The Alpena News: Peters backs opioid crackdown

If it becomes law, the bill would allow the U.S. to apply pressure to the Chinese government to boost regulatory enforcement on pharmaceutical companies that create and distribute the drug. It would allow sanctions on Chinese drug manufacturers and traffickers, as well as financial institutions that assist them.

According to the National Institute of Health, fentanyl is a synthetic drug similar to morphine, but 50 to 100 times more potent. Peters said some officials estimate China is responsible for roughly 90% of the illicit fentanyl in the world.

The drug, if used with negligence, can be deadly, as 1 kilogram contains as many as 500,000 lethal doses.

In early 2018 at a port of entry in Arizona, U.S. Border Patrol agents made the largest fentanyl bust in U.S. history, confiscating 254 pounds from a truck headed into the U.S. from Mexico, according to the Associated Press. That amount of the drug amounts to 100 million lethal doses.

Peters said tougher action needs to be taken against China, which he said isn’t being stern enough on pharmaceutical companies that create and distribute the drug.

“There is no question that this is a public health crisis, and Michigan has been hard-hit, in particular,”Peters said. “We need to get tough with the source, and that is China. It has failed to crack down on the distributors and hold them accountable, so we must.”

The drug is flooding into the country from across the borders and is even being delivered through the postal service. Peters said more legislation is being worked on which would allow packages being sent from China or other entities to the U.S. to be inspected more thoroughly.

“We need to have a better way to screen things to find this stuff,” Peters said.

Peters said that, from 2012 through 2017, opiate overdoses increased by 1,800% in Michigan.

There are a number of reasons why Michigan ranks among the highest in the nation in terms of opiate addiction, overdoses and deaths, Peters said.

“There is the way doctors prescribe it, and then it is popular in rural areas, which Michigan has a lot of,” Peters said. “It is a complex mix of reasons.”

The Fentanyl Sanctions Act would also allocate $600,000 in new funding for law enforcement and intelligence agencies to combat foreign trafficking of synthetic opiates. Peters said a portion of that could also be used for diplomatic efforts to have other countries levy or enforce sanctions.

He said more border agents are also needed to help control the drug flow into the country.

The bill is part of the National Defense Authorization Act, which could be voted on by the U.S. Senate next week, Peters said.

He said he anticipates it will pass in the Senate because of the bipartisan support it is receiving. Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., the Senate minority leader, Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., and Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., are among the supporters of including the bill into the National Defense Authorization Act.

Peters said he is confident it will also pass in the U.S. House and Trump will sign the series of bills and expenditures when they arrives on his desk.