“Opioids are the deadliest drug threat in our history,” declared President Joe Biden at a recent meeting of the Global Coalition to Address Synthetic Drugs in New York. “For years, too little has been done to beat this threat here at home and around the world.”
“But as all of you know, this is a global challenge and it requires global solutions,” said President Biden. So last year in July, the United States and its partners launched the Global Coalition to Address Synthetic Drugs. In just over a year, the Global Coalition has grown to include nearly 160 countries and 15 international organizations.
The United States has worked separately with Canada and Mexico to stop narcotics crossing its border and reignited counter-narcotics cooperation with China to tackle the supply chains of precursor chemicals and pill presses. As a result of these efforts, more fentanyl has been seized at the U.S. border in the last two years than during the previous five years combined, President Biden said.
“Nearly 60,000 pounds of fentanyl has been seized. That's enough to kill every single American many times over. Dozens of major cartel leaders and traffickers are now behind bars. And I'm proud to announce, for the first time in five years, overdose deaths are actually coming down across America. The latest data shows a 10 percent drop.”
But much more needs to be done to fight the scourge of synthetic drugs, stressed President Biden.
“Drug manufacturers and cartels continue to adapt their practices, develop new chemicals, move fast to evade our efforts. We have to move faster. They continue to exploit the global supply chains to expand their networks. We've got to cut them off. They continue to fuel violence, corruption and instability. We've got to protect our people and our communities. So, that's why I'm calling on every nation here to commit to our new global coalition pledge. This lays out the action we all take to seize more drugs, stop more cartels, save more lives.”
President Biden thanked fellow Coalition members for launching new initiatives to disrupt supply chains, detect emerging drug threats, and prevent deaths by treating people through public health interventions.
“Together, we're making it clear: enough is enough is enough,” declared President Biden. “As leaders, we all have one solemn responsibility: protect our people from harm. Together, through this coalition, I believe we can do just that.”
