Senate nears final approval of a bill that could increase penalties for fentanyl traffickers

[Eugene]

Source: Associated Press

Senate nears final approval of a bill that could increase penalties for fentanyl traffickers

By STEPHEN GROVES
Updated 8:04 AM EDT, March 14, 2025

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate was preparing Friday to give final approval to a bill that could result in harsher prison sentences for fentanyl traffickers as both Republicans and Democrats seek to show they can act to rein in distribution of the deadly drug.

The bill has already passed the House and has picked up Democratic support in the Senate, showing many in the party are eager to clamp down on fentanyl distribution following an election in which Republican Donald Trump harped on the problem. House Republicans passed a similar bill in 2023 with dozens of Democrats joining in support, but it languished in the Democratic-held Senate.

Critics say the proposal repeats the mistakes of the so-called “war on drugs,” which imprisoned millions of people addicted to drugs, particularly Black Americans.

Now, with Republicans in control of the Senate, Majority Leader John Thune has prioritized the legislation, making it one of the early bills to send to Trump for his signature. The president has indicated he will sign it.

-snip-

Read more: https://apnews.com/article/congress-fentanyl-trafficking-drugs-bill-3a142db24a7657ebf2b3901b62d2ab5a

[IbogaProject]

1. Rats only abuse drugs if their situation is lacking

If they have a normal environment and companions they don't use drugs.

https://blog.nateliason.com/p/rats-levers-parks

They put rats in cages with food, water, and a lever. The lever would release a dose of morphine or some other drug so the researchers could assess how often the rat would pull the lever and use the drugs.

Once the rats figured the lever out, they pulled it until they died. A Cocaine lever killed them quickly. Morphine, a little slower. But across most of these experiments, the result was the same. Give the rat the drug lever and he’ll keep pulling it till he dies. He never cuts himself off. Drugs are insanely addictive, and we shouldn’t blame people for dying from addiction. The power of the drug is too much to resist.

Then a smarter group of researchers had another idea. If you were stuck in a cage with nothing but food, water, and drugs, you’d probably pull that lever until you died too. Most of us would. I’d absolutely go full Scarface if the alternative was rolling around a cage suckling water hoping for salvation. So they devised a new experiment: Rat Park. Instead of putting the rats in jail, they put them in a little rat Utopia. Space to run around, friends to play and mate with, abundant delicious food, everything a rat could hope for. And in the corner, a little lever giving access to the same drugs as before.

Now what? The rats still tried the drugs, but they didn’t become slaves to them. They didn’t get addicted. They got high, then went back to running around and making little babies with all their Rat Park companions. The drugs were never the problem. The environment was the problem! If we figure out what environmental changes need to happen to help anyone escape addiction, then addiction and overdose would never be an issue. It’s not the rat’s fault, and it’s not the drugs, it’s the park. Addiction is a park problem.

Fairly clear.