Attorney General Coleman Calls for U.S. Senate Passage of HALT Fentanyl Act

FRANKFORT, Ky. (Feb. 24, 2025) – Attorney General Russell Coleman called on the United States Senate to pass the HALT Fentanyl Act, which would permanently include fentanyl-related substances on DEA’s most restrictive list of drugs. Known as “Schedule I,” the list includes drugs, substances and chemicals that have no accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse.

On Thursday, the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee considered the HALT

Fentanyl Act. Earlier that week, Attorney General Coleman joined a 25-state coalition in a letter to U.S. Senate leaders supporting the legislation.

In 2018, the DEA included fentanyl analogues on its Schedule I list on a temporary basis. Since then, the scheduling of these deadly drugs has become a political football, receiving only temporary extensions that will expire on March 31, 2025.

“Illicit fentanyl is a poison that is pouring into hometowns and neighborhoods across Kentucky. Law enforcement must have every tool possible to stop the flood and go after the cartels and drug traffickers behind it,” said Attorney General Coleman. “Along with AG colleagues in two dozen states, we are calling on Congress to send a clear message that we will fight this threat with everything we have. It’s no overstatement to say that lives are at stake.”

Combating fentanyl analogues is critical to stopping the poison. In their letter, the attorneys general quoted former U.S. Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein who explained that Chinese fentanyl distributors would, “take advantage of the fact the fentanyl molecules can be altered in numerous ways to create a fentanyl analogue that is not listed as illegal.” Each time law enforcement would make one analogue illegal, criminal distributors would simply create a new, unlisted type. 

Attorney General Coleman joined the Virginia and Iowa-led letter, along with Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, West Virginia, Wyoming.

Read the letter.