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LIKE ALL drug scourges, the fentanyl epidemic that claims so many lives every day is a matter of supply and demand. The demand, alas, is made in America. The supply, by contrast, is overwhelmingly imported, with a key source being China, where a poorly regulated cottage industry makes the stuff, takes orders over the Internet and ships it via international mail to the United States, Canada and Mexico.
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Today, the U.S. House of Representatives came together across party lines to pass the Synthetics Trafficking and Overdose Prevention (STOP) Act, introduced by Representatives Mike Bishop (R-MI) and Bill Pascrell (D-NJ), by a vote of 353-52. The bill now heads to the Senate for debate and passage.
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The introduction of fentanyl and the ever-growing list of its analogues has devastated communities across America, but also created a new sort of drug kingpin. This kingpin uses their knowledge of chemistry to make minor changes to the chemical structure of the drugs that they sell in an attempt to stay one step ahead of the law…
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Earlier this month, in the midst of an opioid epidemic ravaging the state, Vermont’s legislature voted to legalize buying drugs from Canada, where government-set price controls keep prices artificially low.
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The U.S. Department of Justice announced indictments against ten additional defendants for their roles in a major fentanyl trafficking case, bringing the total number of people charged o 32. This conspiracy had participants in China, Canada, and the United States…
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Law enforcement agencies throughout Ohio have been finding counterfeit prescription pills that are made with illicit street drugs including fentanyl. They want to remind the public that any drug purchased on the street, including pills that look like real prescription medicines, could kill you…
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Three new admissions of guilt in court in the major counterfeit pill case that happened in Utah. Alexandrya Tonge, Sean Gygi, and Katherine Bustin all admitted to their roles in the production and distribution of counterfeit pain pill containing fentanyl and counterfeit alprazolam…
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In this editorial, which was published in The Arizona Republic on June 7, 2018, former Pinal County, AZ sheriff Paul Babeu argues that criminal smugglers from Mexico and China are a driving force in the United States’ fentanyl crisis.
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In a June 7, 2018 editorial for The Hill, Former FBI deputy assistant director and Pharmaceutical Security Institute President Thomas Kubic argues that current sentences and penalties are not strong enough to deter criminal drug importation: “It boils down to this, if an entity — be it an organization or person — opts to engage in activities involving illegal distribution chains, there should be consequences, often certain, swift, and overwhelmingly punitive.”
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The FDA sent nine online networks that operate 53 different websites selling illicit opioids warning letters telling them they must stop illegally marketing to American citizens or face enforcement action…
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