Washington, DC — Legislation co-sponsored by Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley that targets opioid overdoses, with a focus on rural areas, is headed to President Biden’s desk after winning final Congressional approval last week.
Grassley, a Republican, says the bill is the result of bipartisan cooperation in both chambers to tackle a national problem.
Counterfeit prescription pills laced with deadly fentanyl are contributing to historic drug overdose deaths in the US, Grassley says, including here in Iowa.
A state report shows 470 lives were lost to drug overdoses in Iowa last year, while among Iowans age 25 and younger, overdose deaths have surged 120-percent in recent years. Grassley says President Biden will, “without a doubt,” sign the Rural Opioid Abuse Prevention Act into law, but he says another key bill is mired by partisan bickering.
He blames Democrats for the “open southern border” and allowing a “flood” of dangerous drugs into the US. That second bill would permanently schedule all fentanyl knock-offs, preventing criminals from tweaking the formula slightly to skirt the law.
