Mar 25, 2017 By J.D. Prose jprose@calkins.Com 4 min read

With fentanyl playing an increasingly larger role in the opioid crisis, congressional legislators have taken steps in the past week to counter the flow of the synthetic drug into the country.

On March 16, a resolution, which was co-sponsored by U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Lehigh County, calling on the United States, China and Mexico to stop fentanyl production and trafficking unanimously passed the Senate.

Most of the illegal fentanyl in America comes from China and is either shipped directly here or to Mexico, where it is processed and then smuggled into America. Fentanyl jumped into the spotlight last year when it was cited as the cause of death for music superstar Prince.

Then on Tuesday, U.S. Rep. Tim Murphy, R-Upper St. Clair Township, chairman of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce’s Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, oversaw a hearing titled, “Fentanyl: The Next Wave of the Opioid Crisis,” featuring testimony from federal authorities on the front lines in the war against fentanyl.

“The surge of fentanyl is having a dramatic and deadly effect on our communities. We all see the headlines; these are our neighbors, our families, our friends,” Murphy said in opening remarks. “We need an ‘all-hands-on-deck’ approach to fight this problem, which will involve not just the federal government, but states, localities and even international partners.”

Fentanyl-related deaths have “exploded” in his district since 2014, Murphy said, pointing to 86 overdose deaths in Westmoreland County in 2016 that were related to fentanyl.

There were at least 70 fentanyl-related deaths among 102 fatal overdoses last year in Beaver County based on data from the coroner’s office. According to data compiled by the website OverdoseFreePA.pitt.edu, fentanyl was present in 41 of the 75 overdose deaths in Lawrence County since 2014.

Murphy said that fentanyl is about 50 times stronger than heroin and 100 times more potent than morphine, and many drug users do not know it is in the heroin they buy. That high potency — just 2 milligrams can cause death — is not only a danger to users, but first responders who might be called to help overdose victims, he said.

“Those suffering from an overdose involving fentanyl may require both higher doses and multiple administrations of naloxone to reverse the overdose and to become stabilized,” Murphy said. “Even the police and first responders are at risk from inadvertently touching or inhaling fentanyl power at a crime scene or helping an overdose victim.”

Matthew Allen, the assistant director of homeland security investigative programs under the Department of Homeland Security, testified that China is a “global supplier” of illicit fentanyl and chemists there tweak chemical structures, resulting in analogue substances, to get around drug laws.

Allen said lax Chinese laws on fentanyl analogue manufacturing and exporting “is one of the challenges we face in stemming the flow of illicit fentanyl from China.” Mexican drug cartels have learned that fentanyl is more cost efficient and less high-profile than producing poppies for heroin, he said.

Citing the Drug Enforcement Administration, Murphy said a kilogram of heroin can be bought for $6,000 and sold wholesale for $80,000, while a kilogram of pure fentanyl can be obtained for $5,000 and mixed with other agents resulting in as much as 24 kilograms, which then can be sold wholesale for $80,000 per kilogram, totaling nearly $2 million.

Pittsburgh is one of a handful of cities where the DEA has implemented its 360 Strategy to counter the opioid crisis and violent crime, Louis Milione, a DEA assistant administrator, told the subcommittee. Under this plan, he said, federal, state and local agencies attack the problems using three avenues: law enforcement, diversion control and community relations.

“The strategy is founded upon our continued enforcement activities directed at the violent street gangs responsible for feeding the heroin and prescription drug abuse epidemic in our communities,” Milione said.

Besides Pittsburgh, the 360 Strategy is in St. Louis, Milwaukee, Louisville, Ky., Manchester, N.H., and Charleston, W. Va., and is planned for Dayton, Ohio, and Albuquerque, N.M.

As for Toomey, the resolution he co-sponsored deems fentanyl use to be a “public health crisis” requiring more cooperation among the United States, China and Mexico.

The resolution also calls for the United States to support Chinese and Mexican government efforts to halt fentanyl production and exportation, and use its diplomatic and law enforcement resources in those efforts, as well as taking steps to reduce heroin and fentanyl use by increasing enforcement to cut the supply coming into the country and using more prevention, treatment and recovery services.

Last year, Toomey introduced the Blocking Deadly Fentanyl Imports Act addressing the production and trafficking of fentanyl by other countries, and proposing certain penalties, but the legislation stalled in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.