Pennsylvania Sen. Bob Casey visited Allentown Monday morning to promote two bills that aim to curb the flow of the deadly opioid fentanyl at the US-Mexico border.
Casey’s “Stop Fentanyl at the Border Act,” co-sponsored by Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Arizona, would allocate $5 billion to Customs and Border Control to hire more border patrol officers and upgrade and introduce machines that can detect fentanyl in vehicles. Another Casey bill, the “FEND Off Fentanyl” Act, would aim to target, sanction and block the financial assets of criminal organizations like cartels and illegal chemical suppliers that make up the fentanyl supply chain.
At a news conference, Casey called on his Republican counterparts, who have made immigration and drugs at the US-Mexico border a key legislative issue, to vote in favor of the act.
“For those politicians in Washington who talk a good game and yell and scream about what’s happening at the border, talk about fentanyl, they have to vote for the funding if they’re serious about stopping fentanyl, if they’re serious about greater enhancements to border security,” Casey said.
Fentanyl, a synthetic opioid that is 50 times stronger than heroin, is the most common drug involved in overdose deaths. In Pennsylvania alone, drug overdoses were responsible for 4,700 deaths in 2022, the majority of which involved fentanyl.
Allentown has not been spared from the fentanyl epidemic: Police Chief Charles Roca said in 2023, the department made 125 arrests involving fentanyl possession or distribution, and seized 1,900 fentanyl pills, 19 cans, 500 bags and 100 grams of the deadly drug. Roca called the fentanyl overdose crisis a “collaboration issue” and said more resources are needed to address the problem.
“We are not here to talk down about people who are in addiction, because it’s a public health issue and it’s something we have to put resources to,” Roca said.
The city partners with Lehigh County on a program called Blue Guardians, where police officers and addiction recovery specialists follow up with people following an overdose.
Lauren Wassum, a certified recovery specialist with Allentown-based Treatment Trends, said she recently celebrated five years of addiction recovery, and now uses her lived experience to help her clients overcome addiction.
“I’m grateful to lend my voice here today in support of bringing awareness to substance use disorder and show recovery is possible,” Wassum said. “To prevent more tragedies, we need to get illicit drugs like fentanyl off the streets, and keep it off.”
The human toll of the fentanyl crisis is apparent in Allentown and the broader Lehigh Valley. Beth Love, who leads Allentown’s substance abuse prevention task force, said drug overdoses have a “ripple effect” that can devastate families and communities.
Tackling the stigma of drug addiction and offering easy-to-access recovery services are the solution, she said.
“Compassion, love, just showing kindness to people, that can make somebody get sober, it really can,” Love said.
Though the two bills do not specifically put funding toward recovery and prevention resources, Casey has authored legislation that would eliminate the share of cost for addiction treatment programs, making access more affordable for people struggling, he said in an interview.
“We don’t need some national program to do this, we just need to fund and support the local treatment efforts, like the ones you heard about today,” Casey said.
Casey said he would push for the two bills to be folded into a $105 billion supplemental funding package, that would also provide aid to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, and could be up for a vote this week.
Reporter Lindsay Weber can be reached at Liweber@mcall.com.
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In Allentown, Sen. Bob Casey touts two bills that aim to curb flow of fentanyl from US-Mexico border - The Morning Call
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