Senator Seeks Strategy to Prevent Fentanyl Terror Attacks
- Markey asks if U.S. agencies ready for ‘frightening prospect’
- Current antidote dosages often ineffective against potent drug
Senator Ed Markey
Photographer: Scott Eisen/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
A U.S. senator wants to know if national-security officials are prepared for the “frightening prospect” that the potent opioid fentanyl could be used to attack Americans.
Senator Edward Markey, a Democrat from Massachusetts, wrote letters to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Acting Secretary of Defense Patrick Shanahan Monday asking whether their agencies have devised strategies to deal with the potential weaponization of fentanyl. The drug is 50 times more potent than heroin, with which it is often mixed. In its strongest form, called carfentanil, it is used legally as an elephant tranquilizer.