ROANOKE, Va. – Virginia Congressman Morgan Griffith and Ohio Congressman Bob Latta have introduced a piece of legislation addressing the ongoing fentanyl crisis.
The bill is called the HALT Fentanyl act. HALT stands for Halt All Lethal Trafficking. The hope is to address the permanent scheduling of fentanyl and fentanyl analogs in the Schedule I category, as well as grant researchers the ability to conduct studies on these substances.
Currently, the substances fall under Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act but it’s only temporary. The temporary scheduling order runs through Dec. 31, 2024.
According to virginiarules.org, Schedule I drugs “have high potential for abuse and no accepted medical use.” There are some cases in the medical field where fentanyl was previously used.
“The opioid crisis continues to devastate families in Virginia and across the country, made worse by fentanyl and its analogs,” Griffith said in a statement.
On Wednesday morning, the congressman participated in a House Energy and Commerce Committee Roundtable on Fentanyl and Big Tech. During the roundtable, Griffith spoke about his new piece of legislation.
“When you have a good rural county where most of the folks think that this is not their problem and yet the high school principal has to wear gloves to search lockers and has used Narcan … this is a national emergency. It is a national problem,” Griffith said.
On the same day of the roundtable discussion, a man was arrested for an incident back in October when authorities found a package containing 2.3 pounds of Fentanyl was addressed to an individual.
This is not a new issue to the Commonwealth. 10 News told you back in July 2022 that police throughout the area were growing more and more concerned with fentanyl.
“The American people need to know that we have got to take action,” Griffith said. “In all fairness to this administration … needs to understand, they need to take action across the board but particularly on the southern border where we know a lot of this garbage and poison that’s coming into our communities is coming across the border.”
In FY 2023 alone, U.S. Customs and Border Protection seized over 9,000 pounds of fentanyl coming across the southern border. The DEA said depending on the size of someone, it can only take two milligrams of fentanyl to kill someone.
As more stories come out with people and young kids overdosing on fentanyl, the fight to address the issue has reached a more national scale.