Senate Passes HALT Fentanyl Act, Creates Stiff Penalties On Smugglers

Senate Republicans handed President Donald Trump a victory in the administration’s fight against the fentanyl epidemic with the passage of legislation that imposes steep penalties on smugglers caught moving fentanyl analogs into or throughout the United States.

The Senate passed the Halt All Lethal Trafficking of Fentanyl Act, or the HALT Fentanyl Act, by 84-16 on Friday afternoon. Sens. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) and Martin Heinrich (D-NM) introduced the legislation to permanently classify fentanyl-related substances as Schedule I under the Controlled Substances Act, the highest possible rating.

“This is not the end-all, be-all. There is no silver bullet short of national revival, universal revival to end the fentanyl epidemic, but there is silver buckshot,” Cassidy, chairman of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, said in a call with reporters prior to the vote Friday. “We do this, we do this, we do this, we do this. And you put it all together, and you begin to push back upon the terrible toll fentanyl and other drugs are having upon our society.”

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