Push in Putnam to combat fentanyl
U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, a Democrat who is one of the approximately 61 sponsors of the bipartisan FEND Off Fentanyl Act that was introduced in the Senate by Republican Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, was at Philipstown Town Hall in Putnam County’s Cold Spring on July 28. She went there to hail Senate passage of the Fentanyl Act as part of the Defense Authorization Bill. The House of Representatives adjourned for the August vacation without voting on its bipartisan version of the measure.
“No community, including Cold Spring, has been left untouched by the deadly impacts of silent killers like fentanyl. Just last year, the DEA (Drug Enforcement Administration) seized enough deadly doses of fentanyl in New York for more than three times the state”™s population,” Gillibrand said. “The bipartisan FEND Off Fentanyl Act would target both cartels and individuals involved in producing and trafficking these dangerous drugs. It will better empower the government to sanction drug traffickers and combat money laundering schemes that make this trade profitable.”
The bill mandates a number of actions beginning with having the government declare that the international trafficking of fentanyl is a national emergency. It requires the president to sanction transnational criminal organizations and drug cartels”™ key members engaged in international fentanyl trafficking and allows the president to use proceeds of forfeited, sanctioned property of fentanyl traffickers to pay for law enforcement efforts.
The bill also enhances the ability of the Treasury Department to act more effectively against money laundering tied to fentanyl trafficking.
Fentanyl cannot be detected by taste, smell, or sight when mixed with other drugs. The synthetic opioid is 50 times stronger than heroin. Last year, the Drug Enforcement Administration seized more than 379 million doses of fentanyl across the U.S., enough of the drug to kill everyone living in the U.S.
With Gillibrand at Philipstown Town Hall were U.S. Rep. Mike Lawler, State Sen. Rob Rolison, Putnam County Executive Kevin Byrne, Putnam County Legislator Nancy Montgomery, Village of Cold Spring Police Department Officer in Charge Larry Burke, and St. Christopher”™s Inn Executive Director James Schiller.
“The opioid epidemic remains the public health crisis of our lifetime,” Byrne said. “Putnam County is committed to continuing to provide resources for treatment, recovery, education, and enforcement, but our enforcement measures are only so effective in the face of a multi-billion dollar drug trafficking industry. We cannot be blind to what they are doing and cannot allow these criminal organizations to operate as they have.”