GOP Doctors Back Fentanyl Bill, Warn Drug Deaths Are 'Intentional Acts of Terror' by Cartels

Republican leaders and Doctors Caucus members rallied support on Tuesday for a bill that would permanently place fentanyl-related substances under the strictest and most regulated classification of drugs.

The bill, called the Halt All Lethal Trafficking of (HALT) Fentanyl Act, would permanently categorize fentanyl-related substances as Schedule I narcotics under the Controlled Substances Act.

Speaking during a press conference alongside members of the GOP Doctors Caucus, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA) said the move was “critically important in our fight to stop the flow of this deadly drug and its synthetics into the United States” and vowed to bring the bill to the floor for a vote on Thursday.

The majority leader said he expects it to pass with bipartisan support, a prediction that appears poised to come to fruition after the White House recently announced support for the Republican-led legislation.

Caucus cochair Rep. Michael Burgess (R-TX) also spoke during the event, echoing declarations from family members of fentanyl victims that their loved ones’ deaths were the result of “poisoning” rather than overdose.

“[It’s] not an overdose but an intentional act of terror brought to us courtesy of the cartels on the southern border,” Burgess said.

“Fentanyl is an intentional act. The precursors are brought in by the People’s Republic of China, they’re delivered into Mexico, and then they are manufactured into pills and taken into our communities,” Burgess added.

Talks about the southern border crisis often zero in on fentanyl, which border officials have encountered at a dramatically increased rate since at least fiscal year 2021, according to federal data. Coinciding with increased encounters is National Institutes of Health data showing deaths involving synthetic opioids, and primarily involving fentanyl specifically, have sharply risen in recent years.

Drug overdose deaths overall in the U.S. at the end of 2022 broke an annual record of more than 109,000, according to preliminary Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data. The rise was driven largely by synthetic opioids, including fentanyl, the data showed.

“A kid taking Xanax, a kid taking what they think is an Adderall may very well not survive that adventure because in fact it was fentanyl and it was lethal,” Burgess warned.

His cochair Rep. Brad Wenstrup (R-OH) added, “Our goal is to acknowledge what is going on and make every attempt to fix the problem that is all across America.”

Wenstrup plans to reintroduce a bill declaring fentanyl a weapon of mass destruction this week, he said.

The third cochair, Rep Greg Murphy (R-NC), quashed criticisms from criminal justice reform advocates that the HALT Act would unjustly impose jail time on certain sellers of fentanyl-related substances because of the increased penalties associated with Schedule I drugs.

Murphy told Breitbart News, “I’ve heard some detractors are saying something about mandatory sentencing. We need to put people behind jail who sell this stuff and kill people. It’s very, very straightforward.”