U.S. officials speak out on fentanyl crisis at U.N. General Assembly

Abstract

Speaking at last week's Summit of the Global Coalition to Address Synthetic Drug Threats, part of the United Nations General Assembly meeting in New York City last week, United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken praised the gathering of foreign officials to take time to address this issue. Fentanyl is a synthetic drug which is causing a crisis internally, said Blinken. “Now, for years, the threat of synthetic drugs has been rising around the world: methamphetamines in the East, in Southeast Asia; Captagon in the Middle East, tramadol in Africa; and here in the United States fentanyl, the number-one killer of Americans aged 18-49,” said Blinken September 24, according to remarks released by the Department of Justice. “This is by definition a global challenge: people ship precursor chemicals, the ingredients that go into fentanyl from one country to another; criminals make them into synthetic drugs, and then sell them in a third country. Every country needs to take steps at home to address this challenge. But no single government can solve it alone.