China’s agreement expected to slow flow of fentanyl into US, but not solve overdose epidemic

Experts say new steps China has agreed to will eventually reduce the flow of the deadly opioid fentanyl into the U.S., but that alone will not stem the overdose crisis killing Americans at a record rate.

President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping announced at a meeting Wednesday in California that China is telling its chemical companies to curtail shipments to Latin America and elsewhere of the materials used to produce fentanyl, which is largely finished in Mexico and then smuggled into the U.S.

China has also resumed sharing information about suspected trafficking with an international database.

“It’s a step in the right direction because not doing this would be negligent,” said Adam Wandt, an associate professor of public policy at John Jay College of Criminal Justice. “If this is a diplomatic option that we did not take, every fentanyl death over the next decade would be on our heads.”

But he and others described the steps as necessary in addressing the overdose crisis in the U.S. — but not sufficient.

Wandt said the steps should reduce the amount of fentanyl in the U.S., though when that happens depends on how much of the chemicals are already in possession of Mexican cartels. And even if fentanyl is eradicated, he said, “they will switch to another drug, which I predict will be even more lethal.”

Kevin Roy, the chief public policy officer at Shatterproof, a national group dedicated to combatting the addiction and overdose crisis, said that the steps announced were crucial, but they still have to be carried out.

“It’s only one part of a bigger picture,” Roy said.

He was also concerned that the nations did not reach any agreements on how to deal with laundering drug money through China, an issue that Rahul Gupta, director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, identified at a congressional hearing this year as another major problem.

China’s National Narcotics Control Commission issued a directive Friday citing existing laws on narcotics and customs controls as a reminder to logistics businesses in the country on preventing the shipment of narcotics and psychotropic drugs abroad.

The notice called on businesses and companies to be “cautious about orders from the United States and Mexico and be wary of the exported items being used to manufacture drugs.” It also warned businesses of the risk of getting caught up in law enforcement actions abroad.

The Biden administration confirmed Thursday that as part of the arrangement, it was lifting trade sanctions against the Chinese Ministry of Public Security’s Institute of Forensic Science.

State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said the continued listing of the institute, known as IFS, was a barrier to sealing Chinese cooperation on the issue.

“Ultimately we decided that given the steps China was willing to take to cut down on precursor trafficking, it was an appropriate step to take,” Miller said.

The U.S. Commerce Department listed the institute in 2020, saying it was “complicit in human rights violations and abuses committed in China’s campaign of repression, mass arbitrary detention, forced labor and high-technology surveillance against Uighurs, ethnic Kazakhs, and other members of Muslim minority groups.”

Fentanyl emerged as a widespread problem in the U.S. about a decade ago as there were crackdowns on prescribing opioid painkillers, which were linked to soaring death numbers already.

In the early days, it was largely shipped from China to the U.S., easily concealed in envelopes and small packages. Fentanyl’s potency makes it appealing to drug suppliers because it’s easy to ship. And because it’s made from chemicals in labs, it doesn’t rely on growing crops for drugs such as heroin, cocaine or marijuana.