South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson has joined a total of 25 states in urging the U.S. Senate to pass the HALT Fentanyl Act, which will end the copycat fentanyl loophole and save American lives.
Since 2018, fentanyl has killed nearly as many Americans as World War II. The problem has only been made worse by Mexican drug cartels smuggling deadly Chinese-made copycat fentanyl across the southern border. Between October 2021 and June 2022 alone, U.S. Customs and Border Protection seized enough fentanyl to kill the entire American population five times over.
“There is no reason anyone should be against this law,” Attorney General Wilson said. “Fentanyl and copycat fentanyl are killing more South Carolinians than any other drug and we need to do everything we can to stop it.”
Copycat fentanyl, or fentanyl analogs, are lab-created drugs that are made to work around U.S. law. These fentanyl analogs are often more harmful than prescription fentanyl. Classifying fentanyl analogs as Schedule I drugs closes a loophole for drug dealers by giving law enforcement the tools to prosecute anyone who sells or uses the deadly copycat fentanyl analogs. Congress temporarily classified fentanyl and fentanyl analogs as Schedule I drugs, but that status is set to expire on March 31. The HALT Fentanyl Act will permanently fix the problem.
The U.S. House of Representatives passed the HALT Fentanyl Act law with an overwhelming bipartisan majority. The States are now calling on the Senate to do the same.
Iowa and Virginia co-led the letter. South Carolina is joined by the following states that signed on: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, West Virginia, and Wyoming.
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