Sponsors (7)
The bill trades faster, broader law-enforcement ability to remove highly potent nitazene opioids from illicit markets and potentially reduce overdoses against stricter Schedule I controls that raise research barriers, risk wider criminalization (including for trace contamination), push markets underground, and increase enforcement costs.
People at high risk of overdose (including low-income and urban communities) and first responders are likely to face fewer deaths and overdoses because class-wide Schedule I placement reduces the availability of highly potent nitazene-related opioids in illicit markets.
Law enforcement and prosecutors (and federal/state agencies) gain clearer, immediate authority to investigate and prosecute possession, distribution, and trafficking of nitazene-class compounds, and agencies face less regulatory uncertainty when enforcing controlled-substance laws.
Legitimate scientific study is still possible because research pathways under the HALT Fentanyl Act remain available for nitazenes, preserving an avenue for regulated research despite Schedule I placement.
Researchers and clinicians face substantial new hurdles — Schedule I status imposes the strictest controls, increasing administrative burdens, delaying or preventing studies and potentially blocking therapeutic development that could benefit patients with chronic conditions.
Permanent, class-wide criminalization risks penalizing possession (including trace amounts, isomers, or salts) and will likely increase prosecutions and compliance burdens, disproportionately affecting low-income individuals and imposing legal/financial risks on small businesses, manufacturers, and distributors.
Tighter scheduling may push production and distribution further underground, making overdose surveillance and harm-reduction outreach harder and potentially increasing risks for people who use drugs and underserved communities.
Based on analysis of 3 sections of legislative text.
Permanently classifies nitazene (2-benzylbenzimidazole) opioids and specified analogs as Schedule I, converting certain temporary schedules to permanent status.
Introduced October 30, 2025 by David Harold McCormick · Last progress October 30, 2025
Permanently places nitazene-class 2-benzylbenzimidazole opioids and related analogs into Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act, making them illegal to manufacture, distribute, or possess except under narrow, authorized research or exemption pathways. It defines the class by specific chemical structure features and mu-opioid activity, names several known nitazene substances, and converts certain temporarily scheduled nitazenes to permanent Schedule I status effective on enactment. The law does not provide funding, create new programs, or change penalties directly; it clarifies that any research use still requires proper registration and compliance with existing Schedule I research rules and references existing research pathways established by prior fentanyl-related legislation.