[House Hearing, 118 Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
THE FENTANYL CRISIS IN AMERICA:
INACTION IS NO LONGER AN OPTION
=======================================================================
HEARING
BEFORE THE
SUBCOMMITTEE ON CRIME AND FEDERAL GOVERNMENT SURVEILLANCE
OF THE
COMMITTEE ON THE JUDICIARY
U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
ONE HUNDRED EIGHTEENTH CONGRESS
FIRST SESSION
__________
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 1, 2023
__________
Serial No. 118-5
__________
Printed for the use of the Committee on the Judiciary
[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Available via: http://judiciary.house.gov
______
U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE
51-493 WASHINGTON : 2023
COMMITTEE ON THE JUDICIARY
JIM JORDAN, Ohio, Chair
DARRELL ISSA, California JERROLD NADLER, New York, Ranking
KEN BUCK, Colorado Member
MATT GAETZ, Florida ZOE LOFGREN, California
MIKE JOHNSON, Louisiana SHEILA JACKSON LEE, Texas
ANDY BIGGS, Arizona STEVE COHEN, Tennessee
TOM McCLINTOCK, California HENRY C. ``HANK'' JOHNSON, Jr.,
TOM TIFFANY, Wisconsin Georgia
THOMAS MASSIE, Kentucky ADAM SCHIFF, California
CHIP ROY, Texas DAVID N. CICILLINE, Rhode Island
DAN BISHOP, North Carolina ERIC SWALWELL, California
VICTORIA SPARTZ, Indiana TED LIEU, California
SCOTT FITZGERALD, Wisconsin PRAMILA JAYAPAL, Washington
CLIFF BENTZ, Oregon J. LUIS CORREA, California
BEN CLINE, Virginia MARY GAY SCANLON, Pennsylvania
LANCE GOODEN, Texas JOE NEGUSE, Colorado
JEFF VAN DREW, New Jersey LUCY McBATH, Georgia
TROY NEHLS, Texas MADELEINE DEAN, Pennsylvania
BARRY MOORE, Alabama VERONICA ESCOBAR, Texas
KEVIN KILEY, California DEBORAH ROSS, North Carolina
HARRIET HAGEMAN, Wyoming CORI BUSH, Missouri
NATHANIEL MORAN, Texas GLENN IVEY, Maryland
LAUREL LEE, Florida
WESLEY HUNT, Texas
RUSSELL FRY, South Carolina
------
SUBCOMMITTEE ON CRIME AND FEDERAL
GOVERNMENT SURVEILLANCE
ANDY BIGGS, Arizona, Chair
MATT GAETZ, Florida, SHEILA JACKSON LEE, Texas, Ranking
TOM TIFFANY, Wisconsin Member
TROY NEHLS, Texas LUCY McBATH, Georgia
BARRY MOORE, Alabama MADELEINE DEAN, Pennsylvania
KEVIN KILEY, California CORI BUSH, Missouri
LAUREL LEE, Florida STEVE COHEN, Tennessee
RUSSELL FRY, South Carolina DAVID N. CICILLINE, Rhode Island
CHRISTOPHER HIXON, Majority Staff Director
AMY RUTKIN, Minority Staff Director & Chief of Staff
C O N T E N T S
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Wednesday, March 1, 2023
Page
OPENING STATEMENTS
The Honorable Andy Biggs, Chair of the Subcommittee on Crime and
Federal Government Surveillance from the State of Arizona...... 1
The Honorable Sheila Jackson Lee, Ranking Member of the
Subcommittee on Crime and Federal Government Surveillance from
the State of Texas............................................. 4
The Honorable Jerrold Nadler, Ranking Member of the Committee on
the Judiciary from the State of New York....................... 7
WITNESSES
Dr. Timothy Westlake, Emergency Physician
Oral Testimony................................................. 9
Prepared Testimony............................................. 12
Erin Rachwal, Founder, Love, Logan Foundation
Oral Testimony................................................. 25
Prepared Testimony............................................. 27
Dr. Jeffrey A. Singer, Senior Fellow in Health Policy Studies,
CATO Institute
Oral Testimony................................................. 37
Prepared Testimony............................................. 39
Derek Maltz, Special Agent in Charge, DEA's Special Operations
Division, Retired
Oral Testimony................................................. 43
Prepared Testimony............................................. 46
LETTERS, STATEMENTS, ETC. SUBMITTED FOR THE HEARING
All items submitted for the record by the Members of the
Committee on the Judiciary and Subcommittee on Crime and
Federal Government Surveillance are listed below............... 153
Statement from Don Holman, submitted by the Honorable Andy Biggs,
Chair of the Subcommittee on Crime and Federal Government
Surveillance from the State of Arizona, for the record
Materials submitted by the Honorable Sheila Jackson Lee, Ranking
Member of the Subcommittee on Crime and Federal Government
Surveillance from the State of Texas, for the record
A letter from the Law Enforcement Action Partnership, signed
by a coalition of current and former law enforcement
officers, judges, and public safety professionals,
December 15, 2002
A statement from Jason Pye, Director, Rule of Law Initiative,
Due Process Institute
A letter from Jillian E. Snider, Policy Director, Criminal
Justice and Civil Liberties, R Street Institute
A letter from Mazen Saleh, Policy Director, Integrated Harm
Reduction, R Street Institute
CATO Institute Briefing Paper entitled, ``Overdose Prevention
Center,'' February 28, 2023
A report entitled, ``South Carolina Drug Overdose,'' submitted by
the Honorable Russell Fry, a Member of the Subcommittee on
Crime and Federal Government Surveillance from the State of
Texas, for the record
QUESTIONS AND RESPONSES FOR THE RECORD
Questions from the Honorable Cori Bush, a Member of the
Subcommittee on Crime and Federal Government Surveillance from
the State of Missouri, for the record
Response from Dr. Jeffrey A. Singer, Senior Fellow in Health
Policy Studies, CATO Institute, to the Honorable Cori
Bush, a Member of the Subcommittee on Crime and Federal
Government Surveillance from the State of Missouri
THE FENTANYL CRISIS IN AMERICA: INACTION IS NO LONGER AN OPTION
----------
Wednesday, March 1, 2023
House of Representatives
Subcommittee on Crime and Federal Government Surveillance
Committee on the Judiciary
Washington, DC
The Subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 9 a.m., in
Room 2141, Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Andy Biggs
[Chair of the Subcommittee] presiding.
Members present: Representatives Biggs, Gaetz, Tiffany,
Nehls, Moore, Kiley, Lee of Florida, Fry, Lee of Texas, McBath,
Dean, Bush, Cohen, and Cicilline.
Mr. Biggs. [Presiding.] The Subcommittee will come to
order.
We have asked Congressman Barry Moore of Alabama to lead us
in the Pledge of Allegiance.
All. I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States
of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one
Nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for
all.
Mr. Biggs. Thank you, Representative Moore.
Without objection, the Chair is authorized to declare a
recess at any time.
Everyone, we welcome you to today's hearing on the fentanyl
crisis in America.
I will now recognize myself for an opening statement.
I thank the Members and witnesses for coming today.
As you know, this is the first hearing of this Subcommittee
this Congress, and I welcome our new and returning Members.
The business before us today is this hearing which is
entitled, ``The Fentanyl Crisis in America: Inaction is No
Longer an Option.'' I hope my colleagues will agree that
inaction is truly no longer an option concerning this crisis.
The first wave of opioid deaths began in the late 1990's
with an increase in overdose deaths involving prescription
opioids. The second wave began in 2010 with a noticeable rise
in overdose deaths involving heroin. The third, most recent,
and deadliest wave began in 2013 with a sharp increase in
overdose deaths involving synthetic opioids, particularly
illicitly manufactured fentanyl, and related substances. Just
two milligrams of fentanyl, the amount that fits on the tip of
a pencil, is considered a potentially lethal dose.
As a Committee, we began looking at this crisis years ago.
We have heard from too many parents who have tragically lost
their children to this poison. Between 1999 and 2020,
approximately 564,000 people died from overdoses involving an
opioid prescription or illicit. In 2021, however, overdose
deaths surpassed 100,000, with 67 percent of those deaths
involving fentanyl. Let that sink in. It took 20 years to
record a total of 564,000 opioid overdose deaths, and in just
1one year, we saw over 100,000 opioid overdose deaths.
You will hear today how communities across this country are
suffering from this poison. During the last four years, while
we have seen these overdose deaths rise, our colleagues across
the aisle have been presented with opportunities to permanently
schedule fentanyl-related substances in a bipartisan manner.
Instead, they have punted the problem by temporarily scheduling
fentanyl-
related substances. It is long past time for Congress to
permanently schedule fentanyl analogs and other related
substances.
Unfortunately, my home State of Arizona has become the
entry point for much of the illicit fentanyl entering our
country. Over half of the fentanyl pills seized by the DEA last
year were seized in Arizona.
Two weeks ago, law enforcement seized enough fentanyl to
kill nearly 800,000 people.
If we can roll that video?
[Video.]
This was seized in the Tempe suburb of the Phoenix metro
area. This was found in just one pickup truck.
An individual traveling nearly 150 miles from the border
was involved in a single vehicle accident, an auto accident,
not a drug bust. When law enforcement arrived, they found 286
pounds, 1.3 million pills, of fentanyl.
Just this week, another 232 pounds of fentanyl worth $3
million was seized by San Diego Border Patrol from a car in San
Clemente, California--75 miles from the border--most of which
were pills.
I commend that these drugs were seized, but this just makes
me more concerned about how many more of these hundreds-of-
pounds hauls we never identify that reach their point of
distribution--the point where it can enter American towns,
often through the mail via sales that occur on social media.
Now, I know our Democrat friends want us to believe that
farcical notion that all the fentanyl crossing our borders is
coming in through our ports of entry. They have said as much in
recent hearings. They want you to believe that we are doing a
good job detecting and seizing it before it can enter the
country and destroy and take American lives. That is simply not
true.
I remind them that it is the fentanyl that is actually
seized that is found at legal border-crossing points or
interior checkpoints. That does not account for fentanyl that
is not seized. In fact, in talking to CBP and other DEA
officials, I have been told that the actual amount seized is
estimated to be somewhere between 10-15 percent of the overall
amount of fentanyl that is being introduced into the United
States.
If we are being honest, it is the fentanyl that is not
seized, obviously, that is killing and endangering our children
and other members of our society. To ignore the smuggling that
occurs between our ports of entry is simply irresponsible and
dangerous.
Just last month, Chief Patrol Agent John Modlin of the
Tucson sector testified that, quote,
Last year, we seized about 700 pounds of fentanyl. To give you
an idea, that's enough to kill everyone in Arizona 21 times or
half the population of the United States.
Fifty-two percent of that was encountered, so the majority
of that was encountered in the field, predominantly being
backpacked across the border. I'm going to emphasize that:
Fifty-two percent came across being backpacked across at the
border. The other 48 percent was caught at the administrative
check point.
Will you roll the other tape, please?
The video you are about to see takes place in Arivaca, just
a few miles off Nogales, about 70 miles as the crow flies
southwest of Tucson--nowhere near a port of entry, you can see.
This is ranchland.
[Video.]
Those backpacks are not because they are going to go
camping in the desert. They are bringing in illicit drugs.
According to CBP statistics, December was the worst month
in our Nation's history for illegal migration, as measured by
encounters of people, and a huge percentage of the drugs
apprehended that month were between the ports of entry.
When we talk about being between the ports of entry, we
refer to drugs not found at a port of entry. In fact, nearly
9,000 pounds of drugs, or 44 percent of that month's seizures,
were found between the ports of entry--contrary to what you
hear from our colleagues across the aisle.
Jobe Dickinson, president of the Border Security Alliance,
hit the nail on the head when he said that the cartels have,
quote,
. . . developed a multi-pronged approach as to how to smuggle
illegal drugs into this country. They don't just use one
avenue, such as the ports of entry. They also use established
smuggling routes and remote parts of the borders to get more
drugs across.
Cartels are smart enough to avoid sending their inventory
through our X-ray and drug-sniffing dogs at the border. They
walk it through the gaping, unguarded holes in our border. The
No. 1 sector for opioid smuggling is the Tucson sector.
Combating this poison and those who smuggle, manufacture,
and sell it should be a bipartisan issue. We need to act
together to stop this scourge.
I recognize in our audience today, Mr. Donald Holman. He
previously testified on this topic more than three years ago.
Tragically, like the Rachwals and too many parents across
America, he and his family have been forever impacted by this
crisis. Mr. Holman lost his son Garrett in 2017 after he took a
synthetic opioid delivered through the mail. Since then, Mr.
Holman has courageously been a tireless advocate to keep these
dangerous drugs out of our communities.
I ask unanimous consent to enter a statement from Mr.
Holman into the record, and I thank him for his presence here
today.
Entered into the record.
Mr. Biggs. At this point, I now recognize the Ranking
Member, the gentlewoman from Texas, Ms. Jackson Lee, for her
opening statement.
Ms. Jackson Lee. Good morning, Mr. Chair, and good morning
to my colleagues.
This is a very important moment, a very serious moment, and
a moment of reasoned bipartisan to fight the scourge of
fentanyl.
Let me, as I begin, take this opportunity at the outset to
express my condolences, Ms. Rachwal, for the tragic loss of
your son Logan. Thank you for courage of being here. It is not
easy for a mother to speak of the loss of her son.
It is not the same thing, but I spent time with the mothers
in Uvalde, and it is simply painful. So, your presence here
today is a stark reminder, as I said as I walked into this
room, that we must be determined to fight the scourge of
fentanyl. We must break the cycle as well of drug addiction,
and we must stop the loss of life from this deadly and terrible
plague. Thank you for your presence here today.
We must also, as we go forward in this illicit fentanyl,
work with our families, work with the Nation, on drug demands
fueled by addiction. We must require the Federal Government to
acknowledge the lessons that they have previously learned, and
they must embrace and work bipartisan and include and embrace
inclusive strategies that involve aggressive interdiction and
community-based treatment. We should not leave families alone.
They must have support.
The unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic contributed to the rise
in fentanyl-related overdoses beginning in 2019, as treatment,
recovery, and prevention services were interrupted and schools,
jobs, and mental health support halted, especially for those
suffering from substance abuse disorders.
While the previous administration was focused on China and
building a wall on the southern border, fentanyl came in
through the front door and exploded in this country. It is
recognizable that China has a major involvement with fentanyl,
communicating with Mexico. That is, of course, a response that
we have to deal with as it relates to that interaction.
In 2021, fentanyl was linked to more than 1,600 fatal
overdoses in Texas, with African Americans becoming the face of
a second national wave of fentanyl-related overdoses. Around
the country, many faces were the faces of fentanyl overdoses.
Newly released data shows a heightened rate of overdoses in
our minority communities, especially among seniors,
disproportionately affected by fentanyl addiction, despite an
overall decline of overdose rates.
Far from the inaction, as they hearing title implies, the
Biden Administration and Congress have both taken decisive
steps to address the scourge of fentanyl. To disrupt the supply
chain of fentanyl, Democrats passed the Fiscal Year 2023
omnibus spending package, which included $60 million to hire
125 additional CBP officers and support personnel at ports of
entry and $70 million to strengthen nonintrusive inspection
systems to scan vehicles.
I have just come back from the border, and talking to our
very fine officers, they are working without ceasing. They are
going more than the extra mile. We need to give them the
resources they need to be the Superman, Batman, and Mighty Man
at the border, to be able to assure that fentanyl has a stop
sign before it comes into this country.
This investment in interdiction resources is critical
because the fentanyl supply chain crosses an ocean and several
international borders, as I have said. China, and increasingly,
India, export most of the chemical precursors to Mexico that
are used in the early stages of fentanyl production, where
Mexican cartels produce illicit fentanyl products for smuggling
to the United States.
That is why the Biden Administration is working with the
Mexican government through several initiatives and redoubling
diplomatic efforts to engage China to interrupt the deadly
supply chain.
Contrary to some expressed opinion, the Mexican cartels
primarily use U.S. citizens to drive vehicles and trucks filled
with hard-to-detect packages of synthesized fentanyl through
lawful ports of entry, while couriers carry and send packages
through the U.S. mail and private carriers. We have got to
stomp that out.
There is one major danger posed by the illicit supply of
fentanyl that is particularly troubling: Production of fake or
counterfeit pills which have been found in every State and hold
an often deadly secret. It has to be a collective effort.
Last year, DEA agents said four out of every 10 pills on
Houston's streets were laced with fentanyl, leading users,
including teenagers, to die without knowing what they took.
That is why I intend to introduce a bill that will provide
grant funding for teachers and other schools to have the
necessary adverse drugs that help and other overdose reversal
drugs on hand and receive training to administer them properly.
My bill will also provide enhanced penalties that do not
include mandatory minimums for online sales for the
manufacturers of fake pills if death or serious bodily injury
occurs.
To educate the public, particularly young people and their
parents, the Biden Administration launched the One Pill Can
Kill public awareness campaign to raise awareness of the
dangers of fake prescription pills laced with fentanyl.
Because the cartels mass produce fake pills to resemble
other Schedule II prescription opioids, such as OxyContin and
Percocet; depressants such as Xanax, or stimulants like
Adderall. Even careful users of illegal drugs can be drawn into
the web of the fentanyl trade with deadly consequences.
The hard truth is that we can only temporarily disrupt the
supply of illicit fentanyl temporarily before another cartel
trafficking method or analog moves in to take over the market
that addiction creates. There is scientific basis to this. We
are well aware of this chain of events.
We can disrupt the flow, but we must also reduce the
demand. For far too long, our country has chosen the wrong
approach in fighting drug abuse alone. We have left parents and
families and communities alone.
Criminalizing addiction, when people need treatment, is a
difficult and challenging pathway, and it impacts all our
communities--young and communities of color. That is why in the
last Congress we passed the Rural Opioid Abuse Prevention Act,
which several Republicans who sit on this very Subcommittee
voted against. That legislation provided funding to rural
communities to combat the fentanyl crisis that they were
facing, in addition to $104 million in grants and assistance
the Biden Administration allocated to a Rural Communities
Opioid Response Program. I can assure you that those rural
communities welcomed this help that they had not gotten before.
It is important to stress that we must not make the same
mistakes with fentanyl and the now related substances of the
synthetic opioids that we have seen happen before and have not
gotten the job done. We have got to get the job done. We cannot
have mothers coming to tell us the story of their beloved and
beautiful child.
As we learned through the crack epidemic of the 1980's,
followed by amphetamine in the 1990's, and prescription drugs,
and back to heroin once again, we cannot incarcerate our way
out of this, out of the scourge of fentanyl and synthetic
opioids.
I am concerned that banning the entire class of fentanyl-
related substances without safeguards significantly may impact
what we have to do in research and finding a way to stop this
addiction.
I am really opposed to the expansion of mandatory
minimums--penalties that prevent judges from considering the
unique facts and circumstances of that addicted person who
comes before them. According to the most recent statistics from
the U.S. Sentencing Commission, there are already significant
racial disparities in the prosecution of fentanyl trafficking
cases for people of color, comprising more than 78 percent of
those sentenced in 2021. The same is true for Federal
convictions involving fentanyl analogs, of which 86 percent of
those people were people of color. We must also be reminded
that people who are young are the victims, and we must save
them because they must have a future.
Of those prosecuted for fentanyl trafficking, less than
five percent received a guideline increase for a leadership or
supervisory role, and less than 10 percent of those prosecuted
for fentanyl analog trafficking received a leadership or
supervisory increase.
There is no doubt that we are currently experiencing a
crisis, but it is a crisis that Congress and the Biden
Administration have responded to with urgency and clear eyes. I
would certainly like to emphasize that we should do so on this
Committee.
Just a statistic: In the past year, CBP seized over 260,000
pounds of illicit drugs at the border, including more than
13,000 pounds of fentanyl. In December 2022, as we passed the
fiscal year, as reported, we did $60 million and supported
another $70 million to strengthen nonintrusive inspection
systems that scan vehicles and cargo to disrupt the flow of
drugs.
We are working intensely. Of course, the Customs and Border
Protection data shows that, since fiscal 2020, more than 90
percent of fentanyl, heroin, and amphetamine seizures occurred
at U.S. ports of entry, with almost 97 percent of all fentanyl
seizures happening at ports of entry this fiscal year.
We are working to stop the death. In 2021, U.S. citizens
accounted for 86.3 percent of fentanyl trafficking convictions
compared to just 8.9 percent of undocumented migrants.
Let's get the facts to save lives. Therefore, let's work
together.
I look forward to hearing from our witnesses today, and I
hope to have an earnest discussion about solutions to reduce
the supply of fentanyl and combat and prevent addiction and
overdoses. We must save lives.
I yield back.
Mr. Biggs. The gentlelady yields back.
Without objection, all other opening statements will be
included in the record.
Oh, I'm sorry. I'm sorry, Mr. Chair--Mr. Ranking Member.
Mr. Nadler, the former ``Mr. Chair,'' I now recognize you for
your opening statement.
Mr. Nadler. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Mr. Chair, according to the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention, over 100,000 Americans are dying of drug overdoses
each year. Most of these deaths are from fentanyl.
The seriousness of the fentanyl crisis cannot be denied.
That is why Democrats have been working on solutions to address
fentanyl trafficking, addiction, and overdose since it emerged
as a threat to our communities.
Last Congress, under a Democratic majority, we passed
multiple bills to address the opioid epidemic. We passed the
Rural Opioid Abuse Prevention Act, which expanded grant
eligibility to fund pilot programs in rural that focus on
reducing overdose deaths.
We passed the bipartisan FENTANYL Results Act, which
authorizes two State Department program that combat global drug
trafficking.
As part of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, we enacted
two bills that make it easier for providers to offer addiction
treatments that combine medication with other services.
We passed the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, which
included $430 million to modernize our ports of entry and help
improve CBP's ability to detect illicit drugs.
Much of these legislations were bipartisan, but the
Republicans on this Subcommittee seem to have forgotten that
work, and some of them actively opposed it. They titled this
hearing, ``The Fentanyl Crisis in America: Inaction is No
Longer an Option.'' Republicans suggest that there has been no
action to address this crisis, but they could not be more
wrong.
There has been action in Congress and by the Biden
Administration. Some Republicans would prefer different
actions. Some Republicans want to incarcerate our way out of
this problem, but we know from past experience that this simply
does not work.
Drug prosecutions generally catch low-level dealers, but
very rarely reach the leaders of trafficking organizations.
Since cartel leaders can often recruit new dealers, more
arrests and longer sentences for low-level dealers does not
stop the flow of drugs into our communities.
Other Republicans say tough immigration policies and a
border wall will stop fentanyl, but the facts are not on their
side. While it is true that a great deal of fentanyl comes into
the United States from Mexico, it is overwhelmingly U.S.
citizens, not migrants, who are bringing it in.
Fentanyl is not carried across the border in the middle of
the desert generally. It is driven in commercial trucks and
passenger vehicles passing through legal ports of entry. That's
why Democrats have supported investments in more law
enforcement tools to detect illicit drugs.
The fentanyl crisis cannot be used as another justification
for mass incarceration or an excuse for harsh immigration
policies that do nothing to prevent addiction. While fentanyl
is especially deadly, addiction and overdose are not new. We
must learn from the failures of our past to treat the fentanyl
crisis not as a crime problem, but as a public health problem.
We must get to the root causes of addiction and substance
abuse, or we will end the war on fentanyl, only to have a war
on the next, even deadlier drug.
We have begun to better understand the nature of addiction,
and the public health approach is beginning to take hold. We
have shifted the focus from how we lock more people up to how
do we save more lives. This shift has led us to get overdose
prevention drugs, like naloxone or Narcan, to more first
responders, to more community members. These drugs are saving
hundreds of thousands of lives.
We are also making sure that those who do come into the
criminal justice system because of their addiction receive
appropriate treatment, whether through diversion programs that
help people rejoin the community without incarceration or
through treatment while incarcerated.
These programs are not just about helping individuals
suffering from addiction. They improve our communities because
those who receive treatment are less likely to commit crime and
more likely to find employment.
Fentanyl continues to be a crisis, but it is a crisis that
Members of both parties are working to address. Today, I hope
we can explore more actions that we might take together to
prevent addiction and get to the root causes of drug abuse. I
welcome my colleagues' concern about this issue, and I hope
they are sincere in their interest in joining this effort.
Thank you, Mr. Chair, and I yield back the balance of my
time.
Mr. Biggs. Thank you, Ranking Member Nadler.
Without objection all other opening statements will be
included in the record.
Mr. Biggs. We will now introduce today's witnesses.
Today, we will first hear from Dr. Tim Westlake, who is an
emergency room physician, the immediate past Chair of the
Wisconsin Medical Examining Board, a former member of the
Wisconsin Controlled Substance Board, and former member of the
Governor's Task Force on Opioid Abuse.
Thank you for being here, Dr. Westlake.
After Dr. Westlake, we will hear from Ms. Erin Rachwal,
who, tragically, lost her son Logan to fentanyl poisoning on
Valentine's Day 2021. Since then, she and her family have
founded the Love Logan Foundation, which seeks to raise
awareness and educate on drug addiction and mental health.
We appreciate you and your husband being here today. Thank
you for coming.
We will, then, hear from Dr. Jeffrey Singer, who is a
senior fellow at the CATO Institute, president emeritus and
founder of Valley Surgical Clinics, Ltd., the largest and
oldest group private surgical practice in Arizona, who has been
in private practice as a general surgeon for more than 35
years.
Then, he will be followed by Mr. Derek Maltz, a former
Special Agent in Charge at the DEA, the Drug Enforcement
Administration. He is a national security and public safety
expert who retired from the DEA after 28 years of service,
including 10 years overseeing the Department of Justice Special
Operations Division. He also previously served as chief of the
New York Drug Enforcement Task Force.
We welcome all our witnesses here today. We thank you for
appearing.
We will begin now by swearing you in; if each of you would
please rise and raise your right hand.
Do each of you swear or affirm, under penalty of perjury,
that the testimony you are about to give is true and correct to
the best of your knowledge, information, and belief, so help
you God?
The record will reflect the witnesses answered in the
affirmative.
Thank you. You may be seated.
Please know that your written testimony will be entered
into the record in its entirety. Accordingly, we ask that you
summarize your testimony in five minutes.
The microphones in front of you have a clock and a series
of lights on them. When the lights turn yellow, you should
begin to conclude your statement. When the light turns red,
your time has expired.
If you hear me tap just a little bit, that means you are
getting close, and we want to respect your statement and your
time, but we do also want to make sure that we stay within that
five minutes, if possible.
Our first witness will be Dr. Tim Westlake.
Dr. Westlake?
STATEMENT OF DR. TIMOTHY WESTLAKE
Dr. Westlake. Chair Biggs, distinguished Members of the
Subcommittee, thank you for inviting me to testify and for your
leadership.
Let me start by clarifying what fentanyl-related substances
are and why scheduling them as a class is a critical policy
tool.
Fentanyl-related substances, or FRSs, are highly active
opioids almost identical to fentanyl, except for a tiny
difference in their chemical structure created by changing a
single chemical ingredient during synthesis in Chinese labs.
The result of this tweak is a new, potent opioid with the same
deadly effects as fentanyl and, without FRS class scheduling,
would be legal, until causing numerous deaths, raising them on
the radar to be scheduled reactively by DEA.
Strong FRS scheduling penalties will not stop users from
using or traffickers from trafficking. The only thing it does
is stop chemical companies from legally producing them, which
has, in fact, halted the very existence of new FRSs.
For me, an emergency physician, telling parents,
tragically, on more than one occasion, even friends, that their
child will never come home is the worst part of my job.
Inspiration for FRS class scheduling reform arose out of the
tragedy of my friend Lauri Badura's son Archie.
Archie was an altar server with my daughters. It started
with prescription opioids, then snorting heroin, and
unknowingly, fentanyl. I resuscitated Archie on his second-to-
last overdose. At that time, I pulled out a body bag, laid it
down next to him, and warned him that that is where he would
end up if he didn't accept help. He stayed clean for six
months, until illicit fentanyl ended his life. One of the last
things my friend Lauri saw of her son Archie was him being
zipped up into a body bag.
Motivated to act by hundreds of such deaths, FRS scheduling
legislation which is proactive and not reactive, as had
previously been the case, came together quickly and was enacted
with a unanimous vote in the Wisconsin State Legislature in
2017. Almost immediately, DEA adopted it as national policy,
but only temporarily.
Before that, scheduling new fentanyls was like a lethal
game of Whac-A-Mole. We literally had to wait for people to die
before action could be taken.
So, why isn't the Wisconsin law permanent Federal law yet?
Some who oppose point to the recent spike in deaths from
illicit fentanyl as proof that it doesn't work. In reality,
this is a misunderstanding and confabulation of the facts.
FRS scheduling does not address illicit fentanyl. It was
never designed to do so. Rather, it removed the incentive for
legal Chinese chemical companies to create new FRSs; thus,
stopping them from ever existing in the first place.
There is no quick and easy solution to the scourge of
illicit fentanyl. The solution to FRSs is a simple legislative
fix. At its core, it is not an extension of the war on drugs,
or a law enforcement tool designed to put criminals in jail.
There has been a total of eight Federal prosecutions under the
language, half of whom already had known ties to drug cartels.
However, if Schedule I penalties were removed for FRS
trafficking, then it would reincentivize their creation and
significantly weaken the law's most powerful, proactive, and
preventative effects. It truly is the ultimate form of overdose
prevention and harm reduction.
To be clear, there has never been a prosecution for a non-
bioactive FRS. Why is this? It's because there are no non-
bioactive FRSs. All fentanyl-related substances encountered and
researched to date have been found to have potent opioid
activity. One of them that was recently investigated is 7,000
times more potent than morphine.
It is interesting to note that the major groups opposing
scheduling are, in fact, mainly criminal justice reform and
drug-legalization-based activist organizations. There is a time
and a place for criminal justice reform, but FRS scheduling is
neither.
Concerns raised about negative impact on research are
purely theoretical and have already been addressed by
discussions with stakeholders. These proposed research
accommodations that have been signed off on are supported by
the very agencies and organizations representing academic
scientific research in the U.S., including the National
Institutes of Drug Abuse, the National Institutes of Health,
the Department of Health and Human Services, and the FDA. These
agreed-upon accommodations would significantly loosen
researchers' directions into studying all Schedule I
substances, not just FRSs, and open promising areas of
substance abuse research.
In conclusion, for five years now, FRS class scheduling has
been Federal policy, albeit temporary. I could not be more
pleased about that and the big impact my small ideas had.
According to NFLIS, the National Forensic Laboratory
Information System, in a matter of a few short years, the
creation and distribution of new FRSs from China has ground to
a halt. For comparison, in New York City alone in 2016-2017,
there were 900 deaths from FRS poisons. In the devastating
battle we are in against the scourge of fentanyl, the
elimination of related substances that had previously escaped
our scheduling and made their way to devastated communities
across the Nation is surely one bright spot.
Fentanyls are so toxic and lethal that they can be
classified and actually have been used as chemical weapons. The
lethal dose is merely two milligrams, which is the equivalent
of five grains of sand. This means that one teaspoon can kill
2,000 people. That is the amount that's in this packet of
sugar. This is why our kids are dying. Imagine trying to have a
lab in a basement or in a garage to mix this into 4,000 doses
and have it been effective.
FRS schedule reform is only temporary until Congress takes
action to make it permanent. It's imperative we work together
to deploy every successful harm-reduction tool in our arsenal.
I urge you to permanently close the spigot of FRSs. The fact is
you can't die from ingesting something that wasn't created--
Mr. Biggs. Dr. Westlake, thank you.
Dr. Westlake. --nor can you be incarcerated for trafficking
something that does not exist. That is the beauty and
simplicity of FRS scheduling.
Thank you for your time, and I look forward to answering
questions.
[The prepared statement of Dr. Westlake follows:]
[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Mr. Biggs. Thank you. Thank you so much, Dr. Westlake. We
appreciate your testimony.
Now, Ms. Rachwal, I recognize you for five minutes.
STATEMENT OF ERIN RACHWAL
Ms. Rachwal. Good morning, Chair Biggs and distinguished
Members of the Subcommittee.
Thank you for providing me to share our views on
permanently scheduling FRSs and how it relates to our story.
My husband and I are here today because we are grieving
parents walking through an unimaginable experience. We are
founders of the Love, Logan Foundation and we reside in
Wisconsin. I'm a mom of two beautiful boys and I'm also a
licensed clinical therapist, and I've built a thriving private
practice working with families and children in mental health.
Through our advocacy, we have hopes for change and actions,
so that other families will not have to suffer the needless and
grievous loss of child or loved one to fentanyl poisoning. We
recently established this 501(3)(c) [sic] nonprofit after
losing our oldest son, Logan, forever 19, to a fake pill
containing fentanyl.
Logan died on Valentine's Day. We received the call that no
parent ever wants to get. Logan was found dead in his dorm room
at the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, in his freshman
year. His toxicology report showed three different forms of
fentanyl--three different forms. He was poisoned.
Even though my profession is so focused on helping people
in various areas of mental health, I, as his mom, did not even
know about fentanyl poisoning or the severity or lethality of
it until his tragic death.
Unfortunately, we have met way too many parents who have
lost children to this deadly poison. They were all unaware, as
we also were.
Logan, he was a kind, caring, smart, and creative young man
who had his whole life ahead of him. He had a great sense of
humor. He loved animals and played baseball for many years.
Being a mom of two beautiful boys was the most important
thing in the world to me. We raised Logan and younger brother
Caden in a nurturing and loving home. We vacationed and we
camped. We celebrated birthdays. We went to church. We played
sports. We spent consistent time together.
I tell you these things about our family to make the point
that no family is immune to this danger. This could happen to
your family. Fentanyl does not discriminate. It is a poison.
Logan went to college in the fall of 2020 and he,
tragically, never finished out his freshman year. His brother
Caden, just 14 months younger, experiences daily battles of
depression and trauma and side effects from his death. For all
of us, losing Logan was like a bomb going off in the middle of
our family that we had built our life around. This explosion
killed our son and killed Caden's brother. The aftermath of a
completely unexpected and devastating death like this is
unexplainable until you actually experience it. This problem,
this weapon is called fentanyl.
Through our grieving process over the past two years, we
have realized the impact this crisis has had on our Nation.
Today, I sit here, not only on behalf of Logan and our family,
but also for every single family in this country that has
suffered the loss of this tragic drug.
There is an urgent need to confront the growing threat of
fen-
tanyl from every angle in our country. According to the DEA,
fentanyl is now the leading cause of death in the United States
for people ages 18-45, and the kids are getting younger. These
are the ages when young adults, when Logan should have been
thriving and excelling, but, instead, thousands of them are
dying with increasing numbers. Death leaves no opportunity to
recover. These kids are not able to learn from their mistakes,
as they once used to.
We have connected with families all over the country
through our devastation, and we have learned that coming
together is a powerful way to change lives and change laws and
take political action against those who are killing our
children.
The temporary scheduling of FRS has shown to deter the
creation of new FRSs, which is one clear way in protecting our
country. Therefore, we know permanent scheduling of these
substances is a solid shield we have to fight the fentanyl
crisis. If you are questioning whether this bill should be
passed, I'm going to ask you: How can you focus on theoretical
rights of criminals over the rights of our children--children
just like my son Logan?
Permanent scheduling symbolizes a proactive and bipartisan
approach to this crisis. United we stand; divided we fall.
``United we stand; divided we fall''--this is a phrase that has
been used for hundreds of years to inspire unity and
collaboration. Its once concept lies in the collectivist notion
that, if individual members of a group work on their own
instead of together, they are doomed to fail, and we all will
be defeated.
Do you believe in any way that our country is being
defeated by this poison developed in Chinese and cartel labs?
I'm going to ask that question one more time. Do you believe in
any way that our country is being defeated by this poison
developed in Chinese and cartel labs?
Mr. Biggs. Ms. Rachwal, if you could please--
Ms. Rachwal. I can tell you that I believe we are, and many
other--many others do as well. Wisconsin parents of Cade,
forever 18; Ryan, 23; Nick; Sylvia; Katrina; Tyler, Archie,
Miguel; Sam; McKenzie; Ryan.
To connect with a young adult around Logan's age, most
parents simply go out to dinner, visit, call, text, Facetime,
vacation, or spend a holiday. To connect with our son Logan, we
have to look at a sunset, a rainbow, listen to a song, look at
a picture, or wear his fingerprint around our neck. This is
what fentanyl does. It changes everything--our past, present,
and future.
In conclusion, our family's story, Logan's story, is just
one of tens of thousands that have occurred and will keep
occurring if we do not take action to slow down and,
ultimately, stop the explosion of this deadly poison.
We hope by sharing our experience we can give meaning to
Logan's ultimately untimely loss and honor his life and leave a
significant legacy to protect other families from this
devastation.
Thank you for your time and opportunity to tell our story.
[The prepared statement of Ms. Rachwal follows:]
[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Mr. Biggs. Thank you, Ms. Rachwal.
Dr. Singer, you are recognized for five minutes.
STATEMENT OF DR. JEFFREY A. SINGER
Dr. Singer. Thank you, Chair Biggs.
My deepest condolences to the Rachwals.
Members of the Committee, I've submitted written testimony
which I'll summarize here.
Leaders and commentators often refer to the fentanyl
overdose crisis as an epidemic or an invasion, but these are
inappropriate metaphors. Fentanyl is not a viral pathogen that
jumps from host to host or a hunter seeking a defenseless prey.
The influx of fentanyl is a response to market demand.
More crucially, fentanyl is just the latest manifestation
of what drug policy analysts call ``the iron law of
prohibition.'' The shorthand version of the law states, the
harder the law enforcement, the harder the drug. Prohibition
incentivizes the creation of more potent drugs that are easier
to smuggle in smaller sizes and can be subdivided into more
units to sell. The iron law is why cannabis THC concentration
has grown over the years. It is what brought crack cocaine to
the cocaine market. It is why fentanyl replaced heroin as the
primary cause of overdose deaths in the United States.
Fentanyl-related overdose deaths started rising in 2012. By
2016, they eclipsed deaths from heroin and diverted
prescription pain pills. By 2017, fentanyl was found in more
than 50 percent of opioid-related overdose deaths, and by 2022,
as we know, it was involved in roughly 90 percent.
Now, we are getting troubling reports about the veterinary
tranquilizer xylazine, which users call ``tranq,'' becoming an
additive to fentanyl and other illicit narcotics. This
tranquilizer greatly potentiates the opioid's effects,
producing powerful highs. Adding this potentiator, again,
enables illicit opioids to be smuggled in smaller sizes and be
subdivided into more units.
Xylazine makes blood vessels constrict, and if it gets into
the tissues surrounding blood vessels, it can cause tissue
death and deadly soft tissue ulcers. Some ulcers become so
severe, so severely affected, that surgeons must perform
lifesaving limb amputations. What makes xylazine even more
deadly is that it's not an opioid, and overdoses from it which
make people stop breathing cannot be reversed with naloxone.
The iron law hasn't stopped with tranq. In 2019, health
departments in Europe and the U.S. began seeing the synthetic
opioid nitazene in overdose toxicology studies. Last fall, the
Tennessee Department of Health reported nitazene-related
overdose deaths increased fourfold between 2019 and 2021.
Ciba-Geigy developed nitazenes in the 1950's, but never
brought them to market. They're estimated to be roughly 20
times more potent than fentanyl. Fortunately, naloxone reverses
nitazene overdoses, but it might require multiple doses.
Because most health departments haven't been testing for
nitazenes, we're unaware if nitazenes are becoming more
prevalent among black market drugs. I wouldn't be surprised if
two or three years from now we're talking about the nitazene
crisis instead of the fentanyl crisis.
Border closures, lockdowns, and other pandemic policies
made it more challenging to transport opium to drug dealers to
process into heroin. Pandemic-related supply chain problems
created shortages of the commercial chemical acetic anhydride
that is used to complete the process.
On the other hand, fentanyl and fentanyl analogs can be
easily made in clandestine labs by modifying its fundamental
ingredient, piperidine, which is in abundant supply. Because
fentanyl and its analogs are entirely synthetic, drug cartels
don't need to rely on growing and transporting opium.
All these factors made it an easy business decision for the
drug cartels to switch out heroin for fentanyl. With pandemic
policies relaxed, it still makes sense for the cartels to stick
with what works.
Adding fentanyl analogs to Schedule I is ill-advised.
First, many fentanyl analogs are medically used to control pain
and assisting anesthesia, such as sufentanil, alfentanil, and
remifentanil. An outright ban on developing a category of
fentanyl analogs will stifle advances in therapeutic research.
Besides, placing a drug on schedule will not deter drug
cartels. Heroin has been on Schedule I for more than 50 years
and it's not deterred heroin trafficking. There's no evidence
that placing fentanyl analogs on Schedule I drugs will work any
better to reduce overdose deaths.
Threatening drug dealers with life in prison or the death
penalty is also unlikely to deter the drug trade. Most drug
dealers already factor in the risk of death when they get into
the business and are, correctly, more afraid of getting killed
by rivals than by the U.S. Department of Justice.
Prohibition makes the black market dangerous because people
who buy drugs can never be sure of the drug's purity, dosage,
or even if it is the drug they think they are buying. As a
parent and grandparent, my heart breaks whenever I hear stories
of teenagers who thought they were buying Percocet, or
something like that, on the black market, and died because of
an overdose because the pill contained fentanyl. Those young
people were not seeking and did not know they were buying
fentanyl. The black market killed those youngsters.
I urge the Subcommittee to avoid doubling down on policies
that will not only fail to stem the flow of illicit fentanyl,
but will fuel the development of even more deadly replacements.
Thank you very much.
[The prepared statement of Dr. Singer follows:]
[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Mr. Biggs. Thank you, Dr. Singer.
Now, we recognize Mr. Maltz for your five minutes.
STATEMENT OF DEREK MALTZ
Mr. Maltz. Chair Biggs, Ranking Member Jackson Lee, and
distinguished Members of the Committee, thank you very much for
the opportunity to speak today on the fentanyl growing crisis
that is killing our kids at record levels.
I'm not here representing DEA. I'm a private citizen who
cares deeply about the private people in America and our
national security.
The President should immediately declare a national
security and public health emergency. Let's make that clear.
Because we have chemical substances all over our streets. These
are not overdoses. This not a red or a blue issue. It's a red,
white, and blue issue. Every American should care.
As the leader of DEA's Special Operations Division for the
last 10 years of my career, I had really nice optics on the
growing Mexican cartels and, also, the growing role of the
Chinese criminal networks that have been doing a bombing
campaign on our country with synthetic drugs. They are being
made in labs in China. They're also being made in labs in
Mexico at record levels.
This is a game-changer for America. This is different. This
is not the same opioid crisis. The Chinese criminals are
providing critical money-laundering services, and they're also
providing the mass amount of chemicals to make the poison. The
Cartel Jalisco New Generation and the Sinaloa Cartel are the
enemy of our children.
In my view, fentanyl is a chemical weapon, and the narco-
terrorists in Mexico are destroying our country. They need to
be held accountable, even if it means using our U.S. military.
The cartels are taking total advantage of weak security at the
porous border, killing more Americans than any terrorist
organization in the history of the country.
After my DEA career, I've been supporting law enforcement
agencies and working closely with families like the Rachwals.
We are working hard to spread awareness and save lives.
I teamed up with the Lost Voices of Fentanyl, and you'll
see the collages of all the dead kids that we've made over the
years--in all an effort to get awareness and save lives.
I teamed up, also, with other people in America that care
about our country.
As highlighted earlier by the Chair, and also, the work
done last week in Phoenix, Arizona and throughout Arizona, 4.5
million fake pills--remember what the DEA Administrator said--
six out of those 10 pills have a potentially fatal dose of
fentanyl. Sheila Jackson Lee, Ranking Member, the four pills,
that's outdated. She updated it to six.
So, according to the DEA, this is a crisis like we've never
seen. We cannot expect to end this poisoning crisis with law
enforcement alone. Addicted people need help. Mental illness is
on the rise, and kids are, sadly, turning to these pills for
help. They're using social media platforms to get what they
need. It's as simple as ordering food. The cartels have invaded
our homes. They are supposed to learn from mistakes, not die
from mistakes.
So, the question to everybody in America: Where the hell is
the Department of Education? Where are the public service
announcements? Why can't the White House team up with
professional athletes and celebrities to get video reels to the
kids on social media, because that's what they'll see and
that's what they'll respond to? Protecting the kids must be No.
1.
There are armies of families who are dedicating every day
working throughout America, spreading awareness, presenting at
schools, starting nonprofits with their own money, making
billboards of their deceased loved ones.
There must be a true coordinated U.S. task force using
authorities and capabilities with accountability for results.
You can't just give them money; you've got to ask them: Where
are the results? Are the death rates going down? If not, you
have to change.
The cartels in Mexico have evolved quickly from drug
cartels to transnational criminals, to now terrorists like
we've never seen ever. Al Quaeda, ISIS, Hezbollah, they're not
killing this amount of Americans.
There's positive movement from families and State attorney
generals and congressional Members to declare cartels
terrorists and, also, fentanyl, a weapon of mass destruction,
which I fully support.
The cartels use the latest technology, weapon systems. They
take total advantage of antiquated laws. They control the
government of Mexico--infiltrating, intimidating, placing the
highest-ranking officials on their payroll.
Look what happened last week in the Eastern District of New
York. The FBI equivalent in Mexico convicted, sent to life.
He's going to be sent to life--prison for life because of his
role with the cartels. Sorry, ladies and gentlemen, you can no
longer rely on the corrupt, soft-on-crime leaders in Mexico to
save our kids.
What keeps me motivated is the courageous, selfless,
inspiring families like the Rachwals, who lost loved ones, but
they fight daily. Look at the amazing work of the Families
Against Fentanyl. They're the ones going through the CDC data.
They're the ones telling America about the rising rates of
these kids dying. Isn't that the job of the U.S. Government?
What am I missing?
CDC, where are the accurate and timely stats on fentanyl
deaths? During COVID, we saw it every night on TV. The crisis
needs an Operation Warp Speed.
Kings County, Washington, the medical examiner, 35 dead in
the first 21 days. They don't have enough cooler space out
there.
San Diego, 25 percent increase in fentanyl-related deaths
in five years.
As the younger kids are dying, every parent is wondering:
Why is there a sense of urgency from the White House? Where's
the leadership on this fentanyl poisoning crisis? Why are
social media companies able to get away with killing the kids
on their platforms? Why is it that this continues?
Dr. Gupta--almost done--Dr. Gupta: This is the worst drug
crisis in the history of the country. He said it's unacceptable
to him and the President. He also said it's a direct and
surging threat to national security and public health--public
health.
So, I ask, if it's a new era of drug trafficking, where's
the new era of aggressive action to destroy the production
labs?
Thank you very much, Chair, and I apologize for going over,
but it's a very important topic.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Maltz follows:]
[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Mr. Biggs. Thank you, Mr. Maltz.
Now, we will proceed with the five-minute rule for
questioning.
I will recognize the gentleman from Texas, Mr. Nehls.
Mr. Nehls. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Dr. Singer, in your testimony you State, quote,
Fentanyl is just the latest manifestation of what drug policy
analysts calls ``the iron law of prohibition.''
``The harder the law enforcement, the harder the law.''
Enforcing prohibition incentivizes those who market prohibited
substances to develop more potent forms that are easier to
smuggle.
Doctor, I was a law enforcement officer; served in it for
30 years. I was the sheriff of Fort Bend County for eight
years, a large agency.
I can tell you, sir, in my humble opinion, you, sir, are
wrong.
This here is Jose Alvarez. He is out of Mexico. Roadside
investigation, Highway 59 North in my county, Hamilton, Texas,
one of my officers located 10 bundles containing 10,000 tablets
of fentanyl.
I want to explain something: That law enforcement across
this country, we save lives. Two milligrams of fentanyl, one
lethal dose. Five milligrams--look at the chart.
Are you telling me, sir, that we should not have saved
those 25,000 lives that this fentanyl would have killed?
Dr. Singer. I'm telling you that there's another 25,000
lethal doses right behind that one--
Mr. Nehls. I want to show you another example. This is Mr.
Luis Garza. Garza was followed by my officers, Beasley, Texas,
Highway 59 North. During this investigation, my officers
located five containers of 10,000 Xanax tablets--Xanax tablets
that were discovered to contain fentanyl.
Should law enforcement not have protected 25,000 lives that
these tablets would have killed?
Dr. Singer. I must say--
Mr. Nehls. Just say yes or no.
Dr. Singer. Yes, they should have.
Mr. Nehls. In your testimony, you State, quote,
``Threatening drug dealers with life imprisonment or the death
penalty is also unlikely to deter the drug trade,'' end quote.
Mr. Nadler was up here just a few minutes ago. I'm
paraphrasing him. He says: We can't incarcerate ourselves out
of this problem.
I'm agreeing with you. I realize that individuals, these
drug cartels, drug dealers, they are risking their lives being
involved in this business. I understand that.
I support President Trump and his recent comments related
to making the sale and distribution of fentanyl a capital crime
and the use of the death penalty. I believe this strategy will
address this serious problem. Maybe it won't solve the problem,
but I believe that, if you start strapping a few of these
ruthless bastards to a gurney and start filling them with the
same drug they were selling to kill Americans, it would me
bring a great deal of satisfaction.
I want to thank those that are here. Ms. Rachwal, for
Logan, I am so sorry.
I had dinner with a gentleman last night who lost his 27-
year-old son--lost his 27-year-old son. He was shaking when I
was having a conversation with him. I told him I'm going to be
here today; I'm sorry for your loss.
I will do everything in my power to secure our southern
border, to support our law enforcement, to make America first,
to make America great again, and stop this deadly drug from
making its way into our communities.
Thank you. I yield back. Oh, I yield my time.
Mr. Biggs. Thank you for yielding and thank you for your
questioning.
I want to make this point because I think it needs to be
made, based on some of the statements from my friends about
this issue, who I think are sincerely concerned as well.
The movement of illegal aliens across our southern border
is unbelievably--I mean, we are talking over two million
encounters last year, not to mention a million known gotaways.
The Border Patrol is distracted by dealing with those
individuals that are surrendering. A million people, as I
showed in the video earlier, coming across in camo and
backpacks. They are not coming on holiday. They are coming to
poison our children and our citizens.
The Border Patrol vacancy that occurs because we have--I
know some of you are very familiar with Arizona, the Tohono
O'odham Reservation, 62 linear miles on the border--62 linear
miles. Basically, times where no one is there to patrol because
they are dealing with the surrenders and gotaways.
Please remember that. This is coming and pouring across our
southern border.
With that, the time is expired, and I will yield to the
gentlelady, the Ranking Member from Texas, Ms. Jackson Lee.
Ms. Jackson Lee. I will always say that we need to do this
in a fully bipartisan-embracing way.
Ms. Rachwal, I want to, as I listened to you, and as well
in the other room, and as well read your statement, I think we
should put on the record Logan was kind, caring, smart, and
creative. He loved animals. The plight that he faced really
should be something that we can find common ground. As I
indicated, I am interested in the manufacturing, online, where
it gets directly in the hands of a beautiful, young man like
Logan.
So, you listened to Mr. Maltz, and I understand that you
are a clinical therapist. What about the videos, the
involvement of education, professionals? What about just
getting on the airwaves and making a major campaign? Can that
help?
Ms. Rachwal. I believe that everything needs to be done to
help this problem. Yes, we have to hit it at all angles.
Absolutely education.
I spoke in front of about 120 young kids yesterday morning,
and over half of the room had never even heard about fentanyl.
Probably 95 percent never heard about Narcan or naloxone.
So, education is huge. It's important, just important as
this and the border. I believe it has to be hit from all
angles.
Ms. Jackson Lee. Well, we need to take you up on the offer,
and let me also offer my sympathy to your husband as well. We
need to take up the loud megaphone, and I think that is what I
hear you saying.
Dr. Singer, we need to do this in the right way. So, I need
you to be as focused and precise on this question about dealing
with fentanyl in a manner that is going to be effective.
The question of research and the medical use, can you
explain how important? That is, even this scourge of the
epidemic of attacking our Nation in terms of addiction and
death. How do you interject the fentanyl research, so that we
can be common-sense-focused to save lives, but to deal with the
research that medicine needs to do?
Dr. Singer. Thank you, Representative Jackson Lee.
Yes, actually, as we know from past experience, classifying
a particular category of a fentanyl analog as Schedule I,
meaning no accepted medical use, basically, cuts off any
opportunity to do research on the drug going forward. I think
nobody can ever know that there's not going to be something
good discovered.
We cutoff psychedelics 50 years ago for research, and just
now we're starting to realize them in many useful--there are
many lives that could have been saved over the last 50 years,
but research was completely suppressed. The FDA is about to
finally legalize MDMA maybe this year.
Marijuana is still Schedule I. Could anybody with a
straight face that it has no accepted medical use?
(1) Just as a matter of principle, to completely block research
into a certain area because you've decided in advance that it's not
going to lead to anything positive, I don't know how anybody could ever
know that. They probably laughed at people who suggested you can get
penicillin from a bread mold, but we did.
(2) I think it's a distraction to focus on permanently outlawing
FRSs because, as Dr. Westlake himself admitted, it did nothing to lower
the overdose crisis. We're here to be focused on why people are dying
from fentanyl overdoses, and this is sort of like a little shiny object
on the side.
So, we get rid of FRSs. Meanwhile, I think the next thing
we're going to be dealing with is nitazenes or tranq. We're
already hearing in the East Coast cities, we're hearing
horrible stories about xylazine making its way into, into
fentanyl and the other products.
Ms. Jackson Lee. Let me pose some other questions.
Dr. Westlake indicated that the creation of new fentanyl-
related substance had ground to a halt internationally. Do you
agree with that proposition?
Dr. Singer. I really don't know you could say that. Just
like it's been said on this Committee that we don't know how
many smugglers have smuggled in--
Ms. Jackson Lee. Then, my last point is the drugs that
provide the adverse reaction, I'll call it, and other drugs,
how important it is that our communities have access to that--
schools, police, et cetera?
Dr. Singer. Are you talking about reversal?
Ms. Jackson Lee. Yes.
Mr. Biggs. The gentlelady's time has expired, but you can
answer the question.
Ms. Jackson Lee. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Dr. Singer. I think it's very important that drugs that
block or are antidotes to the opioid-related overdose deaths
are made readily available. Naloxone has been around since the
1960's. There's good reason to believe from recent reports from
the Food and Drug Administration they may actually make it
available over the counter this coming month of March. So,
let's hope they do.
Ms. Jackson Lee. I will engage with you on that. Thank you
so very much. I think it is very important.
Mr. Biggs. Thank you.
The gentlelady's time has expired, but I am going to
recognize her for a point of personal privilege to introduce a
guest she has.
Ms. Jackson Lee. I am delighted. I know that she will take
this information and we will collaborate together. I am
delighted to have Councilmember Carolyn Evans-Shabazz, who
represents what we call District D, for destination, in
Houston, Texas, who is here to advocate for children, for
economic involvement or investment, and to represent the city
of Houston.
Thank you so very much for being here.
Mr. Biggs. Thank you and welcome.
[Applause.]
We are glad to have you with us today.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Alabama, Mr. Moore.
Mr. Moore. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Certainly, I appreciate all the witnesses being here today.
Ms. Rachwal, we are certainly--our condolences to you and
your family for the loss of Logan.
Thank you all for being here.
It takes a lot of courage to do what you did today, but I
think, more than anything, that is an opportunity from a person
standpoint to reach so many children in this country who need
to hear that story coming from a mom's mouth and telling it
like it is out there. So, thank you again for being here and we
appreciate that.
Mr. Maltz, I have been to the border a couple or three
times. The one thing that I think that the Biden border
policies have done, they have created--we have an invasion on
the southern border, five million people since he has been in
office, encounters.
The one thing that I noticed, and it kind of concerned me--
I don't know if you have heard this--but there is a price now
for human beings to be shipped across our southern border. They
are dealing with the cartels. So, the prices we heard were
about--well, this is a few years ago--but last week, the
testimony in Yuma, Arizona, it is now $6,000 a head, if you
want to come into the U.S. from Mexico or Guatemala, any of the
Triangle Nations. If you are coming from Russia, it is up to
$19,000. A hundred countries, I think 106 countries come
through Yuma.
The thing now, you know, we talk about securing those
points of entry on the border. I assume we are spending some
money and doing that wisely, but the thing is the porous border
between those ports of entry, the cartels have figured this
out.
So, I was told--and I don't know if you have heard us, and
maybe you can help shed some light--but many of these people
don't have the money to come to the U.S. So, they cut a deal
with the cartel, and there is one of two options. They either
are going to be indentured servants or slaves; they are going
to make payments to the cartel. The other option was
backpacking heroin, cocaine, or fentanyl across the U.S.
southern border.
Have you heard of any of those stories? We are just trying
to get to the bottom of what these policies are doing and (1)
why we are seeing such an influx of people, and (2) drugs.
Mr. Maltz. Thank you for the question.
I mean, the cartels run a multibillion-dollar enterprise.
As you pointed out, there are some experts that suggest they're
making more money from the migrant smuggling now than drug
smuggling.
They are doing whatever it takes to get their poisonous
drugs into this country because they want to drive addiction,
and they also want to make as much money as they can.
So, I have talked to Homeland Security experts that,
obviously, are very concerned for the national security of the
country, because we've never seen anything like this in the
history of the country. I just want to make it clear to
everyone in the room: This is nothing we've ever seen.
So, there are so many migrants coming in, and it's just
unknown. We don't know what we don't know. That's why I get a
kick out of this POE concept, because there's more deaths in
America than we've ever seen. There are more seizures at the
POE and the border that we've ever seen. There's more seizures
throughout America by law enforcement than we've ever seen.
So, obviously, yes, putting some more X-ray machines at the
POE is really awesome. I appreciate that. That's not going to
stop the tsunami of deadly drugs coming into this country.
That's why we've got to destroy those production labs and can't
rely on Mexico to do it.
Mr. Moore. That is a very valid point.
Richard Nixon, 50 years ago, he started the war on drugs
with just over 6,000 deaths in this country. We had 107,000
people die last year from fentanyl poisoning. Unfortunately,
many of them are young and they are getting younger, 18-45, I
think.
So, you talk about they will stop at nothing. We actually
at one spot on the border--do you all remember the two little
girls they dropped over the border, the 3-year-old and the 5-
year-old? They climbed up a ladder at the top of that wall--I
don't know, it is 14-15 feet--and the cartel dropped those two
children.
As the Border Agents--we went to that spot--as the Border
Agents ran to that spot, there was an opening one mile away
where they were shipping their drugs through. So, they used
those children as decoys.
That is what they are doing with these migrants. They will
send them in waves across the southern border. As the CBP, we
are now--the CBP is now nothing more than a concierge service.
They can't focus on stopping the drugs because they are too
busy trying to process people in and get them to the points of
entry, or wherever they have got to take them to get them
shipped in a bus to somewhere in our country.
Anyway, I want to thank you for being here, sir; all of you
for being here.
Mr. Chair, I will yield the remainder of my time to you.
Mr. Biggs. Thank you, Mr. Moore.
So, we heard about that U.S. citizens are driving and
bringing fentanyl up. They are coming through the ports of
entry. Now, why is that? Because the cartels are hiring U.S.
citizens, because it is easier for a U.S. citizen to actually
drive through a port of entry than a foreign national.
It is the cartel that is controlling it. Even our testimony
last week said there is nobody that enters the U.S. without the
cartel controlling it.
I will give you an example. We went out in this ridiculous
caravan the other night to go to the border. As I got in that
caravan, I said, ``Nobody's coming because the cartel would see
30 cars coming and they're not going to allow anybody to
come.'' Nobody came--not until everybody had gone, and then,
they started to flow again.
Ladies and gentlemen, we don't even control our own
southern border.
I regret to tell you that we have been called for votes on
the floor.
I would ask our witnesses to please--you may take a recess.
We will probably be back here in about 45 minutes. We are going
to be in a recess for 45 minutes, and then, we will continue
the hearing. Thank you.
We are in recess.
[Recess.]
Mr. Biggs. Subcommittee is called to order.
Thank you for being back here. Our recess lasted a little
bit longer than we anticipated due to votes.
I now yield five minutes to the gentleman from Florida, Mr.
Gaetz.
Mr. Gaetz. Dr. Singer, in your testimony you talked about
the market demand for fentanyl, for drugs generally, but
specifically for fentanyl. I guess I wanted to assess the
utility of that analysis in the context of a drug that is often
spliced into other things that people are using.
Did your son seek out fentanyl? Was he part of the market
demand for fentanyl?
Dr. Singer. Absolutely not. He bought a pill on Snapchat, a
blue perc 30, and it had fentanyl in it.
Mr. Gaetz. Mr. Maltz, in your extensive experience at DEA,
do you find that fentanyl is being laced into what people
believe to be Percocet?
Mr. Maltz. A hundred percent, yes.
Mr. Gaetz. Xanax as well?
Mr. Maltz. Yes, sir.
Mr. Gaetz. And marijuana?
Mr. Maltz. There are cases of marijuana. Don't know the
extent of that. There have been fatalities reported with
fentanyl in marijuana, yes.
Mr. Gaetz. MDMA and ecstasy, do you see--
Mr. Maltz. Not sure about too much of that. Definitely in
heroin, cocaine, and methamphetamines. More importantly, it is
the pure fentanyl that is in the pills and the powder.
They are making these pills, millions of them every day.
There are pill press locations.
Mr. Gaetz. I get if someone, I get that you would think
about something as an overdose if someone was seeking out
fentanyl, they believed they were taking a certain amount of
it. They end up taking more and they end up overdosing.
If someone thinks that they are using a different
substance, that doesn't strike me as an overdose, that strikes
me as a poisoning.
Mr. Maltz. Yes.
Mr. Gaetz. Dr. Singer, I would love your thoughts on it
because--
Dr. Singer. Yes.
Mr. Gaetz. --probably on the Republican side I am the
easiest to concur that the war on drugs is one that has been
won by drugs.
Dr. Singer. Yes. Well, Congressman Gaetz, maybe you
misunderstood me. There is, there are some people who actually
want fentanyl. For the most part it is prohibition and the
black market that it created that is responsible for this.
Because as I mentioned about the iron law of prohibition, that
is what incentivizes the cartels to come up with more potent
forms.
So, initially, around 2012 or so we were seeing fentanyl
appear as a mixture with heroin to increase, to boost its
potency so that they could smuggle it in smaller amounts and
sell it into more units.
Then it really got accelerated when the cartels realized it
is easier to synthesize. You don't have to rely on the opium
poppy being shipped. The reason why we are seeing so many
innocent people who are, for example, buying a Percocet they
think, even Prince, Prince he liked to use vicodin. His dealer,
he thought his dealer got him vicodin but the toxicology
reports showed he died of a fentanyl overdose.
It wasn't in those cases that people were seeking fentanyl,
it is that this is what happens when you have a black market.
Mr. Gaetz. Sure.
Dr. Singer. So, is that--
Mr. Gaetz. I wanted to ask you a little bit about those
relationships between the dealers and the users. I found a
tweet of yours from back in 2019 where you say when people
cross political borders, they are not violating anyone's
rights, given that they are simply exercising their natural God
given rights of freedom of travel, economic liberty, freedom of
contract, and freedom of association.
When you say freedom of contract are you talking about the
contract between the drug traffickers and the users?
Dr. Singer. No. I'm talking about a contract, for example,
between a farmer and somebody who has, is offering to work on
their farm and help pick crops, for example.
Mr. Gaetz. I am glad you mentioned the farmer, because we
were just in Yuma, Arizona, and we met with a lot of the
growers. These are, like, third, fifth generation growers. What
they tell us about their freedoms and their property rights,
property rights that I think Cato cares deeply about, is that
they get violated by migrants who defecate in their fields, who
create contamination for the food supply.
These are not insurable losses. So, they just have to eat
these losses.
Does the violation of the property rights of the farmers
you mention concern you?
Dr. Singer. Of course, that would be trespassing on private
property, so.
Mr. Gaetz. Right. Don't you think that the open borders
policies that you have advocated for increase the frequency of
that violation of people's property rights?
Dr. Singer. People have no right to come on someone else's
property without their permission.
I am not here as an immigration expert, but I can tell you
as a libertarian, the overarching principle is that our
fundamental, inalienable rights are not limited to people in
the United States. It is a human phenomenon, all humans. All
humans have the right to freedom of movement.
Mr. Gaetz. Not across somebody else's property; right?
Dr. Singer. I beg your pardon?
Mr. Gaetz. Not across somebody's private property.
Dr. Singer. Not private property, no.
Mr. Gaetz. Do you believe that everybody in the world has
freedom of movement across our border?
Dr. Singer. Unfortunately, no.
Mr. Gaetz. You would like that to be the case?
Dr. Singer. Well, I think borders are for governments and
not for people.
Mr. Gaetz. I don't know, Doctor.
Dr. Singer. Borders define where--
Mr. Gaetz. See, I would observe that governments have to
govern the conduct of people, and that the role of our
government is to secure our border. That if it is open, it is
the property rights we are concerned about and the life and
health of our fellow Americans that continues to degrade.
I appreciate the colloquy and appreciate all the witnesses
being here. I yield back.
Mr. Biggs. The gentleman's time has expired.
I call upon and recognize the gentlelady from Pennsylvania,
Ms. Dean.
Ms. Dean. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I want to thank all our witnesses for testifying today for
this important discussion. First, let me extend my sincere
sympathies to the Rachwal family for your indescribable loss of
Logan, to you and your husband, and your son, I am very sorry
for the loss of your beautiful boy.
You have lived a nightmare that many parents fear. My
family faced the diabolical opioid crisis ravaging this country
because our middle son was addicted to opioids. We went through
an awful lot of trauma around that, and misunderstanding,
misunderstanding him and what was affecting him. He is now 10
years in recovery.
I think it is really only but for timing, perhaps, that we
didn't lose him to fentanyl, because 10 years ago it was not so
prevalent.
So, God bless you, and God bless Logan. I want you to know
that we have a bipartisan new caucus, and it is bipartisan, to
work in a bipartisan way. It is called the Bipartisan Fentanyl
Prevention Caucus. So, I am delighted to join Rep. Issa, Rep.
Neguse, as well as Rep. Calvert to work on this issue to save
lives.
During both the Trump and Biden Administrations the Federal
Government noted increasing numbers of overdose deaths. People
have said it here today, 108,000 in 2021, 70 percent of those
involving fentanyl poisoning.
So, treating fentanyl and related substances with severity,
as the Biden Administration and the Trump Administration did,
is one step. Just last year, Congress authorized $60 million
for additional CDP officers, and $70 million for inspection
technologies. All those things are what we must do. We know
that much of these substances is coming through legal ports of
entry.
The result of that investment was an additional 13,000
pounds of fentanyl seized.
So, I wanted to just ask you, Ms. Rachwal, if you would
like to say just a little bit about Logan. Then I was going to
ask Dr. Singer for some public health recommendations.
Ms. Rachwal. Well, obviously Logan, thank you, Logan was
very young when he passed. He was 19. So, he was our second,
our oldest son. He was a real good kid. He was a vulnerable
kid. We sort of felt like we, obviously, lost out on so much of
his life.
Logan the night he passed he was upset, he was distraught.
He was extremely upset. His girlfriend and him were fighting.
He was on Facetime and took the pill while his girlfriend, was
on Facetime with her.
He sought out the pill on social media. That is how he
passed.
Ms. Dean. I am very, very sorry. This Committee has heard
from other parents who have lost the indescribable, heart-
crushing loss.
Dr. Singer, in your testimony you talked about the natural,
sadly, natural progression of this drug crisis. This one began
with pharmaceuticals, evolved to heroin, then fentanyl, now
synthetics. Now we're even talking about tranq and some other
horrific substances.
What are the right public health solutions?
I really believe we have to think outside the box. We can't
be afraid to embrace that this, that people, not just addicts,
but those who are addicted and those who are just experimenting
are at grave risk of death.
So, what are the public health things we should be doing?
Dr. Singer. Thank you for that question.
In fact, what we need to do is instead of just focusing on
the supply side, we need to focus on protecting people who are
using drugs from the dangers of fentanyl and other even more
deadly contaminants.
I have a chapter, actually, in the Cato Handbook for Policy
Makers that was just released that dealt with this. Among the
things that this Committee could do is, for example, our drug
paraphernalia laws, make it illegal for a person to hand out a
fentanyl test strip. Or now they make xylazine test strips for
tranq because that is considered drug paraphernalia as testing
equipment.
Many States are changing their laws to allow that, both Red
and Blue States. South Dakota did last week. Arizona did a year
ago. There are also Federal paraphernalia laws.
Another very important thing in my opinion is for this
Committee to consider even repealing or amending 21 U.S.C. 856,
also called the ``Crack House Statute.'' I have a policy brief
that came out yesterday about this.
Overdose prevention centers have existed throughout the
developed world since 1986 when they first started in
Switzerland. They are in 16 countries. There are 147 of them in
91 locations. We are an outlier. Thirty-eight are in Canada, 25
are in Germany, 14 in Switzerland. We are an outlier because
our Federal law prohibits people from helping their neighbors
by setting up centers, so they can be brought inside and use in
a safe environment, and have people standing by with naloxone.
Ms. Dean. I see my time has expired. I thank you both for
the conversation.
I couldn't agree with you more. I have said to people in my
district--
Mr. Biggs. The gentlelady's time has expired.
Ms. Dean. I agree with your recommendations. Thank you.
Mr. Biggs. Thank you.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Wisconsin, Mr.
Tiffany.
Mr. Tiffany. Thank you very much.
Ms. Rachwal, you make all of us Wisconsoners proud.
Do you know the statistics from 2019-2021, there was nearly
a doubling of the number of deaths in Wisconsin from fentanyl.
Is any State exempt from this in your travels?
Ms. Rachwal. I agree with you, Mr. Tiffany, what I believe
in those two years, Wisconsin's percentage was about 97 percent
increase. In my opinion, with the experience that we have,
which I feel is probably early in its stages because Logan it
has been very recent, but I think every single State is
experiencing an increase.
Our kids are at risk. Every single kid is at risk. Even if
there are kids that we are not seeing, some kids are not dying
but they are dealing with addiction issues as well very young
because these cartels, these pills are, they are being made to
drive addiction. That is what they want, they want these kids
to be addicted. It is a business.
So, but I do believe it is everywhere.
Mr. Tiffany. Is this why you said everything has to be done
to try to get this under control?
Ms. Rachwal. Absolutely. If we miss one little loophole,
that is why we are seeing numbers go up. There is some things
being done, but everything has to be done. It has to be done at
every angle.
Mr. Tiffany. Dr. Westlake, it is also good to have you from
the great State of Wisconsin here also. I want to thank you.
I voted for the Hope agenda in Wisconsin which you helped
put together which was really groundbreaking, wasn't it in
America?
Dr. Westlake. Yes.
Mr. Tiffany. First of its kind.
Dr. Westlake. Yes.
Mr. Tiffany. What does, you are an emergency room doctor,
what does death look like from fentanyl?
Dr. Westlake. Right. So, opioids just cause respiratory
suppression, so it just, people just stop breathing, and then
they pass out, and then they turn blue, and then they die if
not resuscitated.
Mr. Tiffany. So, it is almost like they are being
smothered?
Dr. Westlake. Or, right, or the same thing as an execution.
It can be the same thing as a chemical execution.
Mr. Tiffany. So, it is similar to a chemical?
Dr. Westlake. Right.
Mr. Tiffany. Many of the critics of FRS scheduling, Dr.
Westlake, cite concerns with mandatory minimums and sentencing
guidelines, insisting that this criminal justice framework will
do nothing to prevent FRS market saturation.
Could you briefly explain why it is important to
permanently keep this on Schedule I with the associated
criminal penalties?
Dr. Westlake. Great. Yes, thanks for the question.
So, this, so criminal penalties do not stop use of drugs.
Drug users are going to use drugs. People with substance abuse
disorder are going to use drugs.
Traffickers, as Dr. Singer said, are going to traffic drugs
regardless of the penalties.
What this does and what--I know this is novel, and where I
think this is not some shiny object that is distracting from
the purpose--this closes up the spigot of fentanyl-related
substances. So, this targets the legal chemical companies in
China from stopping creating fentanyl-related substances.
According to the GAO report in 2021, it has accomplished
that. There are relatively no new fentanyl-related substances
being created.
So, you have this big, this big faucet of illicit fentanyl,
which is a huge problem. Right now, the spigot for fentanyl-
related substances is turned off, but it could reopen. I think
the 2,500 people that died in Florida from fentanyl-related
substances that were legal in 2016-2017 would disagree that
fentanyl-related substances are a shiny object.
Mr. Tiffany. Mr. Maltz, what we basically heard from the
other side is that immigration is not a problem. We didn't hear
that in the testimony from Sheriff Dannels, Cochise County,
Arizona, and the sheriff from Yuma County over the last month.
Do you agree with the sheriffs that immigration has
fostered this increase in fentanyl coming across the border?
Mr. Maltz. A hundred percent. The country is being invaded.
There are migrants coming from all over 160 countries. They are
looking to get here for a better life, many of them. OK. We
also have terrorists, we have rapists, we have sexual
predators, we have criminals coming over that border every day.
There over a million got-aways coming into the country.
Here is the problem, Congressman: The people in this town
don't listen to the experts that know what they are talking
about, that have been there on the border.
Chair Biggs goes down there, like many of you go down
there, and talk to the experts, not reading it in the
Washington Post.
Mr. Tiffany. Sir, I just need my final 15 seconds here.
Thank you for that.
If for no other reason, let's set aside the human
trafficking, and the largest human trafficking network that has
been set up in the history of the world. Set it aside.
We have the greatest number of people on the Terror Watch
List come across our border, correct?
Mr. Maltz. Yes.
Mr. Tiffany. Set that aside. If for no other reason, for
fentanyl we should be securing the border.
I yield back.
Mr. Biggs. The gentleman's time has expired.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Tennessee, Mr.
Cohen.
Mr. Cohen. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
First, is it Rachwal? Ms. Rachwal, I was here when you
testified and was very sorry about your son and his
circumstances, your husband as well.
Did the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, after your
son's overdose do anything to start to inform students about
drugs and have some type of a public interest program there,
public information?
Ms. Rachwal. Did we? I am sorry, did we do?
Mr. Cohen. Did Wisconsin, Milwaukee, do anything?
Ms. Rachwal. The university?
Mr. Cohen. Yes. Yes, ma'am.
Ms. Rachwal. They did after we respectfully pushed them and
continued to push them. We were able to get naloxone boxes
installed across the campus for safety. Then we were also able
to have them instill a freshman program so that the students
were aware of what to do, and the signs, had posters up, all
those kind of things.
Mr. Cohen. Well, thank you for what you did.
Do you know if that has been done in other, other colleges?
Ms. Rachwal. In Wisconsin specifically, 90 percent of the
University of Wisconsin system does have the naloxone boxes and
they are following suit with that, but every school is
different.
Mr. Cohen. Right.
Ms. Rachwal. So, it is there is not a uniform approach at
this point.
Mr. Cohen. As far as they have an orientation, they tell
them about drugs and warn them?
Ms. Rachwal. Correct.
Mr. Cohen. Who do they have to do that, do you know? Is it
a policeperson, or is it a community person, an athlete, or
what?
Ms. Rachwal. Not an athlete. The police are involved. In
fact, actually as we speak today here right now, there is a
program at the university today that we were supposed to speak
at that our board is actually presenting for us. So, there are
speaking events that we are involved in, being involved in, but
also the substance department of the school and the police.
Mr. Cohen. Thank you. Thank you.
I don't know who to ask the question to. Maybe Mr. Maltz,
we can go over the top with your problems, but whatever.
What works? Dr. Singer, you can answer this, too, or Dr.
Westlake. What has proven to work to reduce?
Dr. Singer, you have an answer. Please.
Dr. Singer. Well, in many other countries they don't have
our overdoes problem, even though there is a drug problem in a
lot of Europe. So, for example, in Switzerland, Germany,
Portugal, France, Spain, and Canada they put much more of an
emphasis on harm reduction.
Harm reduction, the concept of harm reduction is to non-
judgmentally do things for people that can make whatever
choices they are making less dangerous. That comes natural to
doctors because in this country, and in most of those
countries, that is largely what they do. When I have a--
Mr. Cohen. How do you do that? Having Narcan around?
Dr. Singer. When it comes to drugs, you can, again, make it
easier for people to get the overdose naloxone. Allow people to
get test strips to test to see if what they purchased on the
black market is what they think it is, to see if that's
fentanyl or xylazine.
Also, allow--there are many groups in this country that
want to set up these overdose prevention centers, which have
been proven. There has not been one overdose taking place.
There are two that are right now, in defiance of Federal
law, operating in New York City. They started November 2021. By
April 2022 they had already reversed 230 overdose deaths. Those
are 230 people who would have been dead.
So, but they are not allowed to do that because it
violates--
Mr. Cohen. That is the only place they have it is in New
York City?
Dr. Singer. I beg your pardon?
Mr. Cohen. The only place that has that program is in New
York?
Dr. Singer. Well, they, in November 2021, the mayor of New
York, in defiance of 21 U.S.C. 856, permitted a nonprofit
private harm reduction organization to operate two overdose
prevention centers. They have been functioning. So far, the
Justice Department hasn't acted on it.
Mr. Cohen. OK, thank you.
You know, I think all of us would like to see this reduced,
eliminated if possible. Mr. Maltz, I appreciate your work in
the past.
I don't know if the idea of the death penalty is a good
idea because the reality is--and this is just, my guess--I
don't think people who buy the fentanyl think they are going to
overdose. So, they buy it. So, they have heard it is a fun
trip, or a good trip, or whatever.
I suspect that the people that deal it don't think they are
going to get caught. Even if you have the death penalty, they
don't think I'm going to get caught. So, I don't know if that
is the answer.
I think we have busted a lot of the cartels, have we not? I
don't know their names. Is it Pablo Escobar or somebody we got
and put away?
Mr. Maltz. Sir, first, I apologize for yelling and
screaming but, you know what, I have been dealing with the
families for many years, and there is no action going on in
this town.
I will tell you this--
Mr. Cohen. There will be action.
Mr. Maltz. I will tell you this--
Mr. Cohen. There will be action.
Mr. Maltz. Let me answer, let me answer the question.
First, I would appreciate it if you stop calling it an
overdose. It is a poisoning, and it is a war against our kids.
So, stop with the overdosing.
That is part of the problem. The American public thinks it
is a substance that people want to take.
Mr. Cohen. My time is expired. I yield back.
Mr. Biggs. Your time has expired.
Mr. Gaetz. Mr. Chair.
Mr. Biggs. Are you finished answering the question, Mr.
Maltz?
Mr. Maltz. Yes, sir.
Mr. Gaetz. Mr. Chair.
Mr. Biggs. Mr. Gaetz.
Mr. Gaetz. Mr. Chair, I move or I seek unanimous consent
that Mr. Issa be permitted to sit on the panel for the purpose
of accepting and yielding of time.
Mr. Biggs. Without objection.
Ms. Jackson Lee. Without objection I am ready to allow Mr.
Issa to be on.
Mr. Issa, I am joining the caucus that you will be speaking
of. So, hopefully, you and Congressman Dean will add me to that
caucus. Thank you.
Mr. Biggs. Thank you.
Now, I recognize Mr. Jordan.
Chair Jordan. Mr. Chair, I yield to Mr. Issa.
Mr. Biggs. Mr. Issa.
Mr. Issa. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you,
Chair.
The title of this hearing should be, ``Inaction Is No
Longer an Option.''
So, one of the questions that, you had said was you are
tired of nothing happening in this town. That is because we
have had inaction as we have gone from 0-108,000 deaths a year
with fentanyl.
In San Diego we have a locker that has 147,000 pounds of
deadly drug; a third of it is fentanyl. Ten years ago, zero was
fentanyl and it was mostly marijuana and meth.
So, when we look at what we need to do, and I will just be
brief and say what, what would you have us do on a bipartisan
basis that would be the most effective single item?
We will start on the left.
Mr. Maltz. So, Congressman, thanks for the question.
First, we have to declare this a public health and national
security emergency from the White House, because it all starts
at the top.
Then we have to get celebrities, and professional athletes,
role models, to start making video reels to get to the kids on
social media. Because right now on social media that is what
they are doing all day, and that is why they are dying, because
they are buying this stuff on social media.
By the way, sextortion is also very big on social media.
So, why are the social media companies allowed to
facilitate the death and destruction of our communities?
Mr. Issa. OK. I appreciate that because that is one of the
areas that information simply has--certainly, is not equal to
the 108,000 deaths.
From a standpoint of--and I will ask this, I will start at
the far right here now--when someone knowingly produces a pill
that looks like one kind of drug, but is, in fact, fentanyl, in
California they have had the novel attempt to, in fact, have,
when someone dies of it, have it be considered murder because
it is a knowing act.
Would you support a Federal law that made it, in fact, by
definition, murder to produce deadly fentanyl pill that appears
to be something else?
Ms. Rachwal. Congressman, yes, absolutely.
If I took a drink and I got something poisoned in the drink
and died, that would be murder. Correct?
Mr. Issa. Correct.
So, those are two areas.
Third, of course, is we have two partners in this. We are
the third partner because we are the buyer. Certainly, we have
to do our part. This is where information and getting beyond
just ignoring it is important.
Let me just ask you two questions: Mexico is currently
enjoying a gain success of billions of dollars that is
corroding the very ability of their government to manage their
country, because the cartels have more money than the
government. That is coming out of China where the precursors
come out.
So, the question I have for all of you is, as we are
advertising, as we are increasing the crimes, what actions
should be taken to stem the flow from China through Mexico?
Yes?
Dr. Westlake. Again, so when you look at the spigot of
elicit fentanyl, that is a huge issue. I am not here to really
focus on that. I am focusing on fentanyl-related substances.
One thing Congress can do tomorrow is permanently close that
loophole.
Mr. Issa. Yes, sir?
Dr. Singer. Congressman Issa, we have been doing the same
thing over and over again for 50 years, since President Nixon
declared war on drugs, and expecting a different result each
time. Doing it even harder and causing even more people to be
imprisoned, and damaging relationships with even more countries
is still not going to work. I guarantee you, because we will
probably be here in a couple years talking about the nitazene
crisis.
I think we should put the emphasis and focus on making it
safer for the people who are going to continue to go to the
black market and use drugs by getting the Government out of the
way of groups that want to employ arm reduction strategies that
save lives.
Mr. Issa. I appreciate your view on that. I respectfully
disagree. The countries that have tried it mostly have had
other problems.
I do agree with one thing, which is that we have been
fighting the fight for a long time. We have seen the drugs
change.
Ma'am, I am going to close by saying I meet regularly with
one after another parent, or sibling, or spouse of someone who
has died from the, and whether they call it an overdose or a
deadly poison, most of the time it is an amount that is deadly
in a single pill.
That is not true of other drugs. It is true of fentanyl
today. So, you have my deepest sympathies for your loss. We
will, I promise, we will have action, not inaction.
Mr. Chair, thank you very much. Yield back.
Mr. Biggs. Thank you, Mr. Issa.
The Chair recognizes Mr. Kiley.
Mr. Kiley. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I would like to followup on a point raised just now by Mr.
Issa.
First, I wanted to also say I thank you, Ms. Rachwal, for
being here and sharing your story. I know how difficult it is
and how much courage it takes.
I have had the chance to work with parents who, like
yourself, have found themselves in an unthinkable situation,
including two parents, Chris and Laura Didier, who were my
guests at the State of the Union a couple weeks ago.
I think it is because of the power of your voice and the
voices of people like the Didiers, and other parents who have
had that courage that the President did at least acknowledge
the scale of this problem in his State of the Union address,
the largest platform that he has as President.
Mr. Chair, we heard from the Ranking Member that this is
not a crime problem. I would have to take issue with that
statement. After all, we are talking about a poison that
largely originates with dedicated criminal organizations, and
that is peddled in our communities by dealers to unsuspecting
young people, under false pretenses, using social media or any
other means at their disposal.
So, yes, there are multiple dimensions to this problem,
first and foremost securing the border, raising awareness.
Holding criminals accountable is a very important dimension.
In that respect, we actually have some very recent news out
of my district. In the last two days there has been a
preliminary hearing for a defendant, the drug dealer Carson
Schewe. His victim was a 20-year-old soon-to-be-father named
Cade Webb who died of fentanyl poisoning after consuming a fake
pill. Some may actually have heard about his story because he
is the cousin of Logan Webb, who is the star pitcher for the
San Francisco Giants who, after the tragedy, used his position
to share the story to raise awareness. Then other Major League
baseball players did so as well.
So, yesterday the preliminary hearing concluded. This
happened to take place in Placer County where the D.A.'s
office, led by District Attorney Morgan Gire, has been very
committed to using every tool at their disposal to get a handle
on the fentanyl crisis.
They have been part of public awareness campaigns like One
Pill Can Kill. They have been very aggressive in using the
criminal laws to hold dealers accountable, under the belief
that anyone who sells this lethal substance and doesn't care
whether their customer lives or dies, is guilty of murder.
So, in the death of Cade Webb, and in prosecuting the
dealer Carson Schewe, they decided to charge him with murder,
because that is what this is.
Yesterday, there was a holding order in the case. It is now
going to go to trial. This drug dealer will face murder charges
for selling this lethal substance to this young man in our
community.
So, I would just encourage prosecutors across the country
to take a look at what the District Attorney's Office is doing
under the leadership of Morgan Gire in Placer County because,
yes, I think we need stiffer penalties. That does need to be
legislated. There is a lot we can do under existing criminal
laws.
Since Placer County started being more aggressive in
prosecuting dealers, law enforcement is hearing about results
on the street that dealers are now wary of selling in our
community.
So, I would just ask the question to Mr. Maltz, we have
heard that this isn't a crime problem. We have heard that
having stiffer penalties for the dealers isn't going to really
do anything.
Does that perspective resonate more with your experience,
or does the perspective of the law enforcement in my district
that this actually is serving as a real deterrent sound more
realistic to you?
Mr. Maltz. Well, there is leadership in California. I know
in San Diego they have Task Force 10 with the DEA and Homeland
Security, other agencies, and they are prosecuting defendants
for the death of these kids that are dying.
I will tell you this: I talk to DEA agents every day. You
know why they are upset right now? Because the Department of
Justice is putting out more guidance, and more restrictions,
and more requirements to charge minimum mandatory sentences for
people that are killing our kids.
Like, it doesn't get any simpler: If they are killing our
kids, they need to feel the pain and go to jail. It is not
going to stop the problem because there are so many kids
addicted. Because right now in America there is a lot of
anxiety and social depression. COVID caused a lot of this. So,
these kids are turning to these pills. They have no idea what
they are getting.
My thing is, they have to be told that the pills will kill
you. They don't know that because they are not getting the
messages.
They are not watching this hearing. They are not watching
mainstream media and cable news. That is why the athletes and
celebrities have to be called to the White House and they have
to participate. They have got to put China aside because of the
big money they make, and they have to go, and they educate the
kids and save lives.
Mr. Biggs. The time of the gentleman is expired.
Mr. Kiley. Thank you, Mr. Maltz.
I yield back.
Mr. Biggs. Thank you.
I would now recognize the gentlelady from Georgia, Ms.
McBath.
Ms. McBath. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
First, I want to give my deepest condolences to the Rachwal
family. I am so sorry for your loss.
I, too, have lost a child. It is just so heartbreaking
because it is not the natural order of things. So, I do give
you my deepest condolences.
For many across America this epidemic is a symptom of
neglect. We have heard how far reaching and fast growing this
public health crisis has become. What started as a plan by big
pharmaceutical companies to profit on the pain of millions, a
plan to shroud the addictiveness of these drugs in sales
tactics and consultant speak, has changed the course of our
country and the Americans who live in it.
We know the facts. They have been spouted all day. We have
heard many of them here today. Millions of Americans addicted
to opioids led us into an era of millions of Americans addicted
to heroin, fentanyl, a drug up to 50 times stronger than
heroin, pushed on our people by cartels most often supplied by
the PRC, and it has only increased these deaths of despair.
We know the facts. We don't always know what goes on in the
homes. When we go into a home and we see family, we see parents
that are shattered by a loved one lost in the grips of a drug
that has consumed them.
We see the wife in West Virginia whose husband came home in
pain every night from work, that left them battered and
bruised. The over-prescribed opioid that was supposed to be a
cure for the pain became the cause of it. As addiction took
hold, opioids were replaced with heroin, heroin laced with
fentanyl. How two children are growing up without a father,
supported now by a single mother who just saw the love of their
life descend into darkness.
We see the father in Florida who just dropped his son off
in his freshman dorm room. Since he was a little boy, he had
always followed the rules. A quarterback on his high school
team, he had always been the calm and quiet type. A concussion
followed him to college.
Now, he was a child away from home, surrounded by his
peers. He spent a night with his friends doing what many
college kids do. It took one pill to overdose. Now, the father,
who spent 18 years raising a son he could never be more proud
of, would never see his boy again.
We see the daughter in Georgia bullied in her high school
for being too fat 1 day, and too thin the next: For trying too
hard in school, and not hard enough on her looks. When her
friend promised an escape from the terror in her head and the
pain in her heart, she accepts gratefully. Until the drug had a
hold on her. Until the painkillers decided what she was doing
and when she would do it. Her overdose on heroin was called a
death of despair. That only scratched the surface.
Her mother and father are now forced to celebrate her
birthday at her gravesite.
There is a heartbreak only reserved for those who question
whether they have done, whether they had done more as a parent
to save their child, a spouse, a child. When you focus in on a
community, when you enter a home filled with that heartbreak,
which I do understand, we can only begin to understand the
human cost of this crisis.
These drugs have profited on pain and left only death and
despair in their wake. This isn't a future for us as Americans.
This isn't time for politics. This is a time for progress. What
we do here must help to solve this crisis, not score political
points.
So, please, Dr. Singer, what can we do right now that will
give us the best chance of saving American lives, ending this
epidemic, and keeping our families together?
Dr. Singer. Well, Congresswoman McBath, thank you for that
question.
As I said previously, and this is under the purview of this
Committee, I think we should focus on trying to make the black
market less dangerous for people who are going to go into the
black market to purchase drugs by allowing them to be able to
use, for example, test strips to test to see if they think they
are buying a Percocet and it turns out it is fentanyl, we can
help them by letting them know that and may avoid taking it.
Also, we should remove section, 21 U.S.C. 856 so that harm
reduction organizations around the country could set up
overdose prevention centers to prevent people from overdosing.
Also, in those centers they would test their drugs before they
use them and use them with clean needles and syringes which
they have to return. It is outside of the public use, so people
don't have to watch people use drugs.
So, these are things that this Committee could address.
Also, in many countries, Canada, U.K., Australia, since the
Sixties primary care physicians have been able to prescribe
take home methadone. In this country, we have this very
burdensome process where to use methadone, which is a great and
a very effective treatment for addiction, you have to go to a
special clinic. You sometimes have to travel miles. You have to
take it in the presence of a clinic staff because you are
stigmatized as somebody who can't be trusted.
Whereas if you were able to--during the pandemic, actually,
they allowed take home medication and saw no evidence of
diversion or misuse of the methadone.
If we allowed primary care practitioners to prescribe
methadone to treat substance use disorder, then there would be
many more avenues where people can access methadone treatment.
Ms. McBath. Thank you. I yield my time.
Mr. Biggs. Thank you.
The Chair recognizes now the gentleman from South Carolina,
Mr. Fry.
Mr. Fry. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you for holding this
hearing. I appreciate your leadership in bringing attention of
this.
To the panel, thank you for being here.
Ms. Rachwal, thank you. It is incredibly brave for you to
address this Committee, to share that story.
When I was in the South Carolina General Assembly I chaired
the House Opioid Abuse Prevention Study Committee. We had 18
bills, record funding, a lot of great things. We always started
every field hearing with people who were in who were
recovering, who had lost family members. To hear their stories,
to hear your story today reminds me of that and how important
it is to hear that story, that we start from the human element,
and that we remember the families back home who have suffered
the most.
The rise in fentanyl, I think the frustration that I have,
at least up here, to the panel is that States have really,
States and local governments have really tried to address this
from an education campaign, to prevention, to treatment, and to
law enforcement. That was not immune to the State of South
Carolina either as we tried to pass legislation to address it.
The frustration that I have is that we can't actually deal,
the States can't, as inventive as they are, and colleges and
local government, they cannot actually deal with the problem
until we deal with the source, which is fentanyl, which is
China, which is the cartels.
To me, to look at the numbers in South Carolina, and of
course this mirrors the country, in 2017 South Carolina saw a
312 percent increase in fentanyl-related overdoses. From 2019-
2021 it was 178 percent. Nearly 69 percent, according to a
South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control,
69 percent of all overdoses are related to fentanyl. Those
numbers back up. Those have been increasing dramatically.
Whereas in 2017 only 36 percent of overdose deaths were related
to fentanyl.
So, we have seen this problem exacerbated. We we just
visited Yuma, Arizona, for a field hearing where we talked to
hospital systems, and ranchers, and residents. They are seeing
it in their communities.
Of course, as we know, we are, every State, every local
government, every community is a border town at this point
given the amount of fentanyl overdoses that are taking place.
Mr. Chair, at this point I would like to seek unanimous
consent to put the South Carolina Department of Health and
Environmental Control Overdose Report into the record.
Mr. Biggs. Without objection.
Mr. Fry. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I think from the perspective of the DEA, Mr. Maltz, what
are some of the firsthand experiences that you have seen or
heard of, of your agents, or the agents of the DEA dealing with
drug smugglers? What are some of the experiences that they have
had in the field?
Mr. Maltz. Well, they are very frustrated for the lack of
the support. Like I said, the Department of Justice putting
added requirements to put people in jail that are killing our
kids.
The real frustration that I have seen is kind of
highlighted in the recent trial in New York and the conviction
of Genaro Garcia Luna. He was the FBI equivalent in Mexico. The
corruption is so systemic in Mexico that the cartels run the
country. Now with the migrant smuggling, it is just
overwhelming the resources on the border and throughout
America.
So, the reality is if you have a water leak in your house,
the plumber comes, he shuts the main valve down. We have a
fentanyl disaster in America flooding the streets. We have got
to shut down the valve in Mexico.
How do we do it? The best and brightest patriots in
America, like some Congressmen have already said, and offer
support to the Mexican Government to use technology to destroy
these chemical production labs. Then we will see a disruption
in the supply to this country.
The frustration is that law enforcement is out there
putting their lives on the line. They don't get the proper
support. More importantly is that it is just getting worse
because the cartels are operating with impunity, working with
China, that want to destroy America forever.
Mr. Fry. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I yield the remaining balance of my time to you, sir.
Mr. Biggs. Thank you.
So, some of the things that have been talked about today
make me think of deterrence. What deters someone from taking a
drug that has been laced with fentanyl?
What deters someone from producing and distributing
fentanyl into this country?
Mr. Maltz, some people have said, that was an early talker,
``cannot incarcerate our way out of this.'' Then they said but
we need to have tough penalties, including incarceration for
those who deal the drugs.
Is that a tacit admission that there is a way to deter
dealers, and that would include sentencing to incarceration?
Mr. Maltz. Absolutely. You want to put these people in jail
for the longest amount of time that are killing our kids.
We are not talking about putting couriers that are just
moving product, they don't even know what they are moving. You
have to deal with each case separately. For the organization
that is destroying our country, they have to feel the pain.
Now, I will tell you this: You asked a question about the
frustration. Right now, we have hundreds lined up in Mexico for
extradition. The Administrator of DEA testified. We can't get
them out. We want to hold them responsible for what they are
doing. That is going to be a deterrent.
We saw that in Colombia for years when we went after the
Norte del Valle Cartel, the Medellin Cartel, and everyone. So,
we have to have these strong punishments.
Mr. Biggs. Thanks. Thanks, Mr. Maltz.
I now recognize Ms. Lee from Florida.
Ms. Lee. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you to our witnesses for being here today.
Today's hearing has allowed us all an opportunity to see
how the crisis of fentanyl is affecting every community in
America. In my own community in Florida we recently seized,
authorities seized more than 11 pounds of fentanyl. This amount
alone was enough to kill 2.7 million people.
Agent Maltz, I would like to return to your testimony. As a
former Federal prosecutor, I recognize the critical work that
DEA agents are doing every day across America to fight the
cartels and to keep America safe. One thing, a distinction that
you have made here today that I think is important, I would
like for you to share with us a bit about how this problem has
grown in its scope, and the difference between organized crime
and what you would categorize as narcoterrorists?
Tell us, what is a narcoterrorist? What has led you to that
conclusion?
Mr. Maltz. Great question. I really appreciate that because
I lived this nightmare for many years, over 10 years.
When I was the head of the Special Operations Division I
wasn't reading in the local newspapers, I was living it with my
counterparts around the world. So, China started the synthetic
bombing campaign around 2008-2009 with K2 spice and bath salts.
Please go read about and you will see all the capacities in the
country for no synthetic drugs.
Then around 2012 they started with the fentanyl analogs in
the mail services, through the internet websites.
Then they diverted, started sending pure fentanyl to
Mexico. They also started, of course, for years they have been
sending precursor chemicals to make methamphetamine. That is
why we have tons of methamphetamine in the country. We didn't
even talk about that today. That is another whole hearing.
Now, in Mexico they are using all that money, they are
building up capabilities. They are buying weapons systems. They
are dropping C4 explosives on their adversaries.
I went down to the border and there were 9,000 drones
coming into America surveilling our brave men and women in
Border Patrol. This is unacceptable. We are at war with the
cartels, but we are still treating it like they are drug
traffickers.
They are not drug cartels. Please stop saying drug cartels.
They are narcoterrorists like we have never seen. They run the
country of Mexico, they intimidate, they corrupt, they are
slaughtering people, chopping off heads, dismembering bodies.
They have arsenals. They have weapons that we don't even have
in certain countries around the world.
So, they have evolved. Everything is evolving. The problem
is the Government is still using old talking points. This is
not grandpa's opioid crisis. OK? The pills, that is years ago.
Yes, kids got addicted because of big pharma. Somebody said
that. Big pharma never got held accountable because it is all
about the money.
Now, the cartels and China are the focus of our problem, so
we need to deal with them.
Ms. Lee. So, Agent Maltz, in light of that changing
landscape, in light of the escalation of the severity of this
type of organization, how does that change what you need and
what we should be doing here in Congress to equip DEA and our,
and your law enforcement partners to fight this fight?
Mr. Maltz. DEA needs resources, but so does all the
agencies as far as manpower. You know why? A lot of them are
quitting. They are running away. They are getting jobs in the
private sector because they are sick and tired of lack of
action.
The boss of the DEA right now, she is running around with a
One Pill Can Kill campaign, spreading awareness like we have
never seen.
I go back to this Committee can ask the Department of
Education, what are they doing? Why is CDC not putting out
timely and accurate stats on the greatest crisis to the history
of this country? What is the answer to that? Because as a
taxpayer, I would like to see the CDC director, because she has
already fell on the sword on the lack of reporting on COVID,
and the inaccuracies. How is that acceptable with all the
technology we have?
There is no consistency across the country. The guy in King
County, Washington, talked about no cooler space. They are not
trained. They don't have the technologies.
So, there is a lot of accountabilities that needs to be
brought to the table in this town. The DEA, they are going to
continue to fight, just like Homeland Security, FBI, ATF, the
Marshals, because they get paid to save lives.
The problem is it is much bigger than DEA and the law
enforcement now. That is why we need to consider other options
with the great patriots that work behind the scenes that could
do some real good devastation. They could decimate the
production labs.
Why is that a bad thing, decimate chemical production labs?
I wish there were more people over here that would listen to
this, but they are not interested. They are out there doing
something else. I don't know what is more important than the
death of our kids.
Ms. Lee. Agent Maltz, another question. Can you tell us
what it means when a substance is classified as Schedule I,
Schedule II? How is that important? What would it mean to you
all in terms of the work that you are going to try to combat
this problem?
Mr. Maltz. Well, a third grader can understand that you
don't want to put deadly substances on the street. You want to
at least categorize them as Schedule I drugs.
Fentanyl, the pharmaceutical grade fentanyl, is a Schedule
II and needs to remain a Schedule II. The elicit fentanyl
substances that are out there, it is like Whack-A-Mole. The DEA
and all the agencies they can't keep up with the way these guys
are changing the difficult chemical compounds. It is, like, it
is just so common, you just need common sense to understand
that argument, they are killing our kids. We need to classify
fentanyl-related substances as Schedule I.
That is not going to solve this problem, but it is
something that will help.
Ms. Lee. Thank you, Agent Maltz.
Mr. Chair, I yield back.
Mr. Biggs. Thank you.
I yield five minutes to myself.
I appreciate all of you being here telling your story, and
also bringing different perspectives on this very, very
critical, I view it as a national security and national health
issue.
When we look at this, we had several of my colleagues
across the aisle talk about they gave $60 million here and $70
million there. When I go to the border and talk to Border
Patrol agents, who are so concerned about this problem, they
say, we don't need more money, we need to be able to enforce
the law. We are being denied the capacity to enforce the law.
That includes and is because they are being overrun. So, we
will go their whole shifts with entire CDP agency that is
supposed to be watching our border are actually working as
processors at a detention facility, where they won't be
detained, Dr. Singer. They are not getting detained, they are
being, they are being transported to wherever they want to be
in the country, to the tune of over five million encounters,
millions over the last two years.
Then you have over a million, about a million two known
got-aways between the ports of entry. Anybody who watches will
tell you it is at least one-to-one on the unknown got-aways.
When we showed you the video earlier today these are young men
and women bringing--dressed in camo. They don't want to be
caught. They are port, transporting this drug across the
border.
Comes up, I can tell you where it comes up from the Tohono
O'odham, across the Tohono O'odham Reservation, goes up to I-8.
There are load-up places there. Then from your crows, you're a
crow's fly about 30 miles south of Phoenix.
From there it is going throughout the country. It is
finding its way into the hands of college students who really
they don't know anything about fentanyl because it has not been
made a big deal.
We know about it because we talk about it.
So, when I hear people say 90 percent of it is interdicted
through the port of entry; no. Ninety percent of what you catch
may be in the port of entry. Of course, that data is old and
out of touch. It is coming through between the ports of entry
and being disseminated widely in this country.
Now, we have very little deterrence. Because I am going to
tell you that if these people are caught; they are caught in
the Tucson Sector. They have a backpack of fentanyl. All you
have to do is take that backpack off and walk a step away and
the Deputy Attorney General there, the U.S. Attorney there is
not going to prosecute that case.
There is no deterrence whatsoever. Why are they not going
to? They are going to say we need, for instance, if it is
marijuana, they say we have to have 400 pounds of marijuana on
the person. Well, nobody can carry 400 pounds of marijuana.
Same thing goes with fentanyl. Most of it is now coming in
pills. It is coming in pill form because Americans want pills.
They are pressing them down south of the border, and they are
disguised as pain medication, Percocet, Perc 30, whatever it
is.
So, that is the reality of what is happening. I appreciate,
Dr. Singer, you said we want to make the black market less
dangerous. One way you make this less dangerous for the black
market is to make it more dangerous for the people who are
producing and distributing this drug.
So, you may not be able to incarcerate yourself, your way
out of this, but you better do something to either destroy the
facilities, destroy the economic capacity of this group, or
they are going to keep going.
I will just tell you that right now it is a multi-billion
dollar per month industry. We need to, we need to call them
what it is: They are terrorists. We need to declare them
terrorists so we can get at their money stream. Because if we
can get at their money stream, we will impede them and we will
slow this down.
That is some of what needs to happen here.
As we wrap up this hearing, I hope that across the aisle we
have found some comity on where we can go to start interdicting
this horrific problem. That has to happen.
I just, again, thank you, our witnesses, for being here
today.
You have some documents you want to put in?
Ms. Jackson Lee. If you don't mind, yes.
Mr. Biggs. Please, please.
Ms. Jackson Lee. When you have had your concluding remarks.
Mr. Biggs. Well, she wants to, not for concluding remarks,
but I will recognize you for putting documents into the record.
Ms. Jackson Lee. Thank you.
If I might, Mr. Chair, just make one or two points to
answer you. Which is, that is the direction of the legislation
that I hope you will look at that enhances and responds to the
manufacturers and the distributors.
Obviously, our jurisdiction is here in the United States
and, hence, penalties, and for those who wind up killing people
because of the drug use. Their actions wind up killing people.
I just want to conclude on, Mr. Maltz, your patriotism and
your enthusiasm. I work with DEA agents all the time, those
based on Houston. Know their work, as I do the FBI, the ATF.
So, let me just say that you have been heard loudly and
clearly.
Ms. Rachwal and husband have been heard very loudly and
clearly.
So, legislation that I hope the Chair will look at answers
all these questions, particularly your outreach, your focus,
major campaign, the social media, and the megaphone. You want
the megaphone while you are doing your work, you want the
megaphone.
I do know that the DEA does some very dangerous work,
particularly, those who are undercover. We want to appreciate
them as well.
Dr. Singer, we need your voice. We thank you for that.
We thank Dr. Westlake for being here as well.
So, I hope the Chair and I will have an opportunity to
engage.
I want to put into the record, ask unanimous consent, a
letter from the Law Enforcement Action Partnership, signed by a
coalition of current and former law enforcement officers,
judges, and public safety professionals.
The statement of Jason Pye, Director, Rule of Law
Initiative, Due Process Institute.
A letter from Jillian E. Snider, Policy Director of
Criminal Justice and Civil Liberties at the R Street Institute.
A letter from Mazen Saleh, Policy Director of Integrated
Harm Reduction at the R Street Institute.
A letter from a coalition of organizations in support of
the Test Act. (ph.)
I want to thank Mr. Cohen, and Ms. McBath, and Ms. Dean for
their presence here today.
Ask unanimous consent to place these in the record.
Mr. Biggs. Without objection.
Ms. Jackson Lee. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Mr. Biggs. Thank you.
Again, thanks to all the Members who attended. Thanks to
those in the audience who came.
I appreciate each one of you, again, on the panel. You were
heard. You are important. We are going to now thank you by
adjourning.
We are adjourned.
[Whereupon, at 12:27 p.m., the Subcommittee was adjourned.]
All materials submitted for the record by Members of the
Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal
Government can be found at: https://docs.house.gov/Committee/
Calendar/ByEvent.aspx?EventID=115371.