Sen. Portman reintroduces STOP Act

The act would require shipments from foreign countries to provide electronic advance data before it crosses the border.

China is the primary source of fentanyl into the United States.

One of the ways the synthetic opioid 50 times more potent than heroin is getting into the country is through the U.S. Postal Service.

Unlike private carriers like UPS and FEDEX, the U.S. Postal Service does not require advance electronic customs data on mail entering the country. That data includes where the shipments are coming from, what’s in it and where it’s going.

Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, said that lack of requirement “of course makes it easier for the traffickers and much harder for our law enforcement to be able to deal with this problem.”

Portman reintroduced the Synthetics Trafficking & Overdose Prevention (STOP) Act Feb. 14 that would require shipments from foreign countries through the postal system to provide electronic advance data before it crosses the U.S. border.

Due to the high volume of mail, the Customs and Border Protection cannot manually scan these packages entering the country. Portman said the bill will allow CBP to better target potential illegal packages.

Ohio has been hit the hardest by the rise of fentanyl. According to the Drug Enforcement Agency, Ohio had 3,861 positive lab tests for fentanyl in 2015, significantly more than Massachusetts, who had the second-most with 2,556. That year 1,155 people died from fentanyl overdoses in Ohio.

Portman originally introduced the bill last September. He took to the Senate floor Feb. 16, urging his colleagues to pass the bill.

“It is not a silver bullet,” he said. “No one has that silver bullet. But our bill will take away a key took of drug traffickers and help restrict the supply of these drugs, this poison in our community, again making their prices higher and making them harder to get. With the threat of synthetic heroin getting worse and worse every day, there is urgency to this.”

The bipartisan bill is also sponsored by Sens. Marco Rubio (R-Florida), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minnesota), and Maggie Hassan (DNEW Hampshire).

“More than 70 percent of confirmed New Hampshire drug deaths in 2016 involved fentanyl, and increasing the oversight of packages from countries where we know fentanyl is coming from via the mail is essential to stemming the tide of this epidemic,” Hassan said in a statement.

New Hampshire had the fourth-most positive lab tests for fentanyl in 2015 with 856.

Porman’s bill has a companion piece in the House sponsored by Rep. Pat Tiberi (R-Ohio), and Richard Neal (D-Massachusetts). Portman said their piece will “make it easier to get this job done.”

Portman