Brown seeks halt to 'terrifying' OD epidemic

BOARDMAN — U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown stopped by the Mahoning Valley Law Enforcement Task Force to discuss legislation aimed at stopping fentanyl from getting into the countries.

Just yesterday, the Ohio Department of Health released statistics stating that 4,050 people died of overdoses in the state last year.

"All these numbers are just terrifying," Brown said.

Detective Lt. Jeff Solic, who leads the task force, added that without naloxone, those numbers could be significantly higher.

Many of the deaths are driven by the synthetic opioid fentanyl, which is 50 times stronger than heroin, experts say.

Brown, a Cleveland Democrat, introduced the INTERDICT act which aims to spend $15 million on high-tech screening devices so Customs and Border Protection can intercept shipments of fentanyl before they enter the country.

"We have the technology. We just haven't provided the funding to employ it effectively," Brown said.

Solic said that in the first six months of 2017, the task force confiscated three times the amount of fentanyl it did in all of 2016.

Brown's legislation is supported by U.S. Sen. Rob Portman, a Cincinnati-area Republican. Brown also supports Portman's STOP Act, which also aims to stop fentanyl shipments by tracking packages originating from overseas.