Brown joins bipartisan Senate effort against fentanyl | News

Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH) is working with his fellow senators to make China more accountable for fentanyl trafficking.

Brown joined Senators Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Tom Cotton (R-AK), Marco Rubio (R-FL), Robert Menendez (D-NJ), Pat Toomey (R-PA), and Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) to introduce the Fentanyl Sanctions Act. The legislation would give US government agencies more resources to go after traffickers from China, Mexico, and other countries bringing the drug in.

It would also put pressure on China to stick to their commitment to making all fentanyl illegal, and apply sanctions if they do not.

“It’s not certain but likely some of China’s big pharmacological manufacturers are doing some of this, putting it out there,” said Brown. “Some of it’s in small villages, some of it’s in big operations and we need the Chinese government to root it our the way they probably know how to do, and that’s what we’re asking.”

Brown said that in order to fight against fentanyl, the US needs to scale up on treatment and prevention education, but the first step is to do as much as possible to stop it from coming into the country.