Fentanyl Is ‘Global Problem and we are working with the West to stop it - US

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Biden administration says it’s working with the governments of Mexico, Colombia and Ecuador to combat a documented rise in the availability and lethality of illegal drugs containing fentanyl, a synthetic opioid that can be up to 100 times stronger than morphine.

According to the Drug Enforcement Administration, the potency of pills is rising — in 2022, six out of 10 pills contained a potentially lethal dose of the narcotic.

President Joe Biden mentioned the deadly drug in his recent State of the Union address, in which he spoke of “a record number of personnel working to secure the border, arresting 8,000 human smugglers, seizing over 23,000 pounds of fentanyl in just the last several months.”

And Biden outlined his administration’s plan to tackle the epidemic in different ways, including funding screening measures, checking packages and “expanding access to evidence-based prevention, harm reduction, treatment and recovery.”

VOA’s Jorge Agobian spoke to Dr. Rahul Gupta, director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, to find out how the U.S. is battling the overdose epidemic both inside and beyond its borders.

“The problem of fentanyl and synthetic drugs is not limited exclusively to the United States or Mexico,” Gupta said. “It's a global problem. And secondly, the supply chain is also global. So whether it's precursor chemicals that are converted into fentanyl, coming from China into Mexico or North America, or the synthesis of these drugs, we need to be making sure that we're monitoring all of it, and we're addressing specific choke points in this supply chain.”