Missouri legislation seeks to add fentanyl trafficking to the statutes | News

JEFFERSON CITY — There is no law targeting trafficking fentanyl in Missouri. Some lawmakers are trying again to change that.

House Bill 239 proposes that trafficking more than 10 mg of fentanyl would be prosecuted as a felony.

Rep. Nick Schroer, R-O’Fallon, is the bill’s sponsor. He has been pushing this bill since last spring. Schroer said this bill will allow prosecutors, investigators and law enforcement officers to get drug traffickers “out of our streets” and help determine how the drug is coming into the state.

Interstates 70, 44 and 64 are, in Schroer’s words, the “gateway” to fentanyl “going into our state, into our streets, ultimately.”

Schroer said the fentanyl usually is manufactured in labs in Mexico and China, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration.

On Jan 31, U.S. Customs and Border Protection seized 254 pounds of fentanyl on a truck sending cucumbers to the U.S. from Mexico. This is the largest fentanyl bust in history.

Darrell Moore, the executive director of the Missouri Association of Prosecuting Attorneys, said the bill’s passage would be helpful in stopping the drug’s spread in the state. 

Lobbyist David Jackson, whose firm Gamble and Schlemeier represents several health care organizations, stressed the need to address the issue. “We want to make sure fentanyl is legally used in hospitals, and not by traffickers,” he said.

Some representatives, like Rep. Gina Mitten, D-St. Louis, were surprised that passing such a law was necessary.

“I thought these particular drugs were already specifically prohibited in the trafficking laws,” Mitten said.

According to Mobility and Mortality Weekly Report, the usage of fentanyl has been steadily increasing in the period from 2013-2017, though it stabilized in the second half of 2017.

Eric Zahnd, prosecuting attorney in Platte County, said mixing fentanyl with heroin is extremely dangerous and lethal.

“This problem is, you can’t cut them in the accurate amount,” Zahnd said.

Jackson noted that physicians are treating many people in emergency rooms because they have taken heroin mixed with fentanyl. “It’s extremely dangerous to mix fentanyl for recreational use,” he said.

Schroer said it’s vital to deal with the issue now.

“The opioid epidemic is something that affects not only my community in St. Charles County; it’s every county across the state of Missouri, if not the entire country,” Schroer said.

The bill does not target those who use fentanyl for medical purposes. 

“This (bill) is going to have no impact on legal use of fentanyl, which many people need as a form of pain management,” Schroer said. 

Supervising editor is Mark Horvit, horvitm@missouri.edu.