FORT WORTH (1080 KRLD) - The manufacture and transport of fentanyl will be a minimum of a third-degree felony under legislation that Governor Abbott says he will sign.
“It is unseen to the general public,” Abbott told a news conference at the Tarrant County Sheriff’s Office in Fort Worth; but importantly, this unseen thing coming across the border is deadly dangerous.”
Abbott says the issue doesn’t just plague those along the southern border, but it affects the entire state.
“It comes from the border, up Interstate 35, up Interstate 45, up other routes in the State of Texas,” says Abbott, “and it’s invading the Metroplex area.”
Abbott says fentanyl is lethal.
“Fentanyl is 100 times more potent than morphine,” Abbott says. “It is 50 times more potent than heroin. Just two little milligrams of fentanyl is a lethal dose.”
Flanked by Tarrant County Sheriff Bill Waybourn, DPS Director Col. Steve McCraw and Mansfield Police Chief Tracy Aaron, Abbott said the fentanyl crisis ramped up last year and has spiraled out of control this year.
“Just the first four months of this year alone, the Texas Department of Public Safety seized more fentanyl than is needed to kill every man, woman and child who live in the State of New York,” says Abbott.
In response, Abbott said he will sign legislation calling for very harsh punishments for manufacturing or transporting the drug.
“I’m about to sign a law that creates a new criminal offense for the manufacture or delivery of fentanyl,” Abbott says. “The punishment begins as a third-degree felony, which will make this law one of the toughest drug laws in Texas.”
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