Tens of thousands of young Americans are killed by fentanyl and other synthetic opioids every year, and the substance is corroding US relations with China.
It was one of the topics discussed during the meeting between US President Joe Biden and Chinese Leader Xi Jinping, who lead the two most powerful economies in the world, on Wednesday outside of San Francisco.
Joe Biden and Xi Jinping meeting
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) report that overdoses on synthetic opioids, the majority of which are attributed to fentanyl, are the primary cause of death in the country for individuals aged 18 to 45.
According to CDC estimates, over 100,000 US citizens overdosed on drugs in 2022; fentanyl and other synthetic opioids were the primary cause of these deaths.
China is the primary source of the precursor chemicals used to make fentanyl, though some are also sourced from India. Usually, Mexican drug cartels ship those chemicals to Mexico, where they are processed into fentanyl.
When US senators gathered in China last month under the leadership of Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, they put pressure on Xi Jinping to take action regarding China’s supply of the raw materials used to make fentanyl. “They are fueling the fentanyl crisis that is poisoning communities across the United States,” Schumer noted while on the trip. We’re all familiar with families who have lost young men and women to fentanyl.
World two Leader Joe Biden and Xi Jinping meeting .According to Chinese state media, the US is the source of the fentanyl consumption issue.
The Chinese government did classify fentanyl as a controlled substance in 2019 in response to pressure from the Trump administration, but this hasn’t stopped the precursor chemicals needed to make fentanyl from travelling from China to Mexico.
According to CNN’s Phil Mattingly, an agreement by China to “crack down on the export of the source chemicals used to make fentanyl” is anticipated to come from the Biden-Xi meeting on Wednesday.
Tens of thousands of Americans who die from overdoses every year could be spared if China is successful in controlling the supply of precursor chemicals for fentanyl.
Pharmaceutical fentanyl is an extremely potent analgesic that is medically prescribed for use during surgery. The CDC claims that the drug is 50 times more potent than heroin.
According to the DEA, a tiny dosage of the drug as little as two milligrams “may be lethal depending on a person’s body size, tolerance, and past usage.”
I spoke with Josh Geltzer, Biden’s Deputy Homeland Security Adviser and a former colleague from New America, in May for the podcast “In the Room with Peter Bergen.” Josh provided a sobering assessment of the problem, stating that “the quantity of (fentanyl) pills and powder combined seized by US law enforcement at our border last year was enough to kill every single American, potentially with a few pills left over.”
Sam Quinones, a journalist who has penned two outstanding books regarding America’s drug problems, was another person I spoke with.Quinones explained to me that fentanyl tends to make it very difficult to be a functional drug addict. You dedicate your entire life to fentanyl.
Quinones added that, given the potency of the drug, even fentanyl users who have built up a tolerance to it typically only last two years after becoming hooked. This is based on his research.
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