In 1986, All-American basketball star Len Bias died after snorting cocaine the same night he was presented in Boston Garden as the newest Celtic. I was assistant counsel with the U.S. House Subcommittee on Crime. The crack epidemic was already a hot political issue, and congressional Democrats wasted no time using the tragedy of Bias’ death to claim the mantle of “tough on drugs.”
The legislation was filled with blunders that would prove disastrous for Americans.
Within months, long mandatory minimum prison sentences for crack, cocaine and other drugs reached the top of Congress’ agenda. I helped Congress write that law — without hearings or input from experienced prosecutors, judges or drug policy experts. As a matter of politics, the harsh and hasty approach was a smashing success. But the legislation was filled with blunders that would prove disastrous for Americans, leading to more drug deaths, more gang violence and an almost fivefold increase in the federal prison population, which taxpayers are still paying for today.
Nearly 40 years later, the nation is facing a similar drug crisis. Unlike 1986, this time we have a genuine fatal drug overdose epidemic. The epidemic claimed over 100,000 lives in 2022 and 2023, and more than 1 million lives since 2000. The scale of this devastation is almost unfathomable, and Congress is once again anxious to show voters that it’s taking decisive action.
Unfortunately, with familiar haste, Congress is now repeating its mistakes with the HALT Fentanyl Act, a misguided bill a few roll call votes away from President Donald Trump’s desk. With the legislation’s clumsy drafting and focus on extreme sentencing, catastrophic consequences are certain to follow. If the law passes, then it will be another dark moment for U.S. drug policy, as Congress ignores proven lifesaving solutions in favor of measures that aren’t effective in stopping fentanyl but will increase suffering and death.
Harsh additional punishments, if prosecutors keep doing what they have been doing, will add dramatically to the federal prison population. Like the 1986 law, Congress is likely to impose mandatory sentences on people with small amounts of fentanyl. Thus, the HALT Fentanyl Act will sweep low-level dealers into prison. Street dealers supporting their own drug habit, couriers, even people who unload the vehicles by which the drugs arrive could potentially face life sentences.
Locking these people up will do nothing to disrupt the global fentanyl supply into the U.S.
Locking these people up will do nothing to disrupt the global fentanyl supply into the U.S. or keep deadly drugs off American streets, just as that tactic hasn’t impacted the drug supply in the decades since 1986. But a new sentencing regime would add tens of millions of dollars in new incarceration costs over time, as it adds federal prisoners for decadeslong sentences at an average cost of $44,090 per year, based on fiscal year 2023 data. Because the expense of imprisonment is in the future, the true cost of these bills isn’t included in official projections, even though they are terribly expensive in the long term.
Data on thousands of recent federal fentanyl convictions also shows that about 80% of defendants are Black or Hispanic, a sign that the new HALT Fentanyl Act prosecutions will result in the same racial disparities that defined the drug war in the 1980s and ’90s.
Beyond its stubborn reliance on failed strategies, the HALT Fentanyl Act also creates new problems. The broad wording of the bill blocks promising research into fentanyl analogs, including the potential development of treatments similar to naloxone, which can quickly prevent overdoses from fentanyl and other potent opioids. In other areas, the poorly drafted language threatens to give cartel chemists a road map for synthesizing new drugs specifically designed to evade the law. When the American Society of Addiction Medicine raised these concerns to the Senate Judiciary Committee, they were ignored as the legislation was sent to the Senate floor.
In the face of an epidemic, the primary goal must be to save lives. Any strategy that claims it will “stop the epidemic” while omitting lifesaving interventions is a waste of money and a political stunt. With the bipartisan embrace of the HALT Fentanyl Act approach, federal drug policy is on a dangerous trajectory toward a renewed War on Drugs. In the rush to capitalize on tragedies and the appeal of “get tough” politics, politicians aren’t promoting what works to reduce drug harms. This is a disappointing departure from just a few years ago, when members of both parties showed interest in approaches beyond harsher enforcement and punishment. It’s not too late for federal policymakers to reject this bill and take effective measures to save lives from the overdose crisis. During Trump’s first administration, for example, his bipartisan Commission on Combating Drug Addiction and the Opioid Crisis highlighted successful approaches, such as expanding access to naloxone to reverse overdoses, promoting addiction screening for students and at-risk populations, investing robustly in treatment capacity and expanding access to medications for opioid use disorder. These measures save lives, at a fraction of the costs that will be incurred by the HALT Fentanyl Act. New data shows a significant drop in overdose deaths from a record high in 2022. We are seeing the results of such measures. We are rightfully concerned about fentanyl deaths, but new data shows a significant drop in overdose deaths from a record high in 2022. The reasons for this drop are still being studied, but the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suggests that expanded access to treatment medications and harm reduction efforts like naloxone access may be key factors. We can reduce overdose deaths when we invest in lifesaving strategies. Rather than doing what works, however, policymakers in Congress and across the nation are once again succumbing to the temptation of simple, tough-sounding rhetoric. As I saw firsthand in the 1980s, simple solutions are not an answer to complex problems and can instead make matters worse. Saving lives starts with acknowledging that drugs, addiction and overdose deaths are primarily a public health issue — not a law enforcement issue, as the HALT Fentanyl Act presumes. Instead of passing legislation that reprises the failed approaches of past generations, Congress needs to recognize that prevention and treatment are health care and take immediate action to eliminate funding obstacles for effective interventions.
Eric E. Sterling
Eric E. Sterling, a speaker with the Law Enforcement Action Partnership, was counsel to the House Subcommittee on Crime from 1979 to 1989, responsible for drafting legislation related to drugs, guns, pornography, organized crime, money laundering and other matters. 
