In 2018, Congress took the important step of passing the landmark SUPPORT for Patients and Communities Act, comprehensive legislation aimed at reversing high rates of drug overdose deaths. At the same time, the Trump administration acted aggressively to cut off the supply of illicit fentanyl in our communities by temporarily scheduling fentanyl analogs as a Schedule I controlled substance.
By all measures, this all-the-above approach was working. Between January 2018 and 2019, drug overdose rates declined, and we only experienced a small increase in drug overdose rates between January 2019 and 2020. But then, the COVID-19 pandemic hit, and lockdowns suddenly left millions of people trapped inside their homes and without the critical support systems needed to help people cope with substance use disorder.
Making matters worse was President Joe Biden’s decision to undue former President Donald Trump’s border policies, including “Remain in Mexico” and Title 42. Due to the Biden administration’s open border policies, every state has become a border state, with illicit drugs flowing into our communities at unprecedented rates.
In fact, since Biden took office in 2021, U.S. Customs and Border Protection has seized more than 51,000 pounds of illicit fentanyl at our southern border — enough fentanyl to kill the entire U.S. population three times over (more than 11.5 billion lethal doses).
And the cartels and their Chinese counterparts have now found cheaper ways to manufacture deadly drugs. Xylazine, also known by its street name “TRANQ,” is being laced with fentanyl. This is especially concerning because there are no approved medications to reverse a Xylazine overdose. The number of overdose deaths in which Xylazine was detected increased by more than 275% from January 2019 to December 2022.
The human cost of COVID lockdowns and illicit drug trafficking cannot be understated. In 2021 and 2022, we lost more than 200,000 Americans due to drug overdoses. In my home state of Kentucky, illicit fentanyl has been the cause of more than 70% of drug overdoses from 2020 to 2022.
We undoubtedly have our work cut out for us, but I am hopeful we can reverse these trends because of the hard work House Republicans are doing to address the crisis at the southern border. Under my leadership, the House GOP recently voted to schedule fentanyl-related substances as Schedule I drugs permanently and reauthorize the SUPPORT Act.
In June, I led a health subcommittee field hearing in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, to hear testimony from law enforcement, the medical community, and the heart-wrenching account of a father who tragically lost his daughter to an overdose.
I vividly recount him saying, “We have turned misery into a mission. Calamity into a cause. We want to live our life with a purpose and to honor our beloved Leah Renee Stanley.” I’m committed to his mission of ending this epidemic that left so many families with an empty chair this past holiday season. I’m fighting for these families and for those suffering, which is why I led the reauthorization of the SUPPORT for Patients and Communities Act.
This legislation takes a three-pronged approach to curbing the overdose crisis: prevention strategies, providing access to life-saving treatment services, and making investments in long-term recovery support services. We do this by permanently placing Xylazine on the controlled substances list, providing access to comprehensive behavioral and substance use disorder treatment services for Medicaid patients, and promoting access to career training for those working to overcome their substance use disorder.
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This isn’t a silver bullet, and Congress will need to be agile as we work to end the drug overdose epidemic, especially as the crisis at the southern border rages on. But this is an important step to addressing the many challenges we face as we work to put an end to the overdose epidemic.
I urge the Senate and President Joe Biden to step up to the plate and work with me to get this signed into law.
Brett Guthrie is a U.S. representative for Kentucky and serves as the chair of the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s Health Subcommittee.