May 08, 2024

Manchin Reintroduces Bipartisan Resolution To Designate May 7, 2024 As National Fentanyl Awareness Day

Washington, DC – Today, U.S. Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) joined his bipartisan colleagues in reintroducing a resolution to designate yesterday, May 7th, 2024, as National Fentanyl Awareness Day. The resolution seeks to raise awareness about the increase in counterfeit drugs containing fentanyl that are flooding communities in West Virginia and across the nation and applauds the efforts of law enforcement authorities to combat the spread of counterfeit pills.

“In 2023 alone, 109,000 Americans died from drug related overdoses and more than 76,000 of those deaths involved illicit fentanyl and other synthetic opioids,” said Senator Manchin. “We have lost more Americans to drug overdoses since 1999 than the number of American lives lost in wars or conflicts since the Civil War, and it is absolutely heartbreaking. I’m proud to reintroduce this bipartisan resolution to raise awareness about the increase in counterfeit drugs containing fentanyl, and I will continue working with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to combat the drug epidemic.”

Senator Manchin was joined by Senators Chuck Grassley (R-IA), Laphonza Butler (D-CA), Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Todd Young (R-IN), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV), Susan Collins (R-ME), Ed Markey (D-MA), John Kennedy (R-LA), Mark Kelly (D-AZ), Thom Tillis (R-NC), Maggie Hassan (D-NH), J.D. Vance (R-OH), Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Mike Crapo (R-ID), Tom Cotton (R-AR), Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), Roger Marshall (R-KS), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Steve Daines (R-MT), Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), Rick Scott (R-FL), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Roger Wicker (R-MS), Maria Cantwell (D-WA), James Risch (R-ID), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Deb Fischer (R-NE), Gary Peters (D-MI), Marco Rubio (R-FL), Bob Casey (D-PA), Jerry Moran (R-KS), Michael Bennett (D-CO), Joni Ernst (R-IA), Katie Britt (R-AL), Mike Braun (R-IN), John Hoeven (R-ND), Bill Hagerty (R-TN), Kevin Cramer (R-ND), Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Mike Lee (R-UT), Tim Scott (R-SC), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and Bill Cassidy (R-LA).