China’s Role in Synthetic Opioid Trafficking: Efforts to Reduce the Supply of Precursor Chemicals at the Primary Source.
[Ever since the ‘Opium Wars’, (https://youtu.be/7UScdK82aAo?list=PLTMqlfT-1C1x7ekCSxIhF6HMjHBqMAK6n&t=8) when opium was not only legalised and commercialised on a global scale, but actually became currency; the Chinese people have not forgotten the exploitation they experienced at the hands of the ‘West’. One cannot help but wonder if this is not somehow a process of exacting ‘pay-back’, as well as the long standing strategy of ‘communist’ or otherwise totalitarian regimes endeavour to ‘drug the party west’ into oblivion – i.e. Red Cocaine)
Introduction and Background: The reemergence of illegally manufactured synthetic opioids has complicated the United States’ already difficult illegal drug supply- and demand-reduction efforts. Even as demand persists for heroin and diverted prescription opioids, fentanyl and other synthetic opioids have made their way into the illegal drug supply, confounding traditional efforts to raise prices by reducing the quantity of drugs available to users. It is essential to understand the challenges at hand so that appropriate approaches to solutions can be developed. The United States could be doing more to help reduce supply and should devote resources to efforts expected to produce the greatest return on investment. Of course, it is also necessary to make equal perhaps even greater demand- and harm-reduction efforts, but in this testimony, I will only focus on China’s role on the supply side of the equation.
Conclusion: The Commission on Combating Synthetic Opioid Trafficking final report and technical appendixes contain 78 enabling action items, many of which are directed at Congress and involve China. The action items are binned into five pillars:
- policy coordination and implementation,
- supply reduction,
- demand reduction and public health,
- international cooperation, and
- research and monitoring.
Each pillar contains a series of key actions and associated enabling actions. The Commission focused on actions the United States could take to stem the illegal flow of synthetic opioids or develop ways to mitigate overdose deaths.
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