Congress has passed a bill that is primarily focused on permanently banning analogues of fentanyl, though it also contains provisions that one GOP lawmaker said would remove barriers to conducting research into the risks and benefits of marijuana and other Schedule I drugs.
The House passed the Halt All Lethal Trafficking of (HALT) Fentanyl Act in a 321-104 vote on Thursday. The legislation cleared the Senate in March and next heads to President Donald Trump’s desk.
The bill is virtually identical to a House version that was approved by the chamber in February, drawing criticism from advocates who voiced concerns about the primary intent to criminalize people over a wider array of controlled substances.
But other components of the measure, as Rep. Morgan Griffith (R-VA) explained on the floor on Wednesday, would streamline research into Schedule I drugs like marijuana.
“What we did in this bill—and I think it’s something that everybody on the floor can be proud of—is we put into this bill the capability to do extensive research by our research universities, by the [National Institutes of Health and] by the [Food and Drug Administration],” Griffith said.
“This bill has the component parts to make that possible, unlike
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