Attorney General Miyares Leads Coalition Urging Senate to Permanently Classify All Fentanyl Analogues as Schedule I Drugs

RICHMOND, VA – Attorney General Jason Miyares today co-led a multi-state coalition letter urging the U.S. Senate leadership to pass the HALT Fentanyl Act immediately. The legislation would permanently schedule all current and future fentanyl analogues as Schedule I drugs, giving law enforcement the appropriate tools they need to crack down on the epidemic by stopping the flow of the dangerous drugs developed to imitate fentanyl (although not chemically identical). The House of Representatives recently passed this bill with an overwhelming bipartisan majority, and the coalition of attorneys general hope the Senate does the same. 

“The United States is experiencing a cataclysmic surge of overdose deaths due to the lethal amounts of fentanyl and fentanyl-related substances that cross the southwestern land border unimpeded. Each year, fentanyl and fentanyl analogues kill Americans at a rate that rivals World War II or the Civil War. Just last year, drug overdoses killed more than 100,000 Americans. Synthetic opioids like fentanyl caused 66% of those overdose deaths,” the attorneys general wrote. 

“The threat of fentanyl in all its forms cannot be overstated. We’ve already seen its devastating effect on families and communities in every corner of the Commonwealth, and it has the potential to be much worse. Congress must make every current and future fentanyl analogue a Schedule I drug, as soon as possible,” said Attorney General Miyares. 

The Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody co-led this letter with Miyares. The following states joined Virginia and Florida’s coalition: Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, West Virginia, and Wyoming.

Read the letter here. 

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