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WEDNESDAY, July 3, 2019 (HealthDay News) — A temporary order classifying fentanyl-like drugs as controlled substances should be enacted into law, the U.S. Department of Justice is telling Congress.<\/p>\n
The order — which was enacted in 2018 on an emergency basis and expires in February 2020 — tightened controls on fentanyl-like drugs, which had skirted federal law because their chemical makeup is slightly different than the opioid fentanyl, which is about 100 times stronger than morphine, CBS News<\/i> reported. Fentanyl-like drugs can be even stronger.<\/p>\n
“From a policy and regulatory perspective, fentanyl-like substances need to be permanently scheduled as a class,” said Katie Crytzer, the acting deputy assistant attorney general in the Office of Legal Policy at the Department of Justice, CBS News<\/i> reported. The classification is an “urgent and necessary first step,” she told reporters Monday.<\/p>\n
Of the more than 70,000 drug overdose deaths in the U.S. in 2017, nearly 48,000 were caused by opioids, and about 29,000 by fentanyl or fentanyl-like substances, according to U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data, said John Martin, assistant administrator of the Drug Enforcement Administration, CBS News<\/i> reported.<\/p>\n