Help could be on way to detect fentanyl

Legislation proposed by U.S. senators from Ohio

A group of U.S. senators are introducing legislation help state and law enforcement pay for screening equipment.

Fentanyl’s rise is posing a risk to more than just those struggling with addiction.

The synthetic opioid is 50 times more potent than heroin and first responders have been cautioned about making contact with the substance.

An East Liverpool police officer was hospitalized last year after making contact with the drug during a traffic stop.

Now a group of U.S. senators, including Ohio’s Democrat Sherrod Brown and Republican Rob Portman, are introducing legislation help state and local law enforcement pay for screening equipment.

According to Brown’s office, the equipment that would be purchased with the funding uses laser

technology to analyze potentially harmful substances — even through some packaging — and identifies those substances based on a library of thousands of compounds that

are categorized within the device. That library can be updated as most drug compounds come on the market.

“Law enforcement officers are on the front lines of our effort to combat illegal fentanyl,” Brown said in a recent conference call with reporters. “We know this drug is increasingly one of the biggest contributors to the opioid epidemic.”

The equipment that state and local law enforcement would be able to purchase is the same the U.S. Customs and Border Protection is buying with the INTERDICT Act, which was supported by Brown and Portman and signed into law by President Donald Trump in January. That bill allocated $15 million to fund the purchase of hundreds of new screening devices and lab equipment as well as facilities and personnel for “24/7 lab support.”

“This will start off as a grant program — we don’t know how much exactly we’re going to need and what police officers are going to ask for,” Brown said.

COURTESY OF SEN. SHERROD BROWN’S OFFICE Sponsors of the U.S. Senate bill say devices like this one will help state and local law enforcement detect fentanyl and other dangerous substances.