On Thursday, March 14, 2024, Anna Moeller presented House Bill 4942 in Counties and Township Committee. The bill seems innocuous enough. It requires coroners to report the knowable cause of an overdose and to what extent fentanyl was involved.
But, Anna Moeller is a fake when it comes to caring about fentanyl.
Three years ago when letting drug offenders off easy was the rage in the General Assembly, Moeller and 60 of her colleagues voted to decriminalize fentanyl. That bill, HB 3447, would have substantially changed penalties for possession of a number of hard drugs. For fentanyl, a drug pusher could have up to 3 grams of fentanyl and only be charged with a Class A Misdemeanor. Prior to that it was a Class 1 felony.
Three grams of Fentanyl is enough to kill 1500 people.
Voting for a bill like that is dangerously stupid. And Anna Moeller voted for it.
When Republican State Rep. Brad Halbrook questioned Moeller in committee today about her vote from three years ago that would decriminalize fentanyl, Moeller said she didn’t remember how she voted on the bill. This is another reason to write this article. It is important to remind others of past votes. These politicians count on people not knowing their votes.
When Halbrook started to ask more questions about fentanyl and its origins and connection to the Chinese and Mexican drug cartels, the Committee Chairperson, Democrat Curtis Tarver, shutdown his questions. Curtis Tarver also voted to decriminalize fentanyl three years ago. So did committee members Larry Walsh and Suzanne Ness.
Halbrook pointed out that instead of concerning herself with tracking fentanyl after an overdose, maybe she should track fentanyl before it gets on the street.
Additionally, Moeller and her comrades are complicit in the fentanyl drug trade in that they protect illegal aliens in the state and refuse to call for the border to be closed. In 2017, she voted to make Illinois a sanctuary state. That policy has enticed numerous illegal aliens to show up in our state, including criminals. Read the DEA Chicago report HERE.
Also, it is a well-known fact that the Chinese ship the precursors, pill molds and machines to make fentanyl to Mexico. Instead of punishing the Chinese for their involvement in the fentanyl trade, though, the Democrats in this state signed a deal with Chinese Communist Chen Li, President of Gotion, and gave the company $536 million to set up an EV battery plant. We should not fund our number one adversary and the provider of the raw materials to make fentanyl.
Again, tracking fentanyl after the overdose does nothing when Moeller and her colleagues won’t track fentanyl before the overdose and stop it from crossing our border.
When I heard about this bill, I immediately called a real expert, DuPage County Coroner Rich Jorgensen to get his opinion on the legislation. Dr. Jorgensen said the bill is “impossible” to implement. He said that in many overdose cases 10 different drugs are identified. He said that the analysis is so sophisticated now that he sends his lab samples out of state to be analyzed and that the results would not be meaningful because of the large number of drugs present.
Dr. Jorgensen also said that Moeller’s bill is misguided for focusing on one drug and specifically fentanyl. He reminded me that in 2015 there was a year-long Heroine task force to understand the epidemic of heroine use in Illinois. I was a member of that task force. But, just a couple years later, fentanyl was the drug showing up in overdose cases and the one everyone became concerned with. The coroner says users are moving on from fentanyl and that nitazenes are the upcoming drug of concern. He suggested that if Moeller’s bill was workable, and he reiterated that it’s not, that it should have a broader focus.
What’s important here is that Anna Moeller is grandstanding on fentanyl when the truth is she dangerously voted to decriminalize possession of it just three years ago.
Here is a link to the vote on HB 3447 to find the other Democrats that voted to decriminalize fentanyl. https://www.ilga.gov/legislation/votehistory/102/house/10200HB3447_04212021_034000.pdf
Here is a link to my podcast with Dr. Jorgensen about the fentanyl crisis. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mq50pKV82q0