U.S. Rep Chris Pappas

WASHINGTON – U.S. Rep. Chris Pappas (NH-01) has introduced legislation to extend the Drug Enforcement Agency’s (DEA) temporary order to keep fentanyl-related substances in Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act to ensure law enforcement can keep them off the streets. This is a designation used for substances with no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse.

Chemical versions of fentanyl are ever-changing and traffickers intentionally make small variations in substances, knowing that the scheduling process can take months in order to place these deadly drugs in Schedule 1. This legislation ensures that all deadly fentanyl analogues are automatically categorized as Schedule 1.

The DEA issued a temporary order in February 2018 to categorize fentanyl and fentanyl analogues as Schedule I drugs. Congress passed legislation extending that order through May 6, 2021 in February 2020. Pappas’s legislation, the Extending Temporary Emergency Scheduling of Fentanyl Analogues Act, would extend that order again through September 6, 2021.

“Opioids have claimed the lives of our family members, friends, and neighbors at alarming rates here in New Hampshire and across the country,” said Congressman Pappas. “We know in many cases that fentanyl and its highly lethal analogues are trafficked from outside the United States. Extending the scheduling of all fentanyl analogues as Schedule 1 will prevent our communities from being flooded with synthetic opioids and will ensure international traffickers are held accountable without delay. This legislation is essential in our fight to save lives and confront the addiction epidemic, and I am hopeful we will see swift, bipartisan action in Congress to extend this classification.”

In New Hampshire, drug overdose deaths involving opioids totaled 412 in 2018 and have remained stable since 2015. Deaths involving synthetic opioids other than methadone (mainly fentanyl and fentanyl analogues) have remained steady, but high over the past several years with 386 deaths in 2018.

The number of deaths from fentanyl-related substances is unknown, but the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that there were more than 50,000 deaths involving all synthetic opioids in the 12-month period ending July 2020.

Additionally, the underlying bill that this legislation extends also directs the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to study and report on the classification of fentanyl-related substances as Schedule I controlled substances, research on fentanyl-related substances, and the importation of fentanyl-related substances into the United States.

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