Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene on Monday introduced a bill that would punish international fentanyl traffickers with the death penalty.
The Georgia Republican appeared before the House Rules Committee, which was considering the HALT Fentanyl Act.
The bill would permanently add fentanyl to the DEA’s list of Schedule I drugs, which are defined as having “no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse” — the same class as heroin, LSD, and marijuana.
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Greene said her measure would add to the list of defendants eligible for the death penalty anyone who “knowingly or intentionally” brings fentanyl into the country.
More than 300 people die each day from fentanyl, which is the primary killer of Americans 18 to 45, said Greene.
It does so after flowing primarily from China and freely across America’s southern border, courtesy of violent Mexican drug lords.
The GOP lawmaker noted that just in 2023, U.S. Customs and Border Protection has seized enough fentanyl to kill 3.8 billion people.
While many reasons exist for people crossing the border, she added, “they should never, ever bring a deadly poison into our country that murders Americans.”
Greene noted that fentanyl-related deaths have soared in her northwest Georgia district 350% between 2019 and 2022 — one of many examples across the nation where fentanyl is taking lives and destroying communities.
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One example she cited was the death of a sheriff’s deputy who was exposed to fentanyl during an arrest.
“The fact that fentanyl is murdering so many people in northwest Georgia is shocking,” said Greene.
Greene then noted that under federal law, 41 separate criminal offenses are punishable by death, most involving homicide — among them, murder by a weapon of mass destruction.
“I think it is easily arguable that fentanyl is definitely a weapon of mass destruction,” she said in urging the committee to endorse the idea of adding fentanyl trafficking to the list of federal capital crimes.
On that point, Greene echoed Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody, who has long called for President Joe Biden to declare fentanyl a WMD, which would broaden the federal government’s ability to fight it.
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