Even as more than 100,000 Americans are dying from drug overdoses and poisonings every year, many linked to fentanyl, House Democrats have blocked a plan that would crack down on the deadly substance flowing almost exclusively from the United States-Mexico border into American communities.
This week, 220 House Democrats blocked consideration for Rep. Michelle Fischbach’s (R-MN) Halt All Lethal Trafficking of Fentanyl Act to permanently classify fentanyl-related substances as Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act.
Such a change would make it permanently illegal to sell fentanyl-related substances.
In April, House Democrats blocked consideration of similar legislation that would have cracked down on fentanyl-related substances. Consistent blockage of bills to combat fentanyl overdoses and poisonings comes as Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) officials have warned parents to carry Naloxone in case their child is overdosing on fentanyl.
The warning is in response to concerns that the Mexican drug cartels, trafficking most of all of the China-manufactured fentanyl into the U.S., are targeting children by packaging tens of thousands of fentanyl pills in Skittles and Nerds candy bags along with vape pens.
Most recently, in Phoenix, Arizona, law enforcement investigators seized nearly a million fentanyl pills in a stash house. Just two milligrams of fentanyl can kill one person.
“The Faces of Fentanyl” wall, which displays photos of Americans who died from a fentanyl overdose, at the Drug Enforcement Administration headquarters in Arlington, Virginia, on July 13, 2022. (AGNES BUN/AFP via Getty Images)
In April, the CDC reported that more than 100,000 Americans died from drug overdoses in the prior 12 months. Nearly two-thirds of those deaths were linked to fentanyl.
In Ohio, alone, 81 percent of drug overdose deaths were linked to fentanyl in 2020. This is an increase from 2019, 2018, and 2017, when fentanyl was linked to about 76 to 71 percent of drug overdose deaths.
Months ago, Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) official Anne Milgram said there was enough fentanyl trafficked into American communities last year, via the southern border, “to kill every American” citizen.
Some Senate Republicans have suggested transferring use of the CDC’s Title 42 authority at the southern border, which allows officials to quickly deport many illegal aliens, from a Chinese coronavirus function to a combating fentanyl maneuver.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at jbinder@breitbart.com. Follow him on Twitter here.