Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes
- Fentanyl is significantly more potent than morphine and is trafficked in Utah.
- A proposed Utah bill aims to classify fentanyl distribution as a first-degree offense.
- Fentanyl accounted for nearly 50% of Utah's drug overdoses in 2023.
SALT LAKE CITY — Fentanyl is about 100 times more potent than morphine, and carfentanil — an opioid used to tranquilize elephants — is 1,000 times more potent. A fatal dose of fentanyl can be fatal with a dose as little as 2 milligrams. Likewise, as little as .02 milligrams of carfentanil can end a life. Both are being trafficked for use in the state of Utah.
Last month, a 14-month-old toddler overdosed on fentanyl in Neola, Duchesne County, per ABC4.
If signed into law, HB87 would designate fentanyl distribution as the first drug to be classified as a first-degree offense when a person is caught trafficking 100 mg or more of fentanyl or a fentanyl-like substance.
"This has become more than just a drug possession issue. This has become, in many ways, a murder weapon in our state," the bill's floor sponsor, Sen. Brady Brammer, R-Pleasant Grove, said Tuesday evening during Senate floor time.
"For that reason, we do need to have it be specific as to fentanyl versus other substances."
The bill passed its second and third readings and was unanimously approved with a vote of 26-0. The general rules were also suspended to expedite the bill's process further.
After the Senate president's signature, it will be sent to the House speaker for approval before making its way to the governor's desk for review.
Last year, Utah set its record for fentanyl pill seizures, according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. By July, nearly 800,000 pills were confiscated, setting the end of the year up to reach at or above 1 million.
Fentanyl also accounted for nearly 50% of all drug overdoses in the state in 2023, per the Utah Department of Health and Human Services, making it the most common drug overdose.
"We have to do something with this particular narcotic," the bill's sponsor, Rep. Matthew Gwynn, R-Farr West, previously said. "Fentanyl is the worst of the worst, and so we're going to create a policy that says if you're trafficking the worst of the worst, then you're the worst of the worst. You need to be in prison."
Most recent Utah Legislature stories
Emma Pitts
