is pouring across our southern border, destroying lives, families, and communities. But still Democrats deny the problems that resulted from President Biden’s open border policies and refuse to take action on the mass poisoning of Americans.

Synthetic opioids, such as fentanyl, lead to nearly 70 percent of overdose deaths, as the drug can be deadly in even small doses and is up to 50 times stronger than heroin and 100 times stronger than morphine. In 2022, more than 200 people died from fentanyl and opioid-related overdoses every day, and fentanyl is the leading cause of death for Americans under 50 years old – taking more lives than heart disease, cancer, suicide, and homicide.

If the temporary order scheduling fentanyl related substances (FRS) ends, several FRS will become street-legal, law enforcement will lose authority to seize them, and drug traffickers will continue to funnel increasingly deadly drugs into the United States. 

This should not be partisan – lives are at stake. In 2022, drug overdoses claimed the lives of over 100,000 Americans, 67 percent of which involved synthetic opioids like fentanyl, and the DEA seized over 379 million doses of fentanyl – enough to kill every American.

H.R. 27, the HALT Fentanyl Act, introduced by Rep. Morgan Griffith, permanently classifies fentanyl-related substances (FRS) in Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act, guarantees law enforcement has the resources to keep these drugs off the street, and allows for further research of FRS.

House Republicans are doing everything in our power to stop fentanyl from claiming more American lives – will Democrats join our efforts, or continue to shy away from this deadly crisis?