Legislators approve budget, fight fentanyl

By Jeff Bradley CONTRIBUTOR

A new South Carolina state budget was finally approved by the House and Senate in mid-June, nearly a month beyond the expected end of the regular session of the General Assembly.

The extended session resulted from Gov. Henry McMaster’s bringing legislators back to the Statehouse in Columbia to continue passing significant bills that didn’t get finalized by the end of the May 11 regular legislative session, along with completing the necessary approvals of the new budget.

I was especially pleased to have the Telehealth and Telemedicine Modernization Act finally approved to provide better access to quality medical care to South Carolinians living in remote and underserved areas. But more importantly, I was delighted to see us deliver a major blow to fentanyl trafficking in our state.

This bill (H.3503) proposes up to 25 years in prison for a first conviction of trafficking up to 14 grams of fentanyl (which is less than half an ounce). A second conviction carries a mandatory 24-year sentence. It is a huge win for public safety in our state for trafficking a drug that has wreaked havoc here for many years. More than 1,500 people were killed in South Carolina by fentanyl drug overdoses last year – more deaths than by cars or guns.

For readers not fully aware of the dangers of fentanyl, I will tell you it is the most dangerous drug our government has ever dealt with. It is a synthetic opioid that is up to 50 times stronger than heroin and 100 times

ONLY ONE STEP AWAY stronger than morphine. It is far and away the major contributor to fatal overdoses in America.

Fentanyl was developed as a synthetic medicinal opioid 50 years ago in Belgium to effectively deal primarily with pain management. Unfortunately, fentanyl has shown itself to be unstable and dangerous in uncontrolled conditions because the amount to cause toxicity is unpredictable.

When illegally manufactured in the form of pills and powder, the drug has become extremely lucrative for criminals. It is being smuggled into the USA by Mexican drug cartels from laboratories in China and India and then sold to drug dealers across America for distribution. CDC data shows more than 109,000 deaths by fentanyl overdose in 2022.

Importantly, in conjunction with our fight against illegal drug trafficking, Gov. McMaster, at the request of Texas Gov. Greg

Abbot, directed the deployment of our S.C. National Guard troops to help secure the U.S. Southern border in Texas.

This is being done amid the ongoing border security crisis following the end of Title 42 – originally put in place to address public health and welfare by granting the government the ability to take emergency action to stop the introduction of communicable diseases.

As of this writing, the mission was still in the planning stages and South Carolina is joining both Iowa and Virginia’s commitments to send their National Guard troops. Other states are expected to join as well.

As Gov. McMaster said, “The safety and security of South Carolinians require that we stop the drug cartels, criminals, and terrorists from entering our country to peddle their poison.”

Jeff Bradley is the representative for District 123 in the State House of Representatives.

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