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| A December 2018 report found that fentanyl use has surged in recent years because of heroin and prescription pill shortages, and because it is cheaper for drug wholesalers to produce than heroin (AFP Photo/Drug Enforcement Administration) |
Washington (AFP) - President Donald Trump has repeatedly hit out at China for failing to curb the export of illegal fentanyl to the United States.
The
powerful painkiller is the primary synthetic opioid available in the US, a
class of drug that was responsible for almost 32,000 overdose deaths last year.
But why is
fentanyl's threat growing, and can Beijing help America cure its addiction to
its deadliest drug?
What is
fentanyl?
Fentanyl
was first developed in 1959 and introduced to the US market in the 1960s as an
intravenous anesthetic.
A hundred
times more potent than morphine, it is used to manage severe pain, for example
among cancer patients or those receiving end-of-life care.
But it is
also produced illegally and trafficked into the US -- primarily from China and
Mexico -- in the form of powder or tablets, and sometimes gets mixed with
heroin and cocaine.
Why is it
spreading?
A report
published in December by researchers at University of California San Francisco
found that fentanyl use has surged in recent years because of heroin and
prescription pill shortages, and because it was cheaper for drug wholesalers to
produce than heroin.
"Very
little drug slang has developed to describe fentanyl, which lends support to
the notion that this is not a demand-driven epidemic," said Sarah Mars, a
UCSF researcher.
Users are
often unaware the products they are consuming contain the drug, and a key
market is people who turn to counterfeit medicines for cost reasons.
"Traffickers
are exploiting high consumer demand for illicit prescription painkillers,
tranquilizers, and sedatives by producing inexpensive counterfeits containing
fentanyl," said a report by the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA).
In 2016,
counterfeit prescription painkiller Norco, which actually contained fentanyl,
was responsible for at least 14 deaths in California.
How
deadly is it?
Fentanyl
can be lethal in a dose of as little as two milligrams, equivalent to a few
grains of sand.
But it is
not just deadly to users and can threaten anyone who intercepts it such as
postal workers, law enforcement officers, first responders and even sniffer
dogs, according to the DEA.
In 2015,
New Jersey law enforcement officers carrying out a narcotics field test on what
turned out to be fentanyl experienced shortness of breath, dizziness and
respiratory distress, according to the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention.
Where
does it come from?
Powdered
fentanyl can be bought on the dark web or even business trading sites like
Weiku.com, according to Roger Bate, a scholar at the American Enterprise
Institute who published a report on the drug this week.
A kilo
sourced from China can be purchased in the US for as little as $1700, which is
then used to create up to a million pills that when sold for $10 to $20 each
generate millions in revenue, according to the DEA.
Bate's
report found that poorly policed free trade zones in places like Singapore and
Dubai help bring the products into the US market.
Mexican
gangs also play a large role in producing and distributing the drug, with
precursor chemicals first smuggled into Mexico via the southwest US.
Some
illicit fentanyl products are also brought into the US via Canada, which until
2017 did not allow authorities to open the contents of mail weighing less than
30 grams.
Can China
help?
Trump
issued his latest missive at China over its alleged inaction Thursday,
tweeting: "My friend President Xi said that he would stop the sale of
Fentanyl to the United States – this never happened, and many Americans
continue to die!"
China has
in fact already made some efforts to crack down on suppliers, leading to
transshipment via Vietnam, said Bate, but it could apply much more pressure to
major players in its chemical industry that would yield some results.
But he
warned action by Beijing could be limited because the government may not be
fully aware of the activities of the tens of thousands of smaller chemical
producers operating throughout the country.
What's
more, even if its efforts prove successful, other countries with manufacturing
capacity like Russia or India could step in as new suppliers.
"It's
quite difficult for a few guys in the garage to make, but not difficult for
legitimate chemical plants to make," Bate said.
He
advocates instead for measures to fund drug and mental health programs so that
fewer people become addicted, and greater availability of the drug naloxone to
treat those who have overdosed.
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