DEA: Fentanyl Coming in from China

A recent report by the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) and published in The Washington Post stated that China is the “primary source” of fentanyl (Kim, 2016).

Fentanyl has been appearing in the US in pill form and mixed with heroin. Unfortunately this means that many users have been unaware that they’re taking fentanyl, leading to many deaths. Fentanyl is “fifty times as potent as heroin” and has been involved in over seven hundred deaths in the US between 2013 and 2014 (Kim, 2016).

According to the DEA’s report, China has little regulation of fentanyl and similar products, which allows dealers and cartels to purchase them easily online. However, Liu Yuejin, a Chinese narcotics control official, stated that Western countries are “not justified in requiring only drug-producing countries to counter the manufacture of drugs . . . they must also address the consumption market” (Kim, 2016).

References

Kim, V. (2016). China is ‘primary source’ of fentanyl, says DEA. Retrieved from https://www.thefix.com/china-primary-source-fentanyl-says-dea

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