Halt All Lethal Trafficking of Fentanyl Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. LATTA. Mr. Speaker, I thank my good friend for yielding me time.

Mr. Speaker, for 4 years I have worked tirelessly with my colleague from Virginia's Ninth District to pass the HALT Fentanyl Act. In 2023, we saw over 107,000 overdose deaths, 75,000 of those attributed to synthetic opioids, especially fentanyl-related substances.

Currently, fentanyl and fentanyl analogues temporarily fall under schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act, the CSA, due to a temporary scheduling order that runs through September 30 of this year.

This bill would permanently place fentanyl analogues into schedule I of the CSA. A schedule I controlled substance is a drug, substance, or chemical that has a high potential for abuse, has no currently accepted medical value, and is subject to regulatory controls and administrative civil and criminal penalties.

Today, this Chamber is permanently scheduling fentanyl-related substances as schedule I.

We owe it to our communities, our constituents, the families, and to the victims. Cartels are quite literally killing Americans for ten cents. Among teens, fentanyl poisoning accounted for an average of 22 deaths per week in 2022.

Fentanyl is the number one cause of death among adults 18 to 49, more than cancer, heart disease, and car accidents. This isn't about criminal justice reform. This is about victims getting justice.

Currently, to trigger a 10-year mandatory minimum, an offense must involve 100 or more grams of a mixture containing a fentanyl analogue. Two milligrams of fentanyl will kill. This means 100 grams of fentanyl analogue can kill roughly 50,000 people.

Mr. Speaker, I thank our Senate colleagues for passing this critical legislation, and I encourage all of my House colleagues to support the HALT Fentanyl Act so we can get this to the President's desk and stop the greatest poisoning in American history.

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