US Secretary of StateAntony Blinkenurged on Friday the international community to unite in the fight against fentanylthe synthetic drug wreaking havoc in the United States, during a UN conference on narcotics in Vienna.
He fentanyl is a drug very powerful and dangerous, since it is between 80 and 100 times stronger than morphine and can cause a fatal overdose with a very small dose.
The United States’ request for help against fentanyl
“My message to this assembly is urgent: “If we want to change the trajectory of this crisis, there is only one way to do it, and that is together,” Blinken stated before delegates of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), meeting for ten days in the Austrian capital.
“More than 40% of Americans know someone who has died of an overdose” of synthetic drugs, “the main cause of death among people between 18 and 45 years old” in that country, he added.
What is fentanyl
He fentanyl is a powerful synthetic opiate, conceived for medical applications but also used as a drug. Is 50 times more powerful than heroinbut much easier and cheaper to produce.
The United States accuses Chinese laboratories of supplying drug traffickers, especially Mexicans, the substances necessary to manufacture it. President Joe Bidencampaigning for re-election in November, made this issue one of his priorities, and Blinken on Friday pledged $175 million for the international fight against fentanyl.
“Synthetic drugs have changed the situation, making it cheaper and easier to produce and smuggle extremely potent and often deadly substances,” said the executive director of the UNODC, Ghada Waly. “This phenomenon adds to the threat of traditional herbal drugs, but does not replace it,” she declared Thursday at the opening of the conference.
The union of the United States and 151 other countries
Blinken formed a coalition of 151 countries to combat the ravages of fentanyl. USA puts special pressure on China to fight this synthetic drug that kills tens of thousands of Americans every year.
An American delegation traveled to China in early February to negotiate the application of commitments reached during a meeting between Biden and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping in California in November.
However, according to a US diplomatic source, no bilateral meeting between the United States and China is planned in Vienna. Washington reproaches Beijing not doing enough to combat the illegal production and export of the components used to manufacture this drug.
Source: Ambito
