PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — In a visit to Esperanza Health Center in Kensington Friday Senator Bob Casey urged Congress to pass legislation aimed at combatting the opioid crisis.
Casey says the FEND Off Fentanyl Act, a sanctions and anti-money laundering bill, would declare that the international trafficking of fentanyl is a national emergency and allow the U.S. to sanction drug cartels in Mexico and chemical suppliers in the People’s Republic of China.
“These are not measures that should be the subject to partisan disagreement,” he said. “So, I feel confident we can pass it through the House and the Senate, but we gotta get a pathway.”
Juan Perez, CEO of Esperanza Health, says the effects of the opioid crisis can be seen and felt in Philadelphia, but the problem extends beyond city limits.
In 2022, the Philadelphia Department of Public Health reported 1,413 overdose deaths — an 11% increase from 2021.
Last year, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) seized more than 379 million lethal doses of fentanyl, Casey said. And the year prior, in 2021, around 107,000 Americans died from an overdose — 65% of which were caused by fentanyl.
That’s why Interim Police Commissioner John Stanford says, in order to help combat this crisis, the Philadelphia Police Department “needs the continuous support of the federal government, and disrupting illicit supply chains at the source.”
If the bill passes, it would allocate $1.2 billion to hire more border patrol and DEA agents and step up screenings at the southern border.