President Donald Trump signed legislation on Wednesday that aims to tackle the scourge of illegal fentanyl and impose stricter sentences for those who distribute and sell the drug.
Trump was joined by lawmakers and those who have lost loved ones to fentanyl intoxication when he signed the Halt All Lethal Trafficking, or HALT, of Fentanyl Act at the White House in an official ceremony.
The president called the bill a "historic step toward justice for every family touched by the fentanyl scourge as we sign the HALT Fentanyl Act into law."
"We'll be getting the drug dealers, pushers, and peddlers off our street, and we will not rest until we have ended the drug overdose epidemic," Trump added. "And it's been getting a little bit better, but it's horrible."
The HALT Fentanyl Act amends the Controlled Substances Act to permanently classify illicit fentanyl knockoffs as Schedule 1 narcotics. The first Trump administration temporarily restricted all fentanyl-related substances in 2018 by issuing a temporary Schedule 1 classification, which Congress has since extended several times.
Wednesday's signing makes the classification permanent, while still allowing use of Schedule II fentanyl for legitimate medical purposes as approved by the Food and Drug Administration. The bill received bipartisan support in both the House and Senate.
Trump has long held fentanyl as one of his justifications for the imposition of tariffs on China, hoping the duties will persuade the country to do more to curb its trafficking of the drug into the U.S. by way of Mexico.
"I think we're going to work it out so that China is going to end up going from that to giving the death penalty to the people that create this fentanyl and send it into our country," Trump said. "I believe that's going to happen soon."
James Morley III ✉
James Morley III is a writer with more than two decades of experience in entertainment, travel, technology, and science and nature.
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