HALT Fentanyl Act

What this does

Places fentanyl-related substances as a class permanently into Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act, defining the class by five structural modifications to the fentanyl molecule (Section 2). It extends the existing trafficking penalties and import/export penalties that apply to fentanyl analogues so they also cover any fentanyl-related substance (Section 6). Alongside the scheduling, it rewrites the research rules: it creates an expedited registration process for Schedule I research tied to FDA investigational-use drugs or federally funded research, lets a second researcher at the same institution work under one registration, allows a single registration across related research sites in the same city or county, waives a new inspection when a registrant adds a substance in the same or a higher-numbered schedule, lets research continue on a substance newly added to Schedule I while a registration application is pending, and treats small-scale manufacturing as part of research, except for growing marihuana (Section 3). The Attorney General must issue implementing rules within six months and may make them effective immediately as interim final rules (Section 5). The amendments apply as of the date of enactment regardless of when the rules are finalized (Section 7).