[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 73 (Wednesday, April 28, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2276-S2277]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
Unanimous Consent Request--S. 1410
Mr. COTTON. Madam President, sadly, the United States is in the midst
of the deadliest drug epidemic in our Nation's history, caused by some
of the deadliest drugs ever created.
It appears that more than 80,000 Americans died from drug overdose
last year. By far, the biggest killers were lab-made opioids, such as
fentanyl, which are cheap to produce and easy to mix with other street
drugs such as heroin. These lethal cocktails have devastated countless
communities and families across our Nation. Too many parents have come
home to a dead child who mistakenly took a prescription pill or a so-
called party drug laced with this deadly fentanyl.
Illicit fentanyl, the kind created in underground Chinese drug labs
or smuggled across our porous southern border by Mexican cartels, is
made only to addict and kill. For those dark, terrible purposes,
fentanyl is unsurpassed in the tragic history of addiction. It is 50 to
100 times stronger than morphine. Just 2 milligrams of fentanyl, an
amount equivalent to a few grains of salt, is enough to kill a grown
man.
Just last December, police arrested a man in Arkansas carrying 7
pounds of fentanyl. Depending on the purity of that fentanyl, that
would have been enough to deliver a fatal dose to up to 1.5 million
Americans. That is far from the biggest fentanyl bust that police have
ever made.
That means that every time our Border Patrol stops a drug mule coming
across our southern border, every time the Coast Guard intercepts a
drug runners' vessel in our waters, and every time a SWAT team raids a
drug dealer's stash house, they could be averting what is, in effect, a
mass casualty attack on our country.
Unfortunately, these Mexican drug cartels and Chinese superlabs are
diabolically creative in waging this new kind of opium war against the
United States. When American law enforcement started cracking down on
fentanyl a few years ago, the cartels started producing so-called
analogs or look-alike drugs that are chemically distinct from fentanyl,
yet have no legitimate medical uses but will kill you just as quickly.
Some of these analogs are even more powerful than fentanyl--up to 150
times more potent of a drug that I would remind you, once again, is,
itself, 50 to 100 times more potent than morphine. Because these drugs
are chemically distinct from fentanyl, prosecuting and shutting down
their creators is often prohibitively expensive, requiring law
enforcement to hire expert witnesses to testify the analog is, in fact,
a deadly drug.
In 2018, the Drug Enforcement Administration took the necessary and
prudent step listing the entire class of fentanyl analogs as schedule I
prohibited substances. This decision closed a deadly loophole that drug
dealers were using to escape punishment from poisoning our citizens,
while still allowing legitimate researchers to apply for and obtain
approval to research these analogs for potential medical or scientific
breakthroughs.
The evidence suggests that this law enforcement action has been
getting results. Since the classwide scheduling went into effect in
early 2018, law enforcement encounters with uncontrolled fentanyl
analogs plummeted by almost 90 percent.
Of course, our work to solve the opioid epidemic is far from
finished. We still have much to do to dismantle the cartels and drug
trafficking networks that spread fentanyl and analogs and mix it with
other drugs. But the DEA's efforts to control fentanyl analogs were a
step in the right direction.
Last year, the Senate voted unanimously to extend the DEA's emergency
scheduling of fentanyl, but that extension is now set to expire. We
have the opportunity--in fact, I would say we have the responsibility
to permanently control these deadly fentanyl analogs so law enforcement
has the legal backup it needs to take these dangerous drugs off the
streets.
If Congress doesn't act, this emergency scheduling order is set to
expire next week. The authority of our Border Patrol to seize these
drugs as they cross the border will be dramatically reduced. Cartels
will, once again, be able to exploit loopholes to evade prosecution,
and Chinese superlabs will get right back to work inventing new and
creative ways to repackage fentanyl and to kill even more Americans. We
cannot let that happen.
I introduced a bill to solve this problem once and for all by merely
eliminating the expiration date on the law that protects us against
these fentanyl analogs. I am asking my colleagues to approve it just
like we did last year--unanimously.
I would also like to urge my Democratic colleagues to disregard the
liberal activist groups that are lobbying
[[Page S2277]]
against controlling these deadly fentanyl analogs because they hope to
use it as a bargaining chip to reduce criminal penalties for the most
serious drug traffickers. Think about that. More Americans died of a
drug overdose last year than in any other year in our history. Yet
these liberal activists are trying to help the drug traffickers who
spread these very poisons. If they succeed, drug dealers will have an
easier time killing Americans for profit, and prosecutors will have to
waste valuable resources proving that each new form of fentanyl they
encounter is, in fact, a deadly drug.
We cannot play politics with this bill, trading the lives of innocent
Americans for more lenient treatment of cartels and superlabs.
Protecting Americans from deadly fentanyl should not be treated as a
bargaining piece or poker chip. I ask my colleagues to think of the
victims and think of the urgency of this measure. I am offering this
bill on behalf of tens of thousands of Americans who were with us just
last year but are not today because of these deadly synthetic drugs. I
am offering this on behalf of the countless Americans who can still be
saved if we act.
I urge my colleagues to support this measure and, therefore, Madam
President, as in legislative session, I ask unanimous consent that the
Senate proceed to immediate consideration of S. 1410, introduced
earlier today; further, I ask unanimous consent that the bill be
considered read a third time and passed and that the motion to
reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
Mr. BOOKER. Reserving the right to object.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from New Jersey
Mr. BOOKER. I am deeply grateful to my colleague and friend, the
Senator from Arkansas, for bringing this to the floor of the U.S.
Senate.
There is an urgency he described that I agree with. One hundred
Senators here, and not one State has not been touched, devastatingly,
by the fentanyl epidemic. These analogs present a crisis to our
country. Lives are at stake so I share his sense of urgency.
I am hoping we can work together to find a way to stop, as he put it,
these cartels and these drug labs from wreaking such havoc on our
country. I believe that together we can find a solution. In fact, there
has been constructive talk across the Capitol--bipartisan talk about
finding a way to come to some kind of accord.
In addition to that, I am hopeful that there are other bills out
there that have the same ambition, the same goal, the same sense of
urgency that I believe should be part of the discussion; for example,
policies like the ones in the STOP Fentanyl Act, which I understand
Senator Markey will be introducing in the Senate very soon. I believe
we should have time in the Judiciary Committee to work on a longer term
solution that cannot just deal with the international cartels, not just
deal with these horrific drug labs but also empower people who are
addicted to begin not to be punished simply with the criminal justice
system but to find ways to provide treatment and support to people who
are struggling with addictions to this horrific drug.
So with that, I would like to object.
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Ms. Baldwin). Objection is heard.
The junior Senator from Arkansas.
Mr. COTTON. I thank my colleague from New Jersey for these remarks.
Time is not on our side. This emergency scheduling order expires next
week. The Senate is not in session next week.
I know that we want to empower addicts, as the Senator from New
Jersey said; that we want to help give them the treatment they need to
get back on their feet. That is a goal I share.
We are talking, though, about drug dealers, drug traffickers,
cartels, Chinese superlabs. If we do not pass an extension--in my bill,
a permanent extension of this emergency scheduling order--it is the
addicts who will be hurt because the drug dealers and these cartels and
superlabs will simply begin to flood our streets, once again, with the
synthetic fentanyl analogs, which I remind you, again, can be 150 times
more potent than fentanyl itself, which is 50 to 100 times more potent
than morphine.
I hope my Democratic friends will reconsider in the short time we
have this week, and we will be able to pass a permanent extension of
this scheduling order.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The junior Senator from New Jersey.
Mr. BOOKER. Madam President, I want to say, in conclusion, before I
switch to another topic, that I appreciate the willingness of the
Senator from Arkansas to look not just at his bill but a powerful
potential bipartisan extension however we can deal with this. The
urgency does exist. We are in a crisis.