Congress is sending a bill to the president in their push to address the nation’s drug epidemic. The legislation will give border agents access to high-tech equipment, making it easier to detect and stop the flow of the highly potent painkiller fentanyl.
Fentanyl comes mostly from China and was the cause of more than 2,300 deaths in Ohio in 2016.
Democratic U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown says his bipartisan bill will help authorities stop the synthetic opioid from finding its way across U.S. borders and into other drugs.
“So many people think they’re taking heroin, which is dangerous enough and clearly contributes to their addiction. There’s fentanyl in these substances sometimes and it can cause death and Ohio has had more deaths than any place in the country,” Brown said.
The bill provides new equipment for U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
Republican U.S. Senator Rob Portman is pushing a bill requiring more scrutiny of packages sent through the postal service.
