WASHINGTON – President Biden on Tuesday called for fentanyl to be banned for all uses in the United States by making it a Schedule I drug, which would bar it from common medical applications – before aides clarified that he only wanted a ban on fentanyl-related compounds.
About 200,000 Americans have died during Biden’s term from synthetic opioids, shipped largely from China, and Biden made the remarks as he sought to put the ball back in Congress’ court after criticism from Republicans.
“Look, I’m also urging Congress to make fentanyl and related drugs Schedule I permanent,” Biden said at a White House meeting with executive branch officials after last week’s summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping — who agreed to a crackdown on exports. drug, despite its earlier pledges not to slow the surge in US overdoses.
Biden has sparked outrage with previous inaccurate statements about the crisis, including three errors in January and February when he twice misstated US death tolls and misrepresented the potential of fentanyl.
“He either doesn’t know about this deadly crisis or simply doesn’t care,” Rep. Jim Banks (R-Ind.) tweeted earlier this year after one of the factual errors.
President Joe Biden called Tuesday for fentanyl to be banned for all uses in the United States by making it a Schedule I drug, which would prevent it from common medical applications.AFP via Getty Images
Fentanyl has a specific chemical formula — C22H28N2O — and like cocaine is a Schedule II drug, meaning it can be used legally with medical authorization to treat pain.
Schedule I drugs are defined as having no authorized medical use and cannot be prescribed.
Biden administration officials explained to The Post that he is not actually calling for a fentanyl ban, but for Congress to make permanent the 2018 emergency act that declares fentanyl-related substances a Schedule I drug.
Administration aides insisted to The Post that the president was not misspoke when he called on Congress to make fentanyl a Schedule I drug because, they said, he was thinking about illicit street fentanyl, which may or may not contain fentanyl-related substances.
Related substances have slightly different chemical compositions, which in the past allowed traffickers to escape punishment.
About 200,000 Americans have died during Biden’s tenure as a result of synthetic opioids, most of which are shipped from China, and Biden made the remarks as he sought to put the ball back in Congress’ court after criticism from Republicans.AP
In recent weeks, Biden has increased his focus on fentanyl and said he knows several families who have had relatives affected by the contraband synthetic opioid, which is typically smuggled into the country instead of being diverted from the domestic medical supply.
“Too many will face seeing empty seats for the first time on Thanksgiving because so many people have passed away. Really heartbreaking. It’s truly an American tragedy,” Biden said on Tuesday.
“I am committed to doing everything in my power as president to control this crisis,” he said.
Biden also urged Congress to approve $1.2 billion for fentanyl screening equipment as part of a larger funding request in which he seeks $14.3 billion to fund Israel’s war with Hamas and $61.4 billion to support Ukraine in its war with Russia.
An official said that Biden’s statement about making fentanyl a Schedule I drug was “not news” and that “what we’re dealing with here is illegally produced and trafficked fentanyl and fentanyl analogs, which are Schedule I.”
Biden has sparked outrage with previous inaccurate statements about the crisis, including three errors in January and February when he twice misstated US death tolls and misrepresented the potential of fentanyl. Sherry Young – stock.adobe.com
Another Biden administration official, who is an expert on the matter, told The Post that he did not think Biden’s words were inaccurate.
“When the president talks about either fentanyl-related substances or fentanyl and related substances, they are interchangeable. I use both all the time interchangeably,” said the second official.
Data on synthetic opioids and their respective contributions to record high deaths are murky and often out of date.
“Currency is one of the bigger type of issues that we have because it takes some time to test this. …Here we are in 2023 [and] depending on what you’re trying to get, the data could be one to two years old just because it takes so long for the lab,” said the second official.
Some fentanyl-related compounds, such as acetyl fentanyl – whose chemical formula, C21H26N2O, has one fewer carbon atom and two fewer hydrogen atoms – can only be distinguished from fentanyl by secondary tests using gas chromatography and mass spectrometry.
Biden administration officials explained to The Post that he is not actually calling for a ban on fentanyl, but for Congress to make permanent the 2018 emergency act that declares fentanyl-related substances a Schedule I drug.Getty Images
Data from a group of 10 states collected through 2018 show that fentanyl analogs are detected in the vast majority of overdose cases and that specific variants vary over time.
However, the data also show that some related compounds almost always coincide with and are less potent than fentanyl itself. Other related compounds are stronger.
Federal enforcement data from 2019 shows about 80% of felony offenders that year were busted for trafficking fentanyl rather than closely related substances.
It is unclear how the scheduling of fentanyl-related compounds in 2018 may have changed its illicit flow over the past five years.
CDC data on synthetic opioid deaths do not specify whether fentanyl, related compounds or both were detected, or if insufficient information is available.
Preliminary national data shows that about 76,000 Americans will die from synthetic opioids in 2022 — an all-time record increase from about 72,000 in 2021 and 58,000 in 2020.
The CDC projects that monthly deaths from synthetic opioids continue to reach new monthly highs in the first half of 2023.
Xi’s commitment to cracking down on exports has been met with skepticism – after former President Donald Trump previously boasted that he had convinced the Chinese leader to impose tough measures including executions against exporters, only for excess deaths to continue to rise during his own presidency. .
National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said at a Monday briefing that “[Xi] has said he will take personal responsibility for stemming the flow of these chemicals out of China, and we are grateful for that.”
“That will take some time when he goes back to Beijing and implements that process — that law enforcement action,” Kirby added.
Categories: Trending
Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
