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WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congressman Brett Guthrie (KY-02), Republican Leader of the Energy and Commerce Committee’s Health Subcommittee, spoke on the House floor to support scheduling fentanyl analogues.

Guthrie is a cosponsor of the Federal Initiative to Guarantee Health by Targeting Fentanyl Act, which would put fentanyl analogues permanently on the Drug Enforcement Administration’s Schedule I, controlled substance list.

Click HERE to watch Guthrie’s remarks on the House floor

“I rise today very concerned about the deadly threat of fentanyl and fentanyl analogues. Last week the Energy and Commerce Committee held a hearing on this exact issue. Here’s the facts: more than 88,000 overdose deaths were reported by the CDC in a 12-month period ending in August of 2020. This is a record for highest number of overdose deaths ever recorded in a year. In 2018 synthetic opioids, which includes these dangerous fentanyl analogues, were involved in 744 deaths in just Kentucky.

“I learned from a substance use health care provider in my district that almost all their patients have some sort of fentanyl in their system, many of the patients are not aware themselves. Just last month, a two-year-old in Kentucky died from exposure of fentanyl. Therefore, I support a permanent solution of scheduling fentanyl analogues.

“Last week, some of my colleagues and we had a witness try to argue that a long-term solution for banning fentanyl is a social justice issue. In fact, one witness shared, ‘it is being argued that fentanyl class scheduling is suddenly unnecessary because of the low number of prosecutions to date, (8).’ However, eight mandatory minimum sentences in three years, four of them being members of the cartel, proves that prosecutors are not going after low level users. Witness also argued that [with] this scheduling of fentanyl analogues, the decrease of new fentanyl analogues coming into this country was 90%. If someone is being unjustly prosecuted for fentanyl analogues, then that should be addressed. However, not scheduling fentanyl analogues, when we had a witness testify it drops 90% being imported, will be deadly for Americans, since fentanyl and its analogues are responsible for thousands of deaths each year.”

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