Protecting communities from lethal drugs

Opioids have posed a deadly threat to communities in Arkansas and across the country for years. One synthetic opioid in particular, fentanyl, has devastated too many individuals and families in our state and nationwide since before the COVID-19 pandemic.
In 2023, approximately 74,000 Americans died from fentanyl overdoses. Arkansas reported just over 500 drug overdose deaths that year and nearly 600 the year before. Fentanyl overdose is currently the leading cause of death for Americans between the ages of 18-45, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).
My fellow members of Congress and I have heard countless tragic, heartbreaking stories from overdose victims’ family and friends about the destruction that drugs like fentanyl are visiting on addicts, first-time users and even individuals encountering them unintentionally. That is why we have taken proactive steps to fight back against the opioid crisis through a comprehensive approach that includes prevention, education, treatment and recovery.
With the rise of illicit fentanyl and its deadly consequences, we are acting to help keep this poison out of our country and off the streets.
Sadly, the rise in fentanyl usage is directly tied to the lack of operational control at our country’s borders – especially the southern border with Mexico. Mexican cartels use supplies shipped from China to produce this highly dangerous drug, which is up to 50 times stronger than heroin and 100 times stronger than morphine. The cartels have become shockingly proficient at trafficking fentanyl into the United States and were only aided by lax border security and immigration enforcement policies that reached a full-blown crisis under the Biden administration.
In the last two fiscal years, U.S. Customs and Border Protection seized record amounts of fentanyl – nearly 50,000 pounds, or enough to produce over 2 billion lethal doses.

President Trump has declared a national emergency on the southern border, where nearly 97 percent of all fentanyl is seized by U.S. authorities. In another welcome development, the Senate recently passed legislation to give law enforcement more tools to help crack down on the flow of fentanyl into our country.
While fentanyl is a controlled substance, meaning U.S. statute prohibits its use, illicit drug manufacturers and traffickers have sidestepped that designation by producing fentanyl-related substances called “analogs.” Back in 2018, the DEA under the first Trump administration temporarily restricted all fentanyl-related substances, but the classification as a Schedule I controlled substance is set to expire on March 31, 2025.
In March, the Senate voted in an overwhelmingly bipartisan manner to approve the Halt All Lethal Trafficking of (HALT) Fentanyl Act, which would permanently classify fentanyl-related substances under the Controlled Substances Act and close the loophole that traffickers exploit to smuggle these dangerous drugs into America. The bill was supported by Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin and 24 of his colleagues in addition to numerous police and other law enforcement groups.
But this is not the only way we’re fighting this scourge.
I proudly worked to bring a significant investment in this effort to Arkansas. In Fiscal Year 2024, I secured $5 million specifically for the Opioid Prevention Project. This funding is empowering the program, administered by the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, to promote abuse and prevention education efforts and target a population at risk of falling victim to opioid abuse and its devastating consequences.
Congress and the administration can and must continue building on this important progress and eliminate the threat deadly fentanyl poses to our family, friends and neighbors.