Bipartisan legislation would permanently place fentanyl-related substances into Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act, helping law enforcement combat fentanyl trafficking, while advancing scientific and medical research
WASHINGTON — Today, U.S. Senators Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), Bill Cassidy (R-La.), and Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) introduced the bipartisan Halt All Lethal Trafficking of (HALT) Fentanyl Act to permanently classify fentanyl-related substances (FRS) as Schedule I drugs under the Controlled Substances Act. 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. 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,”said Heinrich. “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.”
Background:
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that there were 107,543 overdose deaths in the United States 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 (FRS), 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 (DEA) 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 FRS in Schedule I, under the Controlled Substances Act (CSA), 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 December 21, 2024, with a measure that expires on 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 (HHS) to research Schedule I substances.
Clear and Enforceable Criminal Penalties for Fentanyl Trafficking:
A permanent scheduling of FRS is necessary to make penalties for criminals clear and enforceable under the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), reducing the supply and availability of illicitly manufactured FRS. The HALT Fentanyl Act places the strongest controls and penalties on FRS, 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 FRS:
Expanded Scientific and Medical Research
More closely aligning the research and registration process for schedule I substances, including FRS, with Schedule II substances will facilitate increased FRS research. By accommodating more medical research into fentanyl-related substances, the bill would establish a new, streamlined registration process for research funded by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), or under an Investigative New Drug (IND) exemption from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
Specifically, the HALT Fentanyl Act will enhance our understanding of these illicitly manufactured substances by:
Support for the HALT Fentanyl Act
The HALT Fentanyl Act is led by Heinrich, Cassidy, and Grassley. The legislation is cosponsored by U.S. Senators Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.), Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.), Roger Marshall (R-Kan), Todd Young (R-Ind.), Steve Daines (R-Mont.), Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.), Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va,), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.), Mike Rounds (R-S.D.), John Kennedy (R-La.), Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), Angus King (I-Maine), and Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.).
Full text of the HALT Fentanyl Act can be found here.
A section-by-section summary of the HALT Fentanyl Act can be found here.
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