SPOKANE, Wash. — Another step taken Thursday in the fight against fentanyl after the US House passed the Halt All Lethal Trafficking (HALT) Fentanyl Act.
The bill passed with a vote of 289 to 133.
Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.) was one of bill's many co-sponsors.
“Illicit fentanyl is one of the greatest threats that we face right now as a nation,” she said in an interview with KREM 2. “This is really targeting the fentanyl-related substances.”
If passed, the HALT Fentanyl Act would classify all fentanyl as a schedule 1 substance under the Controlled Substances Act. That's considered to be the most dangerous classification of drugs.
The classification of all fentanyl substances as a schedule 1 drug would allow for tougher penalties and possibly lead to more research related to fentanyl.
“It would prevent many of these fentanyl-related substances from becoming street legal and that's the important protection that we need so that law enforcement can get these substances off our streets,” said. Rep. McMorris Rodgers.
“Fentanyl does not care if you are a Republican or are Democrat,” said Spokane Alliance for Fentanyl Education board member Traci Couture Richmond. “It doesn't care if you come from a family that is not divorced or a family that is divorced, fentanyl will take whoever fentanyl can take."
The issue of fentanyl hits too close to home for her after her sister died almost two years ago from methamphetamine mixed with fentanyl.
Now with the bill's passing in the House, she's seeing progress in the fight against fentanyl: “It gives me hope that there will be one less family that will deal with what we have dealt with over the last two years.”
The HALT Fentanyl Act now passes on to the US Senate.
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