Recent headlines about the passing of music icon Prince have turned the nation’s attention to a deadly drug called fentanyl and its role in the national opioid abuse epidemic impacting our state. The drug is sometimes mixed with or passed off as heroin, and was the sole cause of 161 deaths in New Hampshire last year.
Fentanyl has been called a serial killer. Poison. A death sentence. Of the 439 drug deaths in our state last year, the majority overdosed on fentanyl, heroin or a combination of both. Fentanyl is so toxic, even to the touch, that law enforcement officers often wear Hazmat suits when entering a facility where it may be illegally manufactured.
In his testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee this January, Manchester Police Chief Nick Willard said “fentanyl is what’s killing our citizens.” But it’s not just law enforcement – the treatment community has taken notice, too. Eric Spofford, who runs several treatment facilities in our state delivered testimony to the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions. He stated that: “Creating harder sentencing law for the distribution of and trafficking of fentanyl is incredibly important. This drug is a serial killer.”
For post-operative pain management in supervised medical environments, pharmaceutical fentanyl is administered in micrograms – or millionths of grams – and less than one milligram can be fatal. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention noted that just one gram of fentanyl can produce approximately 7,000 street doses of the powerful drug – where a street dose is the rough equivalent of one use. In current law, a high-level dealer would need 400 grams of fentanyl to trigger the same trafficking penalties as someone distributing 1 kilogram of heroin – even though the Drug Enforcement Administration estimates that fentanyl can be up to 50 times more powerful than heroin.
Many say “we can’t arrest our way out of this problem,” and I agree. I’m a strong proponent of drug courts and reforms to the justice system to better advocate for individuals who are struggling with a substance use disorder. For the person who truly needs help and treatment, the very last thing we should give them is a jail cell.
That’s why I was proud to help introduce – and reintroduce – the bipartisan Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act, or CARA, which passed the Senate in March by a vote of 94-1. Not much gets through the Senate today with that sort of support. Knowing that this epidemic is a public health emergency, we worked with treatment providers, medical professionals, law enforcement, individuals in recovery, and many other stakeholders to draft a bill focused on prevention, interdiction, treatment, education, and resources for recovery – not arrests.
As New Hampshire’s attorney general, I worked extensively with law enforcement to keep criminals off the streets. I know that our public safety community works day and night to stop the flow of drugs into our state and save lives – often putting their own lives on the line. That’s why when they say we need a comprehensive response to the epidemic, I listen. And when they say fentanyl is a growing threat and they need better tools to deal with it, I listen.
Working with law enforcement, I introduced legislation last September intended to address this deadly drug and go after the high-level dealers and traffickers who are knowingly bringing it into the market. My legislation, the Stop Trafficking in Fentanyl Act, seeks to equalize the penalties for trafficking fentanyl and heroin, based on fentanyl’s alarmingly high potency. This bill is not meant to be a standalone solution. But in conjunction with other measures like CARA, it could be an important component of our comprehensive response.
But I want to be clear. The intent of the legislation is to better align fentanyl penalties with heroin penalties – not to trap those who need treatment and recovery assistance in the criminal justice system. I welcome the opportunity to continue working with New Hampshire stakeholders on the measure to ensure we’re helping – not hurting – low-level offenders suffering from a substance use disorder who aren’t violent criminals or high-level drug dealers.
I will not let up in the fight against this deadly drug and this heartbreaking epidemic. I am committed to using every tool we have available to prevent more individuals from falling prey to addiction, strengthen our communities, get criminals off the streets and help save lives. The comprehensive approach I’ve been fighting for over the last two years will help us get there.
(Kelly Ayotte, a Republican from Nashua, represents New Hampshire in the United States Senate.)