Friday was a big day for Binghamton Police Captain David Bidwell.

“I have some family members who are opioid users, so it's personal for me. So, any assistance and help that we get, I think it's fantastic," Bidwell said.

U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand visited the Southern Tier Crime Analysis Center Friday to announce a new bill that would declare the international trafficking of fentanyl a national emergency.

“What that will do is allow them to go after the head of cartels, to go after nations that are supplying chemicals, or precursors to places like Mexico, where they are gonna create the methamphetamine, or they’re gonna create the opioid, create the fentanyl and then send it over to our country," said Bidwell.

According to Gillibrand, last year, the DEA seized 379 million deadly doses of fentanyl. She said the majority of illegal fentanyl entering the country is made with materials from China and manufactured in Mexico.

Bidwell believes it's important to attack the foundation of the problem and continue from there.

“You start small and then you work your way up. You know, you’re going up the food chain to get to the top of the food chain," he said. "So this is the same thing. You’re gonna start with precursors. You’re gonna go to distribution places, places where they manufacture it. So this is why it's important."

The bill enhances the ability to enforce sanctions which make it more likely those who break the law will be prosecuted.

“We have a dedicated New York state National Guard counter-drug crime analyst. She looks at everything," said Bidwell. "Drug arrests, what kind of drugs are we seeing, what kind of packaging are we seeing. So from there, she’ll build out maps, she’s gonna build out graphs to see where our problems are."

“We have to have a much more aggressive tone towards the trafficking of these drugs into our country, and that’s why we need these type of sanctions, to go after these cartels, drug cartels, drug lords, all these people," said Gillibrand.

The increased aggressiveness gives Bidwell hope.

“Optimism and hope that somebody else doesn’t have. If we can stop it, somebody else doesn’t have to go through what I and millions of others have had to go through," he said.