The United States has asked China to better control the sale of chemical precursors for the illegal manufacture of fentanyl – the synthetic drug behind the wave of overdose deaths in the US – or else that opioid will become a global threat.
This is the warning from Rahul Gupta, the director of the US Office of Drug Control Policy, who is participating this week in Vienna at the UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs.
The proliferation of synthetic drugs is “a global threat«, Gupta explains to EFE in an interview in which he emphasizes that they can be manufactured anywhere.
“All it takes is a chemist’s imagination and some dual-use precursors that often come from China,” he says.
“Tens of thousands, if not millions, of lives are at stake for the entire world community. And it is important that we act », she emphasizes.
A GLOBAL PROBLEM
For this expert, the world is divided into three types: «Those who have a problem with synthetic drugs, like fentanyl, and know it. Those who have a synthetic drug problem and don’t know it yet. And those who are going to have a synthetic drug problem«.
“So we tell all countries: this is going to come at your expense, in your neighborhood, whether you like it or not, whether you are prepared or not,” he warns, and calls for “prevention” to avoid the worst.
Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid 50 times more potent than heroin. A legal version was originally prescribed, but is now being produced illegally under the same name.
A fentanyl manufactured in clandestine laboratories located in Mexico and linked to drug traffickers arrives in the US. In 2021, more than 100,000 people died in the US from overdoses, the majority due to that synthetic opioid.
Gupta points out that fentanyl is a threat to users of other drugs as well because the entire supply chain is contaminated.
«In North America cocaine, methamphetamine, heroin, you name it, is contaminated with fentanyl. Someone who is a cocaine user will take it and die without knowing that their dealer, or whoever, mixed it with fentanyl. And receives a lethal dose and dies“, Explain.
Europol expressed its concern a few weeks ago in a statement about the discovery of fentanyl laboratories in the European Union.
CHINESE INACTION
The US has focused on tracking criminal networks and global supply chains of precursors to manufacture these drugs, explains the expert.
China, says Gupta, has been unsuccessfully asked to apply three basic principles in its sale of precursors: knowing the end customer and not making deliveries to unknown intermediaries who could deliver them to drug traffickers; label the products correctly; and know the volume of precursors and where it is sent, to avoid deviations.
“They are simple things. They are not very complex or difficult things. And we have not been able, bilaterally, to work with China to achieve those things. And it affects the world population. It affects everyone », he laments.
“It is important that countries like China be world leaders and act as leaders in the face of global threats«, indicates Gupta, who emphasizes that what is requested is that they apply the global maritime transport conventions.
In contrast, India, another country with a powerful chemical industry, has already begun to implement measures to better control precursors, praises the US representative.
Washington, Gupta notes, works in “a global coalition” to make sure that “more countries understand and recognize the threat that is hanging over them, over their people.”
At the same time, the US, he maintains, will take steps to “harm Chinese criminal groups» who cooperate with the Mexicans by supplying precursors.
“This is not about the Chinese government, but about Chinese criminal elements,” said Gupta, who believes that due to the lucrativeness of the business, it is a matter of time before drug traffickers expand the synthetic drug business.
diplomatic tensions between Washington and Beijing are an obstacle to cooperation on drugs. China suspended counternarcotics cooperation with the US after Nancy Pelosi, the former Speaker of the House of Representatives, visited Taiwan.
DAMAGE REDUCTION
Gupta is the first doctor in this position and since 2022 he has promoted a “harm reduction” strategy in the US, common in Europe and Canada, which focuses on prevention and treatment, especially among the prison population.
These evidence-based policies, including methadone substitution treatments, mark a major shift in the US from the past.
“Less than one in 10 Americans who needed treatment were able to receive it. We have 46 million Americans who suffer from addiction, “explains the expert, who aims to radically improve these numbers in the coming years. EFE