New York., World leaders must “act faster” to cut off manufacturers of synthetic drugs such as fentanyl, the leading cause of death among Americans aged 18 to 49, Joe Biden said on Tuesday.
“We cannot give up,” the US president said during a summit of the Global Coalition on Synthetic Drug Threats held in New York, on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.
Drug manufacturers and cartels “continue to adapt their practices, develop new chemicals, act quickly to evade our efforts, and we need to act faster,” he said.
“They continue to exploit global supply chains to expand their networks. We have to cut them off,” Biden added, hours after delivering his final speech to the UN before leaving office in January.
The number of overdose deaths in the United States has dropped by 10 percent over the past year, Biden announced, but there are still about 100,000 deaths a year, mostly from fentanyl, a synthetic opioid 50 times more potent than heroin.
Biden called on the leaders of the coalition, made up of nearly 160 countries and 15 international organizations, to act “together” to “interrupt the cycle of violence and instability that drug traffickers generate.”
According to the US Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), Mexican cartels are the main producers of fentanyl in clandestine laboratories, with substances originating mainly from China.
The U.S. and Mexican governments have resumed collaboration with Beijing over the past year to combat this scourge.
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– 2024-09-26 08:19:43
