This week, U.S. Rep. Vern Buchanan, R-Fla., doubled down on his efforts cracking down on synthetic drugs by championing U.S. Rep. Pat Tiberi’s, R-Ohio, “Synthetics Trafficking and Overdose Prevention” (STOP) Act.
Tiberi’s proposal increases screening at U.S. Postal Service facilities on packages arriving from oversees in order to reduce shipments of fentanyl, carfentanil and other synthetic drugs. Those drugs are considered far more powerful than heroin and have increasingly been shipped from China in recent years.
“While our community is making progress to curb the heroin crisis, we are now confronting a growing threat – fentanyl,” Buchanan said this week when he announced he was co-sponoring Tiberi’s legislation. “If we want to save lives and reduce overdose deaths we must stop these new killer drugs from crossing the border.”
Tiberi made his case for the bill earlier in the month when he introduced it.
“The statistics on Ohio’s heroin and drug epidemic are staggering,” Tiberi said. “An average of eight Ohioans died from overdoses every day in 2015. Nationwide, Ohioans account for 1 in 9 heroin-related deaths, and across the state, we have seen a rapid increase in deaths linked to dangerous synthetic opioids that are 50 times more potent than heroin.
“Last year, the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act passed Congress and was signed into law to provide vital tools communities need to help people suffering from addiction,” Tiberi added. “It was a giant leap in our efforts to combat this epidemic, but more must be done and this battle must be fought on every front.
The STOP Act closes a loophole in our postal system to stop drugs from illegally crossing our borders from countries like China,” Tiberi continued. “This bill is about stopping drugs at their source, keeping them out of the hands of traffickers in the United States and saving more lives. When batches of synthetic drugs mixed with heroin hit our neighborhoods, 10, 15, 30 people at a time overdose. Our emergency responders and law enforcement cannot keep up. It doesn’t have to be this way. And, it starts by keeping synthetic drugs, which are so potent a dose the size of a snowflake can kill, from crossing the border through the mail.”
The bill is being championed in the Senate by a coalition of senators including Republicans Rob Portman of Ohio and Marco Rubio of Florida and Democrats Maggie Hanson of New Hampshire and Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota.
Noting that his home base of Manatee and Sarasota counties have been impacted hard by the heroin epidemic, Buchanan has played an increasingly active role in battling opiates. Over the summer, he asked for federal assistance to help Manatee County tackle heroin. As one of the co-chairs of the Florida delegation, Buchanan has also focused its attention on addiction and treatment.
