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Sen. Cotton looks to crack down on fentanyl trafficking with tougher sentences

Senator Tom Cotton joined several other Republican senators Thursday to introduce legislation that aims to help fight the opioid epidemic in America.

Senator Tom Cotton joined several other Republican senators Thursday to introduce legislation that aims to help fight the opioid epidemic in America.

The bill would strengthen mandatory minimum sentences against people distributing and trafficking fentanyl. During the press conference, Cotton called the powerful opioid "as much like a weapon of mass destruction as it is a drug."

During the press conference, Cotton claimed fentanyl is mainly manufactured in "crooked laboratories" in China and "often smuggled" to America by Mexican drug cartels. The dangerous drug is at least 50 times "more potent" than heroin.

As he spoke, Cotton held up an almost empty salt shaker to show how such a small amount of fentanyl could kill thousands.

"This much, less than 40 grams, could kill 20,000 people," Cotton said. "This could kill the 20,000 people that died from fentanyl overdoses in our country last year."

The proposed legislation would increase mandatory minimums, meaning someone in possession of 2 grams of fentanyl could received up to five years in prison. Cotton said the prison sentence would scale up with the amount of fentanyl possessed.

With mandatory minimums, judges must convict people guilty of drug crimes to a predetermined length of time in jail. Some critics of mandatory minimums have said it doesn't make America safer and has only increased the federal prison population.

The Hill reported that Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina) said some mandatory minimums "probably overreached," but he would "take Sen. Cotton's lead and come down like a hammer" on drugs such as fentanyl.

"It's past time the punishment matched the crime when it comes to opioid distribution and trafficking," Cotton said in a March 16 press release on the legislation.

Cotton and Graham were joined by senators John Kennedy (R-Louisiana), Bill Cassidy M.D. (R-Louisiana), Dean Heller (R-Nevada), and Ben Sasse (R-Nebraska).

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