Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) on Thursday signed legislation to crack down on drug trafficking, pointing to President Biden’s open border policies, which he said are threatening the safety of all Americans.
DeSantis signed HB 95, which tightens laws on issues related to drug trafficking. For instance, the bill “makes the distribution of methamphetamine which causes the death of a person to be a felony murder,” DeSantis said, noting that the substance is pouring across the border.
The bill also “enhances the penalties for selling controlled substances within 1,000 feet of substance abuse treatment facilities, and in addition to those recommendations, HB 95 increases the mandatory minimum sentence for trafficking fentanyl and analogs, which has impacted communities across Florida and across the United States,” DeSantis explained, identifying fentanyl overdose as the “leading cause of death for Americans 18 to 45 in the year 2021.”
DeSantis made it clear this issue is directly connected to Biden’s border crisis.
“If you look at what can be done when you’re bringing it across the border, for example, just two mg of fentanyl can be a fatal dose. So if you have 1,200 lbs of fentanyl like was seized at the border just last month, that’s enough to kill almost 90 percent of the United States population,” DeSantis said, adding that drug dealers are “increasingly lacing other drugs with fentanyl.”
“The Biden administration’s reckless open border policies have threatened the safety of all Americans, but certainly of Floridians as we continue to see [a] record amount. In Fiscal Year 2021, Customs and Border Patrol seized 11,000 lbs of fentanyl,” he said, noting that the figure was “more than double [what] they had seized” the year prior.
“And at least 90 percent of all seized fentanyl has come across the southern border already. This year, 6,000 lbs of fentanyl has been seized. If you look at what we’ve seen recently, we’ve seen an increase in opioid deaths across the country, including here in Florida,” the governor added, thanking the legislature for taking action.
WATCH: