Ohio Senate passes Johnson resolution urging Congress to declare fentanyl a weapon of mass destruction

COLUMBUS – The Ohio Senate passed Senate Concurrent Resolution 1 sponsored by Senator Terry Johnson (R-McDermott) by a unanimous vote of 32-0, urging Congress to pass legislation designating illicit fentanyl as a weapon of mass destruction. Pharmaceutical fentanyl is used legitimately to treat severe pain but illicit fentanyl has become the number one cause of death for Americans eighteen to forty-five years of age.
 
“While tragic, this crisis is no accident," explained Johnson. "Drug cartels and enemy nations of the United States like the People’s Republic of China profit directly from the distribution of fentanyl. China financially rewards companies that manufacture fentanyl and its precursors through tax incentives and special economic designations."
 
Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid fifty times more potent than heroin and one hundred times more potent than morphine, and is frequently laced into street drugs such as counterfeit opioid pills, heroin, cocaine, marijuana, and methamphetamine. Fentanyl was involved in seventy-eight per cent of Ohio's unintentional drug overdose deaths in 2023.

Fentanyl's popularity in the illicit drug market has exploded due to its potency, cheapness to manufacture, overall profitability, ease of smuggling, and for the exponential damage that it does to citizens of nations other than the People’s Republic of China.
 
Former Acting CIA Director Michael Morell described carfentanil, an even more potent derivative of fentanyl (100 times more deadly than fentanyl and 10,000 times more deadly than morphine) as “a significant threat to national security” and “a weapon of mass destruction.” Johnson says nationally designating illicit fentanyl as a weapon of mass destruction would be a meaningful step towards protecting American life and national security. 
 
Senator Johnson is a retired physician who served as the the State Surgeon for the Ohio Army National Guard, had a family practice in southern Ohio for three decades, and was the Scioto County Coroner from 2002-2010.
 
Senator Johnson represents the 14th District in the Ohio Senate, which encompasses all of Adams, Brown, Clermont, and Scioto counties.