As the drug fentanyl continues to surge into the United States, U.S. Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ) and six other Republicans added to a parallel surge of affiliated legislation to combat it last week with the introduction of the Homeland Security Fentanyl Enforcement Act (HR 9093).
The new bill would empower agents within the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Homeland Security Investigations (HIS) unit with independent authority to enforce U.S. drug laws. Currently, the unit is the primary DHS tool for investigating transnational crime, but it is the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) tasked with investigating drug-related crimes. According to Smith, while the DEA has since empowered approximately 1,500 HSI agents to investigate those crimes, thousands more remain as untapped potential.
In pushing for this bill, Smith also drew a direct line to a curious item recently highlighted by the DEA: rainbow-colored fentanyl.
“The deliberate targeting of children by drug cartels with deadly fentanyl made to look like candy is just the latest horrific aspect of the fentanyl crisis that has wreaked havoc on our communities,” Smith said.
The DEA has made similar claims, though many drug experts point out this may likely be conjecture – that rainbow fentanyl is nothing new, and for that matter, that it’s meant more to distinguish the drug rather than to target children. They have also questioned the logic of cartels driven by profit attempting to make kids a focus of their efforts.
While in a statement on HR 9093, Smith himself pointed to a recent case from Mercer County, New Jersey, where a woman was arrested with 15,000 rainbow fentanyl pills packed into a LEGO box, even the DEA has previously acknowledged that such efforts are unlikely meant to attract young people, but are instead meant as a smuggling tactic to deter law enforcement attention.
Nevertheless, fentanyl is a dangerous product that can quickly prove lethal, and U.S. law enforcement officials have seized more than 10.2 million pills and approximately 980 pounds of powder since May alone. According to the Department of Justice, more than 107,000 Americans died from drug poisoning or overdoses last year, and 66 percent of those cases stemmed from synthetic opioids like fentanyl.
“Now more than ever, we must renew and strengthen our fight against the scourge of opioids that has claimed far too many lives and devastated so many families,” Smith said.