Failing On Fentanyl

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America’s Poison –

Sept 20, 2019 – It took Congress until December 2017 to pass a bill specifically targeting fentanyl — nearly four years after legislators first received warnings about the dangers of the drug. In that time, more than 67,000 Americans had died from overdoses of fentanyl and other synthetic opioids. Fentanyl death rates are still rising.

A small group of lawmakers has been sounding the alarm on fentanyl since the drug started causing a spike in overdose deaths in 2013. But they were unable to pick up traction in Congress, controlled by Republicans for years, watching bills to address fentanyl languish and expire, sometimes, they said, at the behest of powerful interests including the pharmaceutical industry, which has made billions of dollars from opioids.

In recent interviews with The Washington Post, nearly two dozen current and former members of Congress expressed anger and exasperation that the rise of synthetic opioids drew so little notice and action in Washington. ItIt took Congress until December 2017 to pass a bill specifically targeting fentanyl — nearly four years after legislators first received warnings about the dangers of the drug. In that time, more than 67,000 Americans had died from overdoses of fentanyl and other synthetic opioids. Fentanyl death rates are still rising.