President Donald Trump on Wednesday signed the Halt All Lethal Trafficking of Fentanyl Act, permanently placing all fentanyl-related substances on Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act and imposing tougher criminal penalties on traffickers. The law establishes a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years for anyone convicted of distributing or manufacturing the synthetic opioid. The bipartisan measure, championed by Senators Bill Cassidy and Martin Heinrich and led in the House by Representative Morgan Griffith, cleared Congress earlier this month with broad support. Backers say the permanent scheduling closes loopholes that allowed chemists to tweak fentanyl analogues to evade prosecution and gives law-enforcement agencies clearer authority to pursue cartels and other suppliers. Trump signed the bill at a White House ceremony attended by congressional leaders and families who lost relatives to fentanyl overdoses. According to federal data cited during the event, the drug was linked to almost 50,000 U.S. deaths last year, making it the country’s leading cause of fatal overdoses. Civil-rights groups and some public-health advocates warn the legislation could subject low-level offenders and people with addiction to lengthy prison terms without addressing underlying treatment needs. Supporters counter that stronger penalties are necessary to deter trafficking while Congress pursues parallel measures on prevention and recovery.