 | The Justice Department announced Thursday that anyone who possesses, imports, distributes or manufactures any fetanyl-related substance can be criminally prosecuted. Analogues (structural variants of fentanyl) that are not directly listed under the controlled-substance law have been used by traffickers to avoid prosecution. A Justice official described the effort as way to stop the “Whac-A-Mole” game being played when manufacturers and distributors tweak the chemical structure of fentanyl to evade the law. |  |
 | The department’s action to include all fetanyl-related substances on the DEA 'drug schedules' will give prosecutors an important tool to combat the nation’s opioid overdose epidemic. Every day, more than 55 Americans die from overdoses of synthetic opioids. The overdose death rate from synthetic opioids approximately doubled between 2015 and 2016 in the US. |  |
