Sec. 2. Findings; sense of Congress
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The Congress finds as follows: Fentanyl is a dangerous, synthetic opioid that’s 50 to 100 times more potent than heroin and morphine and lethal in doses as small as approximately 2 milligrams. Current sentencing enhancements do not reflect the danger fentanyl poses at lower quantities compared to other illicit substances. Because a lethal dose of fentanyl can be accidentally inhaled or absorbed through the skin, it’s not just deadly to its users, but it also threatens the lives of law enforcement and customs officials, public health workers, first responders and postal workers who risk unknowingly coming into contact with fentanyl in its different forms.
From 2013 to 2014, the number of drug seizures by law enforcement that tested positive for fentanyl increased by 426 percent and synthetic opioid-related deaths increased by 79 percent, with over 700 overdose deaths related to fentanyl. However, due to variations in States’ medical examiner and coroner testing and reporting techniques, and deaths attributed to heroin, this figure is believed to be significantly higher. Illicitly manufactured fentanyl, pill press machines, and other supplies needed to manufacture counterfeit pills containing fentanyl are primarily sourced from China and widely available for purchase on the Internet.
Traffickers can typically purchase a kilogram of fentanyl powder for as little as $2,000 from a Chinese supplier, transform it into hundreds of thousands of pills, and sell the counterfeit pills for millions of dollars in profit. In 2015, the Drug Enforcement Administration
(DEA)and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
(CDC)issued nationwide alerts identifying fentanyl as a threat to public health and safety and stating that the rise of counterfeit pills that contain fentanyl in the illicit drug market will likely result in more opioid-dependent individuals, overdoses, and deaths. The DEA has identified two key challenges for using the Controlled Substances Analogue Enforcement Act of 1986 ( 21 U.S.C. 801 note) to prosecute individuals for violations relating to fentanyl: The law requires that the substance have a substantially similar chemical structure to a controlled substance in order to be considered an analogue, yet the threshold for substantially similar has been cited by numerous courts as difficult to apply. Each case requires additional investigation to determine whether the substance in question was intended for human consumption and can therefore be considered an analogue. Illicit fentanyl manufacturers are continuously manipulating the chemical structures of the analogues in order to stay ahead of researchers and law enforcement, thus making prosecuting these crimes overly onerous. Furthermore, the speed at which these alterations can be made outpace the current authorities of the Department of Justice to schedule new compounds and analogues under the Controlled Substances Act ( 21 U.S.C. 801 et seq.). It is the sense of the Congress that— the trafficking in fentanyl and other synthetic opioids represents a public health emergency in the United States and requires a comprehensive legislative response; the United States Government should use all available measures to reduce the availability of illicit fentanyl, its chemical precursors, and the equipment by which fentanyl may be milled into counterfeit prescription pills; the United States Government should make grants available for State and local medical examiners and coroners to screen for fentanyl in suspected opioid overdose cases in regions reporting increases in fentanyl seizures, fentanyl-related overdose fatalities, or unusually high spikes in heroin or unspecified drug overdose fatalities; State and local law enforcement should, if safe and possible, prioritize and expedite testing of drug samples taken from drug overdose scenes and share the data on fentanyl drug seizures with local health departments, coroners, and medical examiners; grants made available to address the opioid epidemic should be used to improve States’ surveillance of fentanyl-related deaths and to expand access to naloxone for first responders, law enforcement, and health care personnel given that multiple doses of naloxone must be administered per overdose event; and the United States Government, including the Secretary of State, the Attorney General, the Secretary of Homeland Security, and the Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, should use the broad diplomatic and law enforcement resources of the United States, in partnership with the Governments of Mexico and China, to stop the trafficking of illicit fentanyl into the United States.
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Sec. 2
Findings; sense of Congress
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