Rep. Steve Scalise accused House Democratic leadership of putting American lives at risk for failing to consider a deal with Republicans and President Trump on curbing the opioid epidemic.
“Next week … a whole class of fentanyl drugs that are killing Americans, fentanyl drugs that are currently illegal,” the Lousiana Republican said Tuesday on Fox News. “That fentanyl becomes legal next week because the legal ban on that expires.”
The Drug Enforcement Agency has a nationwide ban on fentanyl-like substances that expires on Feb. 6.
“That damage is on their hands,” Scalise said. “Every single person who dies from those illegal drugs, when you can’t put that drug dealer in jail next week that you could put in jail today, it’s all on Nancy Pelosi’s hands.”
Late last year, the Senate passed a bipartisan Fentanyl Sanctions Act.
“The opioid epidemic is devastating and indiscriminate, and year after year, it’s claimed tens of thousands of American lives,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said. “We must hold China, currently the world’s largest producer of illicit fentanyl, accountable for its role in the trade of this deadly drug.”
