Overview
- President Trump signed the HALT Fentanyl Act into law at a White House ceremony on July 16, 2025, joined by relatives of overdose victims.
- The legislation permanently places all fentanyl-related substances, including synthetic analogs, under Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act.
- Anyone convicted of trafficking a fentanyl-related substance will face a mandatory minimum prison term of 10 years.
- The law closes regulatory loopholes that previously allowed underground chemists to tweak fentanyl’s molecular structure to evade federal controls.
- Researchers gain streamlined access to study controlled substances through single registrations, waived inspections in certain cases and limited small-scale manufacturing permissions.