[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 20 (Tuesday, January 30, 2018)]
[Senate]
[Pages S568-S570]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                                STOP ACT

  Mr. PORTMAN. Mr. President, today I want to talk about the opioid 
epidemic that has gripped our country and my State of Ohio and talk a 
little about a report we issued last week with regard to synthetic 
opioids coming in through the U.S. mail system.
  This tragedy has hit Ohio hard. We are not alone, though. Opioids 
affect every American regardless of age, area code, class, or color. 
Every State represented here in this body has experienced this--broken 
families, devastated communities, higher crime rates, friends lost, 
and, of course, lives taken through opioid overdoses.
  The Centers for Disease Control recently reported that more than 
63,600 Americans died in 2016 from drug overdoses. That is the last 
year for which they have statistics, but we all believe it was worse in 
2017. With 63,600 Americans dying of overdoses, that means, on average, 
more than 174 Americans die every single day. That is up from 
approximately 143 Americans who died, on average, every day from drug 
overdoses a year earlier in 2015 and 105 Americans who died every day 
in 2010.
  The problem is getting worse, not better. Drug overdoses, in fact, 
are now the No. 1 cause of death--not just accidental deaths but the 
No. 1 cause of death--in America for Americans under the age of 50. The 
reason for this increase in overdose deaths is the spread of heroin, 
prescription drugs, and now the synthetic opioids--fentanyl and 
carfentanil. Opioids were involved in more than 42,000--about two-
thirds--of the overall deaths in 2016. Opioid deaths were five times 
higher in 2016 than they were just a few years ago.
  This is a national epidemic. It has unfolded in three different 
waves.
  The first wave was the prescription drug epidemic--pain pills--15 to 
20 years ago. That started to increase dramatically.
  Next, heroin deaths spiked. Heroin was turned to as a less expensive 
and more accessible way for people who were addicted to pain pills to 
continue to receive the high--in this case, from heroin coming mostly 
from Mexico.
  Now synthetic forms of heroin are overtaking the illegal opioid 
market, and the results have been even more deadly. Fentanyl, a 
synthetic opioid that is 50 times stronger than heroin, has become the 
new scourge of the epidemic. Fentanyl is so deadly that 2 milligrams of 
it--as little as two flakes of it--can be lethal. It is cheap, easily 
accessible, and can be added to make any number of illegal drugs more 
potent--cocaine, heroin, pills.
  In Ohio, fentanyl and its variations, such as carfentanil, were 
responsible for 60 percent of our State's more than 4,000 overdose 
deaths in 2016--the most recent year for which we have statistics. That 
60 percent is a huge increase from just the previous year, 2015, when 
fentanyl was responsible for about 37 percent of the deaths. We have 
had more deaths from overdoses and a lot more deaths linked to 
fentanyl.
  Sadly, again, this situation is getting worse, not better. Just last 
week in Ottawa County, OH, outside of Toledo, we had five overdoses in 
1 single day. We had three people die of overdoses in 1 week. The 
suspected cause, of course, is fentanyl.
  Earlier this month in Akron, a 57-year-old man--a board member of the 
Akron Public Schools system--was found unconscious in his car from a 
drug overdose. First responders were thankfully able to revive the man 
with Narcan--a miracle drug that reverses the effects of overdoses--and 
treat him at a local hospital. Again, fentanyl caused that overdose.
  In July of last year, a 12-year-old Columbus boy encountered fentanyl 
while he was at his cousin's for a sleepover. He was rushed to the 
hospital but died days later from a lack of oxygen to his brain as a 
result of fentanyl.
  These synthetic drugs have invaded communities across Ohio and across 
the country. Unbelievably, this deadly poison is primarily shipped into 
America from China through our U.S. Postal Service. The Permanent 
Subcommittee on Investigations, which I chair along with ranking member 
Senator Tom Carper, recently held a hearing on this issue. It came on 
the heels of our yearlong bipartisan investigation that resulted in a 
100-page investigative report that examined how these drug traffickers 
in China exploit vulnerabilities in our international mail system to 
ship these deadly synthetic drugs into our communities.
  I encourage people to look at that report on the Permanent 
Subcommittee on Investigations website. The results of the report were 
shocking. We found that it was incredibly easy to buy fentanyl online. 
By simply searching ``fentanyl for sale'' on Google, our staff 
identified hundreds of websites, many affiliated with Chinese labs, all 
openly advertising this deadly drug. Online sellers were quick to 
respond, unafraid of being caught, and ready to make a deal. They even 
offered discounts for bulk purchases and tried to upsell us to 
carfentanil--fentanyl's even more powerful and deadly cousin.
  This is an email from Chinese traffickers offering ``a hot sale'' for 
one fentanyl analogue before it is discontinued. Their preferred 
shipping method is the U.S. Postal Service because, as they told us, 
the chances of the drugs being seized were so insignificant that 
delivery was essentially guaranteed.
  This chart shows a carfentanil advertisement and the online 
traffickers

[[Page S569]]

suggesting ``USPS'' as their preferred shipping method. Why? Because 
USPS is the way in which the delivery is virtually guaranteed. ``DHL, 
UPS, FedEx, TNT are quicker, but not safe, and will be detained 
frequently.'' Instead, they say: ``We suggest USPS only.'' Wow.
  It is inexcusable that these drugs are as easy to ship as a postcard 
and that traffickers' preferred shipment method for these deadly 
poisons is through a Federal agency. Our post office has become a 
conduit for these deadly drugs.
  By the way, this is incredibly dangerous for the postal employees, 
the letter carriers, those who have to handle these packages.
  I should note that our team never purchased any of these drugs 
online, but we did use the online sellers' payment information to 
determine if others were buying. Of course, we found out that they 
were. We narrowed our search to just six websites. From those six 
sites, we identified more than 500 payments to those six online sellers 
by more than 300 Americans in 43 States just in the last couple of 
years.
  This map shows where the fentanyl went. As you can see, just from 
those six websites and those few hundred people, it went all over the 
country. The largest concentration of buyers was in my home State of 
Ohio, where you see the red. They were also in Pennsylvania and 
Florida. But, as I mentioned, it went to all 43 States. We were able to 
track hundreds of packages related to the online purchases.
  By analyzing more than 2 million lines of shipment data obtained in 
our investigation, we located three individuals in the United States 
who seem to be distributing these drugs. We also identified two other 
individuals who purchased items to make pills, including pill presses, 
chemical bonding agents, and empty pill casings.
  Our report also reinforced the risk associated with these deadly 
synthetic drugs. We identified seven individuals who died from 
fentanyl-related overdoses shortly after receiving packages from these 
online sellers. One of those seven individuals who died was a 49-year-
old Ohioan from the Cleveland area who sent about $2,500 to an online 
seller and received 15 packages through the Postal Service over a 10-
month period. His autopsy confirmed he died from ``acute fentanyl 
intoxication'' just a couple of weeks after receiving a package from 
this online seller.
  We are already working with law enforcement authorities to make sure 
these drug dealers can be brought to justice. We recently released all 
our documents to the Department of Homeland Security for them to do 
their own investigation.
  China has responded to our report. A Foreign Ministry spokesman said 
last week that China stands ``ready to work with the U.S. to enhance 
our coordination in this field.'' I welcome China's cooperation and 
coordination in this fight. But we need more than words. We need 
action. We need China to ban more of these deadly drugs and do it 
quicker. We need China to shut down these illegal fentanyl laboratories 
and arrest those responsible for shipping drugs into our country.

  I had the opportunity last year to travel to China as part of a 
congressional delegation, and I was able to speak directly to some of 
the Chinese authorities, including Premier Li. We talked about these 
deadly poisons coming into our communities and how we needed more help 
to be able to shut down these labs and to arrest these individuals. I 
also made the point that there is evidence that some of this opioid 
material that is being synthetically produced in China is leaking into 
their communities and that they have a problem too. We need to work 
together to shut this down.
  One way that we can assist law enforcement in this war on synthetic 
opioids is by simply providing them the tools they need to identify 
packages coming in that likely contain these drugs. Whether they are 
from China, whether they are shipped somewhere else, or whether they 
are from another country that begins to produce these drugs, we have to 
do a better job finding these packages and stopping them.
  Because of the roughly 500 million packages that come in by mail 
every year, interdicting these small packages is very difficult. It can 
be like finding a needle in a haystack. So law enforcement has asked us 
to help them be able to get the information they need to target suspect 
packages.
  That is why what is called advance electronic data is so very 
important. This is information that comes in advance--such as what is 
in the package, where it is from, where it is going--is information for 
packages entering the United States that can greatly assists our law 
enforcement.
  Customs and Border Protection is responsible for this mail coming 
into our country, and they want to identify these suspicious packages 
and be able to trace them back to both the U.S. distributor and user 
but also, of course, to their overseas traffickers. When they have that 
information, they are able to stop packages but also then initiate 
investigations, prosecutions, and arrests.
  As part of our investigation, we found that last year the Postal 
Service only received this advance electronic data on about 36 percent 
of the more than 498 million packages coming into our country. That 
means the United States received more than 318 million packages with no 
data. That means there was little to no screening at all.
  We also found that the quality of the data that was provided was 
often inadequate and unhelpful to law enforcement. Even when the Postal 
Service conducted a pilot program to screen for these drugs through the 
use of this data, they only presented 80 percent of these packages 
targeted by Customs and Border Protection for inspection. In other 
words, about 20 percent of these suspect packages came into our 
communities without inspection, despite being suspect packages.
  With these glaring holes in the screening process, it is no wonder 
these drug dealers choose the Postal Service as their preferred drug 
delivery system. It is a massive loophole that is undermining the 
safety and security of our country.
  After the September 11, 2001, attacks, collecting the advance 
electronic data was identified as a national security priority.
  In 2002 Congress wrote legislation that required private carriers to 
collect this advance electronic data and authorized and encouraged the 
Postal Service to do it but left the implementation up to the Postal 
Service. That was 16 years ago.
  Because of the 2002 law, private carriers like UPS, FedEx, DHL, and 
others, require useful data on every package entering the United 
States, while the Postal Service gets its data for less than 40 percent 
of the hundreds of millions of packages it receives every year. Again, 
the Postal Service data is sometimes not usable, and 20 percent of 
those packages targeted because of the data are never presented to law 
enforcement to be inspected. Folks, this is just wrong. We can and we 
must do better.
  We talked earlier about the number of people dying from fentanyl 
overdoses and the fact that this is the new scourge. It is coming in 
our mail system. We have to be able to do better, and we can.
  This is why I have introduced what is called the Synthetics 
Trafficking and Overdose Prevention Act, or STOP Act. This bipartisan 
bill will require the Postal Service to get that electronic data on all 
international packages entering the United States. The coauthor of the 
STOP Act is Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, and we now have 29 
Senate cosponsors from both sides of the aisle. The bipartisan House 
companion bill is now, I believe, cosponsored by a majority of the 
House of Representatives. Why? Because this is just a commonsense 
solution that people understand has to be done.
  I urge all of my Senate colleagues to join us in doing what we can to 
stop some of this poison from coming into America and to at least raise 
the price on the street of this synthetic heroin that is cheap and 
accessible.
  By holding the Postal Service, a Federal agency, to the same standard 
we have for private mail carriers, we can give law enforcement the 
necessary tools they are asking for to identify and stop these deadly 
poisons from reaching our communities.
  I understand that this is just one part of the solution to deal with 
the opioid epidemic. Trust me; I get that. I have been working on this 
for over 20 years, focused mostly on the prevention side, treatment, 
and the recovery. Those are all important. We need to continue to do 
that because our States

[[Page S570]]

are gripped by these opioids, and all of us need it. But there is 
clearly a need for a legislative solution to prevent these drugs from 
entering our country through our own mail system.
  The STOP Act is a clear opportunity and responsibility for Congress 
to help turn the tide of addiction. I urge all of my colleagues to join 
us in supporting the STOP Act and, by doing so, in saving lives.
  I yield back.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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