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 Without action from Congress, the temporary ban on all variants of
fentanyl - a drug 100 times more potent than morphine - would expire
on May 6. The department said in a statement late on Monday it
intends to "work with Congress to seek a clean, seven-month
extension to prevent this important law enforcement tool from
lapsing."
The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration since 2018 has sought to
crack down on the proliferation of chemical look-alikes of fentanyl,
known as "analogues," by classifying them as so-called Schedule 1
drugs, meaning like heroin they are highly addictive and have no
medical use.
Fentanyl has been linked to large numbers of deaths as the United
States battles a decades-old opioid epidemic. Many of the fentanyl
analogues that have flooded America's streets were manufactured in
China or Mexico.
The DEA under Biden's predecessor Donald Trump lobbied Congress to
make permanent a temporary ban on all fentanyl chemical copycats,
both to deter their importation and to make it easier for
prosecutors to bring drug trafficking cases.
Before the class-wide ban, the DEA and the Food and Drug
Administration (FDA) were required to undertake a rigorous
scientific study of each individual new variant of fentanyl found on
the streets before it could be added to Schedule 1.
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 Congress has balked at making
the ban permanent amid concerns voiced by
criminal justice advocates and some researchers
that such action could make it harder for
scientists to win approval for studying the
substances and could lead to mass incarceration
of low-level drug dealers and addicts.
The Justice Department's statement acknowledged these concerns,
saying it intends to "address legitimate concerns related to
mandatory minimums (prison terms) and researcher access to these
substances."
In a statement, a Republican aide on the Senate Judiciary Committee
said that while it is "good to see the Biden administration
acknowledge the ban is working," the Justice Department's proposed
seven-month extension "does not provide Congress enough time to
develop a more permanent fix to reduce synthetic fentanyl
importation, overdoses and prosecutions.”
(Reporting by Sarah N. Lynch; Editing by Will Dunham and Jonathan
Oatis)
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