WASHINGTON (KDVR) — U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert introduced a bill that would bring a new classification to fentanyl, involving the Department of Homeland Security.

The “Fentanyl is a WMD Act” would instruct the Assistant Secretary for the Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction Office within DHS to treat the deadly drug as a weapon of mass destruction. Title XIX of the Homeland Security Act of 2002 created the office and created its mission to coordinate federal efforts to “detect and protect against unauthorized importation, possession, storage, transportation, development or use of weapons of mass destruction in the United States.

A weapon of mass destruction is defined by DHS as “a nuclear, radiological, chemical, biological, or other device that is intended to harm a large number of people.”

“Back home in Colorado, almost everyone I talk to knows someone who has died from fentanyl,” Boebert said in a statement. “Fentanyl is America’s silent killer and is now the leading cause of death for Americans aged 18 to 45. The saddest thing about the fentanyl crisis is that it is preventable. National security experts know that the vast majority of deadly fentanyl plaguing our communities comes across the southern border. Just last year, Border Patrol encountered enough fentanyl at the border to kill every American seven times over. There is no way around it—the Biden Border Crisis is killing Americans. It is time to call fentanyl what it is: a weapon of mass destruction that is destroying our nation.”

A report from the District of Colorado U.S. Attorney’s Office said Colorado law enforcement has seized 2,084,633 dosage units of the synthetic opioid through the first five months of 2022. This is more than 400,000 more units seized than all of 2021.