Sponsors (3)
The bill strengthens maritime drug enforcement clarity and improves Coast Guard opioid-overdose response and oversight, at the trade‑off of greater criminal exposure and enforcement costs, privacy and operational risks for service members, and program implementation expenses.
Coast Guard members (and units) will have naloxone available across installations and operational environments, increasing the chance that opioid overdoses are reversed and service members survive.
People who investigate and prosecute maritime drug offenses and courts will have clearer statutory language that explicitly covers placing or possessing drugs on board vessels, making charging, consistent interpretation, and enforcement of maritime drug laws easier.
The statute ties listed offenses specifically to being on board a covered vessel, narrowing prosecutorial scope to maritime settings and reducing the risk of overbroad application to off-vessel conduct.
People who place or transport controlled substances onto vessels face clearer criminal exposure, likely increasing arrests and prosecutions for maritime drug offenses.
Even with privacy safeguards, consolidating overdose and naloxone-use data into a DoD tracking system risks unintended disclosure of sensitive personnel or health information for service members.
Implementing naloxone availability, procurement, training, and the associated tracking system will impose costs on the Coast Guard that could increase spending or require reallocations, affecting taxpayers and federal employees.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Clarifies vessel-related controlled-substance offenses and requires the Coast Guard to adopt naloxone policy, make naloxone widely available, join a DoD tracking system, and report to Congress.
Official title: To direct the Commandant of the Coast Guard to update the policy of the Coast Guard regarding the use of medication to treat drug overdose, and for other purposes.
Introduced March 26, 2025 by Addison P. McDowell · Last progress June 10, 2025
Revises federal maritime criminal law to focus specified controlled-substance offenses on conduct that places or possesses drugs on board covered vessels and clarifies that the statute applies to actors generally rather than only persons aboard a vessel. Requires the Coast Guard to update its overdose-medication policy, make naloxone (or similar medication) available across Coast Guard installations and operational environments, join a DoD tracking system, finalize a memorandum of understanding with the Department of Defense, and brief Congress with data and progress reports while complying with privacy laws. The bill combines a criminal-law clarification for maritime drug offenses with administrative and public-health mandates for the Coast Guard to expand overdose response capability and data-sharing/oversight within specified timeframes.