WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump on Wednesday signed a bipartisan bill that permanently places any fentanyl-related substances in the government’s most severe category of classifications and bolsters prison sentences for those involved in its spread, in a bid to further crack down on the proliferation of the synthetic opioid in the U.S.
Joined by families of those directly impacted by the fentanyl crisis, Trump deemed the legislation “one of the more important things that we’ll ever sign” during a ceremony in the East Room to mark the bill becoming law.
The Halt All Lethal Trafficking of Fentanyl Act officially cleared both chambers of Congress last month after receiving fairly broad bipartisan support in both chambers. The legislation permanently establishes fentanyl-related substances, such as “knockoff,” copycat or tweaked versions of the drug, created in an effort to avoid regulations, as Schedule 1.
Such a category includes drugs ith no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse, like heroin.
Lawmakers had extended the Schedule 1 classification multiple times over the last few years since it first became law temporarily. The new permanent status comes as the temporary scheduling was set to expire later this year.
The move also strengthens prison sentences for traffickers of such substances, something Trump declared a “very big deal.”
”Anyone caught trafficking these illicit poisons will be punished with a mandatory ten year minimum sentence in prison,” Trump said. “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 touted his crackdown on immigration and the border, his directive to the Department of Justice to seek maximum sentences for fentanyl traffickers and his move to classify cartels as foreign terrorist organizations as all aiding in his efforts to combat the crisis.
The president has also cited the role of China, Mexico and Canada in the flow of fentanyl into the U.S. as one of his chief reasons for imposing tariffs on the nations.
Several Republican governors, including Virginia’s Glenn Younkin, Louisiana’s Jeff Landry and North Dakota’s Kelly Armstrong, attended the ceremony and received a shout out from Trump. The president also highlighted the presence of House and Senate Republicans at the event, although he noted the GOP leader in the upper chamber, Sen. John Thune, had called him and asked to get his members back to the Capitol as soon as possible as they look to vote on Trump’s request to formalize about $9 billion in cuts made by the government downsizing campaign known as the U.S. DOGE Service.
Multiple people who lost loved ones due to fentanyl-related reasons also spoke at Wednesday’s ceremony, praising the signing of the bill.