U.S. Senator Charles Schumer, a Democrat, says he supports legislation he says would “help cut off the flow of illicit fentanyl from China, Mexico, and other countries into Upstate New York and across the United States.”

With fentanyl increasingly making its way onto the streets, Schumer says he is pushing the International Narcotics Trafficking Emergency Response by Detecting Incoming Contraband with Technology Act, also known as the INTERDICT Act. He feels the federal government should provide additional resources to confront the epidemic.

The legislation would give U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) “the hi-tech tools and resources needed to improve detection capabilities and increase the seizure of illicit fentanyl shipped to the U.S. from abroad through mail and express consignment carriers.” Schumer said he would “work with his colleagues to take action on this issue that is destroying families in New York and the rest of the country.”

Fentanyl, a synthetic opioid that is 50 to 100 times stronger than heroin, has quickly swept into the region. With drug overdose deaths exceeding car crashes as the number one cause of injury death, Schumer said “it is clear that the federal government must take every possible step to quell the opioid epidemic.”

Although pharmaceutical fentanyl can be misused, most of the fentanyl being sold on the street is illicitly manufactured, according to Schumer. While distributors in China are the principal source of the precursor chemicals used to manufacture the drug, as well as a source for finished-product illicit fentanyl and fentanyl analogs, the senator says Mexico is the primary source for illicit fentanyl smuggled into the United States. Fentanyl suppliers then use methods to mislabel shipments or conceal them inside legitimate goods in order to avoid CBP detection. In 2016, CBP seized nearly 200 pounds of fentanyl and other synthetic opioids, primarily from along the southwest border. This is a 25-fold increase over seizures in 2015. Between 2014 and 2015, deaths involving synthetic opioids, which include fentanyl, increased by 72 percent, taking more than 9,500 lives, according the Schumber. The labs that make these synthetic opioids and take advantage of CBP’s limited capabilities to screen international packages, know that fentanyl is extremely lucrative for dealers and cartels, who can sell $3000 to $5000 in fentanyl purchased from a Chinese drug laboratory for up to $1.5 million on the street.

Specifically, the INTERDICT Act:

• Ensures that CBP will have additional portable chemical screening devices available at ports of entry and mail and express consignment facilities, and additional fixed chemical screening devices available in CBP laboratories.

• Provides CBP with sufficient resources, personnel, and facilities – including scientists available during all operational hours – to interpret screening test results from the field.

• Authorizes, based on CBP guidance, the appropriation of $15 million for hundreds of new screening devices, laboratory equipment, facilities, and personnel for support during all operational hours.

Schumer pointed out that while abuse of alcohol and cocaine has steadily fallen, heroin and opiate abuse are on the rise. He said that the single most significant increase over the last ten years has been in the abuse of heroin and other opiate medications.

The CDC reports that more people died from drug overdoses in 2014 than in any year on record. From 2000 to 2014 nearly half a million people died from drug overdoses. 78 Americans die every day from an opioid overdose. The majority of drug overdose deaths—more than six out of ten—involve an opioid. Since 1999, the number of overdose deaths involving heroin, opioids and prescription pain relievers has nearly quadrupled.

“These deadly substances are being delivered to our homes, being sold on our streets, and destroying our families. We know how they get here and where they come from, now we need to give CBP the resources to stop this flood and help save lives,” Schumer said in a prepared statement. “The INTERDICT Act will provide those on the frontlines with hi-tech tools that can root out fentanyl and other synthetic opioids that are leading to tragic deaths here in the Capital Region and throughout New York. The devastation these drugs cause is not a partisan issue, and I’ll be fighting hard to get my colleagues on board to get this bill through the Senate.”