Lake County Gazette

A bill currently before the Illinois State Senate that would reduce penalties for possession and sale of small amounts of drugs - including fentanyl, cocaine and heroin - ignores the state's escalating drug crisis, Rep. Chris Bos (R-Lake Zurich) said in a statement.

Referring to Illinois' "escalating Public Health crisis," particularly the spread of fentanyl and the increasing number of overdose deaths from the opioid painkiller far more powerful than heroin, Bos said it is pervasive in the state.

State House Rep. Deanne Mazzochi (R-Elmhurst) | repmazzochi.com

"It's everywhere," he said. "It could be anyone's child. Anyone's husband. Anyone's wife."

Bos' statement comes after three teenagers overdosed on fentanyl in Antioch last month.

"They thought they were purchasing Percocets and, unfortunately, they were counterfeit drugs that turned out to have high concentrations of fentanyl, which led to a rapid overdose," Bos said.

The teens survived but police warned that an increase in opioid-related overdoses can be expected.

House Bill 3447 ignores those warnings, Bos said. He also issued a call to action.

"We cannot sit by and let innocent lives be taken by this villainous drug," he said.

HB 3447 would reclassify the penalty for small amounts of drugs sold or possessed from a felony to a Class A misdemeanor and would reduce the maximum sentence for convicted drug dealers to less than a year.

HB 3447, which narrowly and partisanly passed the House in April of last year with a vote of 61 Democrat yeas to 49 Republican nays, needs to not make it out of the Senate, for the good of the state and its residents, Bos said.

"We're seeing an escalating public health crisis in our state playing out as the direct result of poor public policy," Bos said, adding the its House passage by Democrats was "a reflection of legislative priorities that have ignored an escalating problem across our state."

Bos also agreed with Rep. Keith Wheeler's (R-Oswego) reference to fentanyl as the largest driver of opioid deaths in Illinois.

"It has been on the rise for years and has claimed life after life as a result," Bos said. "This isn't an isolated issue, it's an epidemic and it's not stopping anytime soon. This epidemic has a human toll. That's why it's so important that legislative priorities reflect solutions to address it."

HB 3447 would be a setback, Bos said.

"We can't afford to be on the wrong side of these statistics any longer," Bos said, citing U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency data that finds fentanyl to be 100 times stronger than morphine and 50 times more powerful than heroin.

That, Bos said, "makes it extremely likely for abuse and addiction."

"Carfentanil has been rising as well which is 100 times more potent than fentanyl," Bos continued. "Overdose deaths began to rise ahead of the global pandemic. And were exacerbated by COVID-19 and it is not slowing down. In fact, it’s only accelerating. While the opioid crisis isn’t anything new, fentanyl has now overtaken heroin as the drug leading to the most overdose deaths in suburban counties all across Illinois. That is new."

It cannot be ignored, Bos said.

"Only a small amount of fentanyl, smaller than the size of half a penny is needed to cause a deadly impact," he said. "One pill can kill. It is incredibly dangerous because it can be laced with other drugs, even marijuana. Counterfeit opioids laced with fentanyl are a deadly problem."

Fentanyl is turning up in other drugs, as the teenagers in Antioch found out, leading to numerous comparisons of taking any drugs to "playing Russian roulette."

"This crisis has no limit and is affecting even our youngest residents," Bos said. "Victims as young as 14 years old have succumbed to this. In Antioch, just north of my district, police are warning about fentanyl after there have been 17 reports of overdose victims in their community."

Earlier this week, Bos was a chief co-sponsor of legislation that would amend the state's existing controlled substances law to add other penalties for manufacturing and delivering of drugs of no less than six years and no more than 30 years. House Bill 5805 would amend the Illinois Controlled Substances Act and "provides that if a controlled substance analog is at least 5 times as potent as the controlled substance of which it is an analog, then the weight of the controlled substance analog for purposes of the Act shall be deemed to be the weight of the controlled substance analog multiplied by the increase in potency."

The bill's co-chief co-sponsors were Wheeler and Deanne Mazzochi (R-Elmhurst).

HB 5805 was introduced into the House on Wednesday, Sept. 21, and has since picked up seven Republican co-sponsors but has not yet been assigned to a committee.

In a news release issued the following day, Bos referred to 93 opioid-related deaths in Lake County last year and the 52 who died by the end of May this year, in addition to 487 opioid-involved overdose deaths in 2020 in Cook County. Almost 85% of those deaths involved fentanyl.

"The problem is getting worse and will continue to trend that way - fentanyl doesn't discriminate and can affect anyone, any family, even those who never think it can happen to them," continued Bos. "My colleagues and I wanted to take a thoughtful approach to tackle this crisis, which means ensuring legislative priorities in Springfield are in line with what our communities are seeing and feeling at home: we need to fight this epidemic to the best of our ability."

Bos, a former Ela Township Board trustee who studied at Northcentral University and the Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy, has represented the Illinois 51st House District since January 2021. He was unopposed in June's Republican primary and he faces Inverness Democrat Nabeela Syed in November's General Election.

Illinois' 51st House District includes parts of Palatine, Inverness, Hoffman Estates, Rolling Meadows, Barrington, Kildeer, Deer Park, Long Grove, Vernon Hills, Lake Zurich and Hawthorn Woods.