MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

US invites countries to combat synthetic drugs, but China, main producer of fentanyl declines

Fentanyl is one of the leading causes of death in young adults under the age of 45 in the US; in 2021 it trailed only accidents, claiming more lives than suicide.

The United States on Friday called on dozens of countries to work together to combat synthetic drugs, but China declined an invitation to attend.

Antony Blinken told representatives of 84 countries at a virtual conference in Washington that the US had been a “canary in the coal mine” for the opioid, but that an international “coalition” combating synthetic drugs' spread was necessary as cartels set their sights further afield. 

“Having saturated the United States market, transnational criminal enterprises are turning elsewhere to expand their profits,” Blinken said. “If we don't act together with fierce urgency, more cities around the world will bear the catastrophic costs” witnessed in the US, he said. 

Fentanyl is one of the leading causes of death in young adults under the age of 45 in the US; in 2021 it trailed only accidents, claiming more lives than suicide.

Pharmaceutical fentanyl is a recognized heavy duty medical painkiller and sedative that can be many times more potent than morphine. It's typically used to treat patients in severe discomfort such as late stage cancer patients, or possibly in emergency rooms. It's approved for medical use around most of the world but is usually not available over the counter.  

However, it's also highly addictive and variants of the drug can be more so. The US outlawed several variants of fentanyl as “Schedule 1” drugs in 2018 and there have been pushes to widen the restrictions. 

Overdose deaths from the drug had been rising steadily in recent years. Almost 80,000 people died from opioid-related overdoses in the US in 2022, according to the Centers for Disease Control, fewer than a record tally of more than 100,000 in 202. Fentanyl is now thought to be the most common overdose contributor in the US. Addicts often mix fentanyl with other narcotics like heroine. 

The US at least partly blames China for fentanyl's continued presence in the US, although Beijing agreed to stop all exports in light of how addictive it and its variants were.

However China still exports the precursor materials to Central America and countries like Mexico where cartels produce fentanyl and then smuggle it across the US border.

China did not attend Friday's conference in Washington, seemingly criticizing the US for sanctions recently imposed on Chinese companies over fentanyl. 

Beijing said that it was open in principle to international cooperation on narcotics trade but that it was up to the US to “create necessary conditions” for anti-drugs cooperation, following complaints from Washington that Beijing has ignored its calls for a crackdown. 

China takes an “active part in international anti-narcotic cooperation and firmly opposes smears and unilateral sanctions on other countries under the pretext of fighting against drugs,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said at a daily briefing. 

“We urge the US to correct wrongdoings with concrete actions and create necessary conditions for the two countries' anti-narcotic cooperation,” he said. 

The US Justice Department late last month filed criminal charges against four Chinese companies and eight individuals accused of trafficking the chemicals used to make fentanyl in the United States and Mexico. 

But Washington and Beijing are also at odds over a number of issues, such as Taiwan — contacts were cut on an array of issues following House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's Taipei visit last year and have only been partially restored — and sanctions against China's defense minister, military general Li Shangfu.

China is the world's chief producer and exporter of fentanyl precursor materials, but Blinken on Friday did implicitly acknowledge it could not be held solely responsible for the drug's presence in the US, saying this was also the reason cooperation would prove essential. 

“When one government aggressively restricts a precursor chemical, traffickers simply buy it elsewhere,” he said. 

Another US official, Todd Robinson, had also sought to strike a conciliatory tone. The US assistant secretary for international narcotics and law enforcement said the US would welcome China's participation in future meetings and hoped the other countries would reach out to Beijing. 

“Part of the reason we're trying to bring this coalition together is to engage countries in their efforts against these supply chains, and part of their responsibility is going to be engaging with the PRC,” he said, in reference to the People's Republic of China.  

Members of the coalition are planning to meet in person in September on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, Blinken said. The new grouping also aims to address other synthetic drugs including captagon, the amphetamine-like stimulant that has seen a surge of use in Arab countries including Saudi Arabia, which participated in Friday's meeting.