Trump signs a law to end the fentanyl epidemic in the United States

Accompanied by parents who have lost their children due to the abuse of this drug, President Donald Trump signed on Wednesday a bill that aims to put an end to the Fentanyl epidemic in the United States.

"We're going to get drug traffickers, distributors, and dealers off our streets and we won't rest until we've ended the overdose epidemic," Trump promised attendees in the East Room of the White House on Wednesday afternoon.

The president stated during his speech that the HALT Fentanyl Act represents "a historic step toward justice for every family affected by Fentanyl." With the signing of this law, Trump fulfills one of the central promises of his campaign.

Fewer ways to evade the law

The regulation permanently classifies substances related to Fentanyl as analogues. This way, producers who maintained the lethality but chemically modified the drug just enough to evade legal consequences will no longer be able to do so.

Thus, every substance derived from Fentanyl will be prosecuted in the eyes of the law in the same way, preventing legal loopholes that could allow criminals to continue marketing this substance but altered.

This regulation also amends the text of the Controlled Substances Act of 1970, allowing Fentanyl to be recategorized as a Schedule I drug, the strictest classification under U.S. law, which groups substances with a high potential for abuse and not accepted for medical use.

"Under this law, any person who possesses, imports, distributes, or manufactures any illicit substance related to Fentanyl will be subject to criminal prosecution like any other Schedule I controlled substance," states a White House document shared by the outlet The Daily Wire.

Parents thank Trump

There were emotional moments during the signing of the law. The White House had been filled with the president's allies and the so-called "Angel Parents," an organization that brings together parents who have lost children due to the use of this substance.

A father, whose son Drew tragically died of an overdose, told Trump on Wednesday afternoon: "Thank you, Mr. President, for stopping drug trafficking at the border. We were being deceived, and you came to set that lie on fire, and now we're much safer because of that."

In the words of White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, in the last four years Biden and the Democrats "barely mentioned the Fentanyl crisis, which remains the leading cause of death in our country."