Lawmakers in both the U.S. House and Senate passed the Fend Off Fentanyl Act last week. It aims to crack down on traffickers bringing in fentanyl laced drugs from China and Mexico. 

The law increases the penalty for chemical makers and cartels bringing in the drugs. It also puts the Department of Treasury in a position to look into suspicious transactions to try and cut off the money supply of the institutions funding the traffickers.

Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown, who sponsors the bill, said if they cut off the money at the top local communities will see less of the drug. 

“We make it harder for them to make money from this,” Senator Brown said. “If we’re freezing their assets and keeping them out of the American banking system, denying crypto currency access, it makes it harder for them to make money.”

In Ohio, 400 people die a month from fentanyl exposure. It's a crisis felt right here in the Mahoning Valley. Over the weekend, Youngstown Police responded to two overdose deaths believed to be related to fentanyl. 

“If that's not a national emergency I'm not sure what we're going to call it at this point,” Captain Jason Simon of YPD said. “…The crisis has reached catastrophic levels.”

The Trumbull County Sheriff, Paul Monroe, said his area is also dealing with a drug problem as they average one overdose a day, some being fatal. 

Local prosecutors also recognize the severity of the fentanyl and its risks to all ages. 

“It can be pressed into pills, some of which are colorful and appealing to children. They can look like candy, even some are called rainbows,” Gina Degenova, the Mahoning County Prosecutor said. 

Senator Brown said this is not necessarily a border problem, it's an addiction problem. He recognized the act won’t stop the drug distribution immediately or dry it up completely and emphasized the need for more to be done to prevent it from getting into people's lives. 

“It’s better treatment programs … it’s funding,  scaling up treatment programs. it’s doing better detection at the border,” Senator Brown said.