Kendall County Times

Illinois State Rep. Keith Wheeler (R-Oswego) recently said that he is cosponsoring a bill that aims to address the fentanyl crisis.

Wheeler and some of his House Republican colleagues have introduced HB 5808, a bill aiming to address the fentanyl crisis in Illinois, according to the General Assembly website. The bill would amend the Illinois Controlled Substances Act to increase the penalties associated with manufacturing, possessing, and intending to distribute fentanyl; add the new offense of "fentanyl trafficking" into the criminal code; and establish sentencing minimums.

"We need to be proactive to fight the rising number of fentanyl-related deaths in Illinois," Wheeler wrote in a Sept. 23 Facebook post. "Yesterday I joined two colleagues to introduce House Bill 5808, new legislation to crack down on fentanyl trafficking and the drug dealers who target our kids and young adults"

2,944 Illinoisans died from opioid overdoses in 2020, which was a 33% increase from 2019, according to the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH). Of all the drug overdose deaths in 2020, 83% involved synthetic opioids. Synthetic opioid overdose deaths increased by 2,736% from 2013 to 2020. Opioids killed more than twice as many Illinoisans as car crashes in 2020.

“Since the beginning of 2022, Kendall County has seen 10 deaths related to overdose. Five of those were accidental overdoses. Four of those five deaths were Fentanyl related...10 deaths in 8 months right here in Kendall County – and that doesn’t count the number of people who have been transported out of the county for treatment or who have died at hospitals outside of Kendall County,” Jacquie Purcell, Kendall County Coroner, wrote in an Aug. 31 Facebook post.

Depending on a person's body size and drug tolerance, as little as two milligrams of fentanyl can be a lethal dose, according to the DEA.