Several provisions introduced by U.S. Sen. John Hoeven (R-ND) became law last week as part of a far-reaching legislative package aimed at ending America’s opioid abuse crisis.
The bipartisan Substance Use-Disorder Prevention that Promotes Opioid Recovery and Treatment (SUPPORT) for Patients and Communities Act, H.R. 6, signed into law on Oct. 24 by President Donald Trump, includes provisions that Sen. Hoeven introduced to prevent the sale and shipment of illegal synthetic drugs.
“We appreciate the president signing into law this legislation to help combat opioid abuse and provide additional tools to help families and communities impacted by addiction,” Sen. Hoeven said last week. “This legislation is comprehensive and supports prevention, treatment, recovery and law enforcement efforts.”
Additionally, “the legislation includes provisions we worked to advance to prevent the sale and shipment of dangerous drugs like fentanyl,” according to the senator.
Sen. Hoeven said in a statement released by his office that he diligently worked to include language in H.R. 6 aligned with the Illegal Synthetic Drug Safety Act, S. 658, which he sponsored on March 15, 2017, to amend the Controlled Substances Act toward modifying the treatment of controlled substance analogues, which have substantially similar chemical structures and pharmacological effects to schedule I controlled substances, according to the congressional record summary.
S. 658 would prevent bad actors from circumventing the law to sell and distribute variations of illegal synthetic drugs by requiring that product labels list: “not for human consumption,” according to the senator’s statement.
The language from S. 658 that is included in the new H.R. 6 law came from the bicameral, bipartisan Synthetic Abuse and Labeling of Toxic Substances (SALTS) Act, S. 207 / H.R. 6047, which Sen. Hoeven cosponsored in the U.S. Senate in January 2017.
The senator also cosponsored the bipartisan, bicameral Synthetic Trafficking and Overdose Prevention (STOP) Act of 2017, S. 372 / H.R. 1057, which also is part of H.R. 6.
The measure, among several provisions, amends the Trade Act of 2002 to direct the U.S. Treasury Department to require the Postmaster General to provide for the advanced electronic transmission to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) of certain information for all postal shipments by the U.S. Postal Service, including postal shipments it receives from foreign postal operators, according to the congressional record summary.
This will empower CBP Customs and Border Protection to more effectively determine and prevent the possible shipment into the United States of illegal substances, according to Sen. Hoeven’s statement.