Trump Signs Into Law Anti-Fentanyl Legislation Authored By Bucks County Congressman
NORRISTOWN, Pa. (CBS) -- As Gov. Tom Wolf declares a state-of-emergency in Pennsylvania over the opioid crisis, President Donald Trump is signing legislation into law Wednesday that is cosponsored by Bucks County Congressman Brian Fitzpatrick -- aimed at stopping a potentially deadly drug before it gets into the U.S.
Just a few grains of the synthetic opioid fentanyl can be deadly, says Congressman Fitzpatrick.
"The distributors are in China and they're the source of the precursor chemicals used to manufacture the drug," Fitzpatrick said, "but according to the DEA, Mexico's the primary source for the trafficking into the United States, mainly along the southwest border."
And often through mail or delivery services like FedEx or UPS. U.S. Customs and Border Protection says they can detect the drug with scanners. Fitzpatrick's legislation gives Customs and Border Protection access to more of those scanners, along with other resources to detect the drug.
The legislation is called the International Narcotics Trafficking Emergency Response by Detecting Incoming Contraband with Technology – or INTERDICT – Act. It gets the agency additional hand-held and fixed scanners and additional resources.
This is the first legislation from Fitzpatrick to be signed into law, and he says there is more coming from the bipartisan congressional heroin task force.