WASHINGTON-Reuters The U.S. Justice Department has indicated support for legislation to extend by seven months a ban on illegally copying fentanyl, the strong synthetic painkiller that has helped fuel the nation’s opioid epidemic.
Without Congress’ intervention, the immediate ban on all fentanyl variants—a medication 100 times more active than morphine—would expire on May 6. In a statement late Monday, the department said it plans to “work with Congress to pursue a clean, seven-month extension to prevent this powerful compliance tool from lapsing.”
Since 2018, the U.S. Law Enforcement Administration has aimed to clamp down on the proliferation of fentanyl chemical look-alikes, known as “analogs,” by classifying them as so-called Schedule 1 substance, meaning they are highly addictive and have no medical usage.
Fentanyl is related to vast numbers of deaths as the U.S. faces a decades-old drug crisis. Many of the fentanyl analogs flooding America’s streets were made in China or Mexico.
Under Biden’s predecessor, Donald Trump, the DEA persuaded Congress to permanently ban all fentanyl chemical copycats, both to prevent their importation and to make it easier for prosecutors to bring drug-trafficking prosecutions.
The DEA and the Food and Drug Administration had to conduct a detailed scientific review of each particular new fentanyl variant discovered on the streets before it could be added to Schedule 1.
Congress baulked at making the ban permanent among concerns voiced by criminal justice activists and some academics that such action could make it more difficult for scientists to gain approval for substance study and could lead to mass incarceration of low-level drug traffickers and users.
The statement by the Justice Department acknowledged these issues, stating it plans to “answer legitimate concerns about mandatory minimums (prison terms) and researcher access to these drugs.”
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