Fentanyl Smuggled From China Is Killing Thousands Of Americans

Photo source: Fortune

Fentanyl, 50 times more potent than heroin, and related laboratory-crafted drugs have become the No. 1 cause of opioid-related overdose deaths. And rogue chemical companies in China -- operating openly and outside the reach of U.S. authorities -- are the largest single source of the deadly drugs, law enforcement officials say.

"People in labs in China are producing this substance that is killing Americans," Deputy Atty. Gen. Rod Rosenstein said in an interview. "This is a real crisis. The Chinese government has the ability to stop this if they want to. We believe they should want to do that."

Read more: Fentanyl Smuggled From China Is Killing Thousands Of Americans

The Uphill Fight Against Fake Prescription Drugs

Drug companies and law enforcement struggle to stop online sales of counterfeit versions of medications like Xanax laced with fentanyl that can kill unsuspecting users

Read more: The Uphill Fight Against Fake Prescription Drugs

TRUMP: USMCA Deal "Will Make North America a Haven For Medical Innovation And Development"

New USMCA deal "will make North America a haven for medical innovation and development," @POTUS says. "We want drugs to be made here...we don't like getting them from foreign countries, we don't know what is happening with those." https://t.co/pox12C4iJr pic.twitter.com/IRQ4sk1lr7

— CBS News (@CBSNews) October 1, 2018

President Trump says. "We want drugs to be made here...we don't like getting them from foreign countries, we don't know what is happening with those drugs"

Canada must guard against unrestricted drug exports to the US

Photo source: Consumer Reports

The notion of importing cheaper drugs from Canada is nothing new in American politics. In 2003, Congress passed the underlying legal framework to permit Canadian drug imports, and it subsists in American law today. Nor is it unique to one side of the political spectrum. Democratic Senator Bernie Sanders famously introduced “import from Canada” legislation as a solution to US drug woes, while similar bipartisan proposals have attracted prominent Republicans like John McCain.

Polls have shown a majority of Americans, regardless of party affiliation, support the idea. It has also caught on at the state level, with multiple states exploring the possibility of creating their own Canadian drug importation programs under the existing legal framework. Vermont became the first state to enact such a law earlier this year.

Read more: Canada must guard against unrestricted drug exports to the US

Drug Importation 'Just a Gimmick,' Says HHS Secretary

Photo source: Wikipedia

 

The prospect of reducing prescription drug prices by importing cheaper supply from Canada is "just a gimmick," Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said Monday morning.

The comment came during a speech at the Hubert H. Humphrey building in Washington, D.C., following up on President Donald Trump's speech Friday outlining the administration's general plan to promote affordability.

Read more:  Drug Importation 'Just a Gimmick,' Says HHS Secretary

Looks Like the Northern Border is Just as Dangerous as the Southern

Photo source: CNN

Americans are well aware and focused on the need to protect our Southern border. But little thought has been given to the need to protect the border with Canada.

Their citizens are seen as educated, polite, and mostly English-speaking. Their poorest citizens aren't marching defiantly toward our border in a giant invasion of “caravans" aided and abetted by their national government. But that doesn't mean the border to our north can't pose its own specific type of deadly risk.

An enormous, robust, and illegal opioid drug supply is streaming across our border with Canada, killing and poisoning tens of thousands of our citizens each year. Just last month, Canadian authorities busted a huge smuggling ring headquartered in Calgary that was producing an astonishing amount of counterfeit pharmaceutical drugs — 120,000 pills a day. That’s nearly 160 million pills a year from just one source!

Read more: Death by Canadian fentanyl: Northern border security is no joke, either