In late September, Representatives Adam Gray (D-CA) and Gabe Evans (R-CO) introduced the “Combatting Fentanyl Poisonings Act of 2025.” It’s the latest proposal to capitalize on the term “poisoning” as distinct from “overdose,” and use the concept to funnel money to law enforcement. The Act is currently in the House Committee on the Judiciary.
The Act would establish new grants funded by the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant Program (JAG), the largest source of federal funding for state and local law enforcement. The first category of grants would be for law enforcement programs dedicated to preventing drug distribution through social media. Some would be focused on making arrests, while others would provide education and training about the risks of buying drugs online. The information would be aimed more at teachers, parents and other “personnel who are charged with the well-being and safety of children,” rather than at the children themselves.
A separate category of funding would be allocated to “protect law enforcement officers from fentanyl exposure.” These grants could be used to purchase naloxone, fentanyl test strips and portable spectrometers for more advanced field-testing, as well as to fund training and education. The language is surprisingly balanced, given that law enforcement tends to use “fentanyl exposure” to describe something much more fictional and dramatic.
The third category is for nonprofits creating public awareness campaigns. In addition to campaign materials, these grants would cover travel expenses for bereaved family members to attend speaking engagements, and “counseling or mentorship services.” They could also cover overdose reversal education and training, including purchase of naloxone. They’re explicitly restricted from being used to purchase “harm reduction services or supplies,” such as syringes, safer smoking kits or “written educational materials on safer injection practices.”
JAG grants are managed by the Department of Justice, which is not one of the federal agencies banned from funding sterile syringe provision, though no one would have really expected syringe service programs to be the recipients of these grants.
A nearly identical version of the bill was introduced in late 2023, but did not yet include the fentanyl exposure category.
The main thing Act would fund would be arrests.
In recent years, bereaved families and the Drug Enforcement Administration have established “poisoning” deaths as distinct from “overdose” deaths, the difference being that the first term is used to describe people—almost always teenagers or young adults—who die after taking a pill they didn’t know contained fentanyl.
Drug users are the subject of so much misinformation and propaganda, and so despised by the media and law enforcement and medical professionals who set the narrative on which parts of society are acceptable, that it makes sense for bereaved parents to latch onto “poisoning.” It’s a way to tell the world that their child wasn’t a drug user—they were a good person. But it belies the fact that the “addicts” who “overdose” from using fentanyl on purpose not only deserve to live just as much as anyone else, but also didn’t have the information that they needed any more than the people who were “poisoned.” It’s the amount of fentanyl that influences whether someone lives or dies, not the presence of fentanyl in and of itself.
Evans, who spent a decade as an Arvada Police Department officer before retiring in 2022 to pursue a political career, stated that fentanyl poisonings happen because of “soft-on-crime policies.” The bill has support from loads of local law enforcement in California and Colorado, as well as the National Association of Police Organizations and the California nonprofit Victims Of Illicit Drugs (VOID).
“By providing grants to nonprofits, the bill empowers bereaved families and community organizations like ours to share real stories, produce educational materials and directly reach the public with life-saving information about the dangers of fentanyl,” VOID stated. “It also ensures that parents, teachers and school staff are trained to recognize risks and respond effectively with tools such as naloxone. Importantly, the bill prioritizes protecting children from online drug dealers and equips law enforcement to safely confront the fentanyl crisis in our communities.”
The law enforcement statements express a similar sentiment. But the main thing the Act would fund would be arrests. The grants related to fentanyl exposure would total $2,000,000, and the nonprofit grants would total $3,000,000. The first category of funding, the one that includes grants that “prioritize the arrest of individuals who use social media platforms to unlawfully sell, market or distribute controlled substances,” would allocate $10,000,000. The nonprofit grants are also capped at $50,000 each. No caps have been placed on any of the law enforcement grants.
Image (cropped) via United States Drug Enforcement Administration