NEWS

The AG Republicans descend to Washington for the signature of Trump Fentanyl Bill

NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!

President Donald Trump signed a bill on Wednesday which classifies drugs linked to fentanyl as more dangerous substances in the context of the president’s broader repression against the country’s opioid epidemic.

The bill, called The Halt All Lethal Trafficking (HALT) of Fentanyl Act, was an effort led by Les Républicains but obtained large bipartisan support in the Chamber and the Senate.

It places substances linked to fentanyl permanently in Appendix I of the law on controlled substances, which means that crimes linked to illicit drugs will require prison terms.

More than two dozen prosecutors general of the republican state have previously urged the congress to adopt the bill, calling it “vital” to address a “cataclysmic push by overdose” in the United States in a letter to the leaders of the Congress.

The Senate adopts the Fentanyl Act to permanently reclassify all the substances related to fentanyl

Trump speaks during Bill's signature ceremony

President Donald Trump speaks to families of fentanyl victims during a bill of the bill in Washington, DC, United States, on July 16, 2025. (Al Drago / Bloomberg via Getty Images)

The South Carolina General Prosecutor, Alan Wilson, told Fox News Digital just before Trump signed the bill that even if the laws already impose minimum mandatory prison terms for drug traffickers who sell fentanyl, the bill addresses the analogues of fentanyl, which are similar synthetic opioids original.

“When a Chinese chemist or a Mexican cartel chemist changes a molecule, modifies a fentanyl drug component, it makes it difficult for federal prosecutors to prosecute them,” said Wilson, adding that the new law will end what has become a game of “cat and mouse” for prosecutors.

Annex I drugs are those that have no medical use approved by the government. Fentanyl’s analogues had been temporarily classified as part of this calendar, but the new bill constantly codifies it.

Opioids and synthetic opioids are the two main causes of death from the United States overdose in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Drug overdoses decreased in 2024 but remain the main cause of death for Americans aged 18 to 44, according to the agency.

I blame Biden’s border crisis for the death of my teenage fentanyl and thanks Trump for trying to end this scourge

SC Ag Alan Wilson gives a speech

South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson spoke to the State House at a recent press conference on human trafficking. (Tracy Glantz / The State / Tribune News Service via Getty Images)

Critics of the Fentanyl Act, which include certain Democrats and civil rights groups, have warned that harmless substances that do not justify a compulsory prison sentence could be swept away in the fentanyl “similar” category and that the bill does nothing to approach the deep causes of drug addiction.

“It is shocking that legislators always believe that we can control our path outside a public health crisis – despite more than fifty years of evidence,” said Liz Komar, lawyer for the sentence determination, in a press release.

The Iowa general prosecutor, Brenna Bird, supported practices of determining the stricter sentence, saying to Fox News Digital that she witnessed first -hand like the first cop of her state how “these convictions protect the victims” and “help to obtain justice for the victims, for our communities”.

“I really think that the only people who could be against (the fentanyl law) would be drug cartels because they have so much to lose by retracting from fentanyl and the money they earn by poisoning thousands of Americans,” said Bird.

On Wednesday, among those who frequent Trump’s bill in the eastern house in the White House, there were several of the prosecutors, Congress leaders, immigration groups and families who have lost dear beings because of dependencies and overdoses.

The father whose son died of fentanyl warns that overdoses can arrive at anyone ‘

Trump, Gregory Swan

Trump considers a photo as a man who lost his son against fentanyl speaks before the signing of the “Harte all deadly Trafficking of Fentanyl Act” in the eastern house in the White House in Washington, DC, on July 16, 2025. (Andrew Caballero-Reynolds / AFP via Getty Images)

Gregory Swan spoke of his son Drew, who died of a fentanyl overdose at 24. He was prescribed analgesics after a sports injury, which stimulated his dependence.

“It is the honor of my life to be here,” said Swan by holding a framed photo of his son. “Drew was – the happiest day of my life was when he was born, and he always called me his hero until the day of his death. And his death ruined, I thought, my life.

The new bill was part of a larger effort from the Trump administration to limit deaths by overdose and stem the flow of illegal drugs in the country.

One previous day, the Attorney General Pam Bondi and the acting administrator of the acting medication, Robert Murphy, announced recent operations of bust of recent drugs and an update of their fentanyl attacks, widely known to be very powerful in tiny doses. Authorities warn that overdoses can occur because more harmless drugs, such as Adderall, can be imprisoned, without the consumer.

Click here to obtain the Fox News app

The DEA has entered more than 44 million fentanyl pills this year and 4,500 pounds of fentanyl powder, said Bondi, adding that the federal authorities have carried out 2,105 fentanyl arrests.

“I want to remind all Americans to exercise extreme caution: a pill can kill,” said the Attorney General.

Related Articles

Back to top button