With HALT Fentanyl Act, Senate Poised to Strike Another Blow to Drug Traffickers

America has many adversaries: China, Iran, North Korea, to name a few. But perhaps America’s biggest enemy is fentanyl, a highly addictive and highly lethal synthetic opioid. In this war on fentanyl, the Senate is preparing to launch its next attack with a Friday vote on the HALT Fentanyl Act.

The Daily Signal spoke with Sens. James Lankford, R-Okla., Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and Bill Cassidy, R-La., before the Senate’s vote on the HALT Fentanyl Act.

“There is no silver bullet,” to end the fentanyl epidemic, Cassidy, the lead sponsor of the bill, told reporters, “but there is silver buckshot.” He presented the Halt Fentanyl Act as one of those pellets.

If signed into law, the legislation would permanently classify fentanyl-related substances as Schedule I under the Controlled Substances Act. While fentanyl is already a controlled substance, drug traffickers—including cartels—have sought to circumvent the law by making slight chemical alterations to the lethal drug. 

Cassidy said this bill “recognizes that some of those attempting to bring in fentanyl will try and circumvent the law by changing the fentanyl just enough so that it becomes what is called an analog.”

“‘Oh, it’s got fentanyl, [but] you can’t bust me because it’s not actually fentanyl,’” Cassidy said, acting out a theoretical exchange between drug traffickers and law enforcement. “No, it still addicts like fentanyl, it still kills like fentanyl, and it is substantially fentanyl. So, therefore, it shall be treated by law enforcement as if it is fentanyl.”

By closing the fentanyl-analog loophole, “this gives law enforcement the legal justification to say, ‘You’re right. You’ve changed it ever so slightly. You’re still busted, because it still addicts and it still kills,’” Cassidy explained.

More than a quarter of a million Americans have died from fentanyl overdose since 2018. In fiscal year 2024 alone, U.S. Customs and Border Protection seized 21,889 pounds of fentanyl; with a lethal dose of just two milligrams, the seized drugs were enough to kill nearly 5 billion people, more than half of the global population.

Lankford recounted a conversation he had with a first responder in his home state of Oklahoma to illustrate just how rapidly fentanyl is evolving and how lethal it has become.

Lankford recalled the first responder telling him that “it used to be that when they went to a site, and they saw someone had overdosed on fentanyl, they could get one shot of Narcan and be able to bring them back. Now, the potency is so high on it, sometimes they’ll do six or eight shots of Narcan just to be able to try to revive someone because of the potency that they’re dealing with.”

“Things are changing rapidly on the street,” Lankford added. “Congress should respond on this and be able to support law enforcement, first responders … as well as protecting our citizens when they do get caught up in this kind of addiction, as well.”

The HALT Fentanyl Act, however, is just one of many points of attack because “there’s a lot of elements” to the war on fentanyl, Lankford said.

The goal remains, Cassidy said, “to save lives by telling law enforcement you can confiscate that shipment, even if it’s an analog, not just if it is fentanyl.”

During President Donald Trump’s first term, the government temporarily put similar restrictions on all fentanyl-related substances. This legislation would make those restrictions permanent.

Grassley highlighted the “dozens or hundreds of organizations of parents that have lost loved ones because of … fentanyl.”

“If there’s any reason for passing this bill, it’s their urging of it, and I thank them and the law enforcement organizations for their support,” Grassley added.

Grassley said he is encouraged by “the bipartisan group that Senator Cassidy put together to get the bill introduced and the overwhelming votes we had on the floor of the United States Senate.” Previous procedural votes on the HALT Fentanyl Act received more than 80 votes in favor.  

Even this common sense piece of legislation, however, “had threats of amendments at the last minute,” Grassley told reporters. “But I think everybody working on this legislation, including Senator Cassidy, but others as well, including Republican leadership, were able to mute the efforts to hurt this bill by amendment.”

With those threats defeated, Grassley said he “feel[s] very good about the wide margin that this bill has had through two or three roll calls so far and hope it leads to a new day of more bipartisanship.”

“I think probably naive in saying that, but I still have that hope,” Grassley mused.

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