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U.S. Attorneys ask Congress to extend drug ban

By Patrick Mcardle
patrick.mcardle @rutlandherald.com
The U.S. Attorneys for the New England states, including Christina Nolan of Vermont, are asking Congress to extend a temporary law making all fentanyl-related drugs illegal in the U.S. before it expires on Feb. 6.

“I think this is one of those things that we can all agree on because it’s a matter of life and death. These are incredibly deadly narcotics,” Nolan said on Wednesday.

The federal prosecutors want Congress to extend the Stopping Overdoses of Fentanyl Analogues, or SOFA, Act.

According to an editorial written by the states attorneys, the fentanyl, manufactured in illegal labs in China and Mexico, can be 50 times more powerful than heroin and 100 times more powerful than morphine.

The drugs, known as “fentanyl analogues,” can present an even greater challenge.

“Because it is made in labs using chemicals, its structure is easily manipulated. And the drug cartels that manufacture and traffic this poison into our neighborhoods understand American laws and know how to exploit them. They know that by changing a single molecule in the chemical structure of fentanyl, they have essentially created a new drug. One that, unlike fentanyl, is not illegal in the United States,” the editorial said.

Nolan said the federal government banned the fentanyl analogues as controlled substances in February 2018 on an emergency basis. That ban is nearing an end.

The Senate recently has approved a 15-month extension of the temporary order which Nolan said the U.S. attorneys who wrote the editorial would like to see supported by the House as well and enacted, but they would also like to see something more permanent.

“The reason I wanted to write (the editorial) is because I’m scared. I’m worried. If these substances suddenly become legal, we’re going to have more people dying,” she said.

Nolan pointed out that preliminary data for 2019 seems to indicate the number of opioid-overdose deaths in Vermont dropped by almost 20%, from 110 in 2018 to 89 or 90 in 2019.

“Right now is not the time to take tools out of our hands, because we’re actually making progress at the moment,” Nolan said.

Congressman Peter Welch’s office said on Wednesday that Welch supported the extension of SOFA. The Senate passed their legislation on Jan. 16 and the House Judiciary Committee is expected to have a hearing by the end of the month.

In April 2018, Nolan testified before a Senate Judiciary committee’s sub-committee on crime and terrorism, asking for a permanent categorization of fentanyl analogues as controlled substances and a reduction on the weight required to trigger mandatory minimum sentencing for fentanyl analogues.

She pointed out that she didn’t object to fentanyl or fentanyl analogues being used for medically necessary purposes but said like other medications that were allowable if prescribed by medical professionals, trafficking in fentanyl analogues should not be legal.

Dr. Todd Gregory, director of the Emergency Department at Rutland Regional Medical Center, saying the analogues were “unnecessary.”

“Fentanyl alone, which as you know is orders of magnitude more potent than sort-of ‘garden-variety’ heroin, is problem enough and so having analogues that are even more potent than that, it’s a level of danger that is frankly unnecessary,” he said.

The analogues don’t have medical use and are specifically created just for their potency, according to Gregory.

Nolan said one of the benefits of the editorial beyond the outreach to federal legislators was the warning it might provide to drug users who might not know they’re being exposed to fentanyl or might know but not realize the danger it adds.

She said the prosecutors didn’t want anyone using illicit drugs at all but said those who might learn how great the risk is to their own lives might “take advantage of one of Vermont’s many wonderful rehab centers.”

Gregory said it was “almost impossible” to say if there is more use of fentanyl analogues locally.

“They’re so potent that most of the patients that suffer complications from them never make it to the hospital. They’re just that strong,” he said.

While the editorial doesn’t specifically ask readers to reach out to federal legislators, she said any help provided by U.S. citizens would be appreciated.

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