Home Republicans are shining a highlight on the nationwide fentanyl disaster, which they mentioned has been exacerbated by President Biden’s free border insurance policies.
At a Capitol convention, the conservative Republican Examine Committee turned over the stage to oldsters who misplaced their kids to fentanyl overdoses and had come to Washington to share their tales and assist lawmakers craft laws to fight the epidemic.
“I don’t need to hear that anyone else I do know and love has died over this. I don’t need any extra mothers to go to mattress at night time crying as a result of they’ve misplaced their child,” mentioned Lori Ashenfelder, a North Carolina mother who misplaced her son to fentanyl poisoning final yr.
Greater than a dozen mother and father who misplaced kids in reference to the opioid epidemic attended the occasion.
Fentanyl, an artificial opioid, is 50 occasions stronger than heroin. Illicit manufacturing makes it broadly accessible and inexpensive, and drug sellers typically combine it with different substances resulting in shock overdoses.
The Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention recorded greater than 56,000 deaths in 2020 involving artificial opioids, similar to fentanyl, and the development is on the rise.
Rep. Jim Banks of Indiana, chairman of the Republican Examine Committee, launched laws that will improve penalties for distribution of a Schedule I or II managed substance in sweet packaging that may very well be focused towards kids.
The Drug Enforcement Administration final month warned of the unfold of “rainbow fentanyl” or colourful capsules that resemble sweet. Legislation enforcement has seized such capsules in at the least 18 states.
Schedule I medication are deemed to don’t have any medical use and are extremely addictive, together with heroin, LDS and Ecstasy. The federal authorities nonetheless lists Marijuana as a Schedule I drug, although many states have legalized medical and leisure marijuana use.
Schedule II medication have some medically acceptable use however have a excessive potential for abuse and dependancy. These embody fentanyl, methadone and Vicodin.
Republicans additionally vowed to help insurance policies that will safe the southern border, which they mentioned is vital to mitigating the rise of preventable deaths by fentanyl.
“It’s actually unlucky the Biden administration shouldn’t be acknowledging this due to them opening the border on Jan. 20, 2021,” mentioned Rep. Tom Tiffany, Wisconsin Republican. “My concern right here is that, because of their actions on the border, they really feel they will’t acknowledge a part of what occurred over the border, which is a flooding [of fentanyl] into america.”
Rep. August Pfluger, Texas Republican, mentioned his district’s proximity to the border offers him a transparent view of the difficulty. He blamed the flood of fentanyl into the U.S. on lax immigration legal guidelines, with the drug spreading from the border throughout the nation.
“It’s affecting all my colleagues. A few of the points with unlawful immigrants are extra concentrated in districts like mine, however the problem of fentanyl is all over the place,” he mentioned.
Elsewhere on the Capitol, Democrats insisted that the southern border was not the only real supply of the fentanyl disaster and warned that Republicans had been making a skewed notion linking migrants and criminals who visitors unlawful medication.
“We really know that fentanyl is available in rather more by way of ports,” mentioned Rep. Madeleine Dean, Pennsylvania Democrat. “Some fentanyl comes by way of the border, however the bulk of it is available in by way of ports, so I hope [Republicans] don’t simply use it to demonize our immigration downside.”
