Colombia joined this Friday the international coalition founded by the United States to combat the trafficking of fentanyl and other synthetic opioidsbut insisted that a new approach must be promoted that leaves the war on drugs behind.
(Read here: The deadly ‘zombie’ drugs that alert Mexico and the United States)
Colombian Foreign Minister Alvaro Leyvaparticipated in the telematic ministerial meeting convened by the secretary of US state, Anthony Blinkento lay the foundations of this new alliance.
During his speech, Leyva valued “positively” the willingness of the United States to “confront the threat of synthetic drugs” and offered the “full willingness of Colombia” to actively participate in the new international coalition.
In turn, he opined that the fentanyl crisis, which has left thousands of overdose deaths in the United States, is the consequence of having addressed the drug problem for decades from “an exclusively punitive perspective.”
The fentanyl crisis, which has left thousands of overdose deaths in the United States, is the consequence of having approached the drug problem for decades from “a punitive perspective”
For this reason, he affirmed that “new policies” must be adopted to strengthen public health programs aimed at opioid users and guarantee the availability of drugs to treat their effects.
Leyva explained that the government of the president of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, has recognized from the beginning that “prohibitionism and consumer stigmatization have proven ineffective”and recalled that his country is organizing with Mexico the convening of a Latin American conference on drug trafficking.
“I want to call on the international community to support our proposal, to transcend the traditional paradigm against drugs and to face the problem through tools based on scientific evidence, public health and life care,” he said.
This is the international summit that fights against fentanyl
The United States brought together dozens of countries on Friday in an attempt to combat fentanyl, with the conspicuous absence of Chinaaccused of being the main source of the chemical substances with which the Mexican cartels manufacture that opioid.
In a virtual meeting, the head of US diplomacy, Antony Blinken, told ministers from more than 80 countries, including Mexico, that the United States was “the canary in the coal mine” because it accused the coup before it others.
Nearly 110,000 Americans died in 2022 from drug overdoses, the majority from synthetic opioids like fentanyl, up to 50 times more potent than heroin.
If we don’t act together with extreme urgency, more cities around the world will bear the catastrophic costs.
“Once the US market is saturated, transnational criminal corporations turn elsewhere to expand their profits,” Blinken said.
“If we don’t act together with extreme urgency, more cities around the world will bear the catastrophic costs” seen in the United States.
Addiction in the United States has skyrocketed since the 1990s, when pharmaceutical companies aggressively marketed pain relievers.s, with a disproportionate effect on veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
In response, Washington pressured China, where most fentanyl comes from, to ban exports, which it did in 2019.
But China is still a producer of the chemicals (called precursors) used to make fentanyl. They leave for Mexico and Central America, where the cartels produce painkillers and smuggle them into the United States.
Against a backdrop of heightened tension in US-China relations, US lawmakers have publicly blamed Beijing for the opioid epidemic and are calling for strong action.
China declined the invitation to participate in the meeting, saying it believes in international cooperation against drugs, but believes the United States has sent the wrong message by imposing sanctions on Chinese companies for fentanyl trafficking.
China “firmly opposes smearing and attacking other countries or imposing unilateral sanctions on other countries in the name of counternarcotics,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Weng Wenbin said in Beijing.
An epidemy
Todd Robinson, assistant secretary for the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, said the United States would like him to participate in similar appointments in the future.
He specified that Beijing is in contact with the countries that do participate, whose mission is to “strive against these supply chains” and “engage” with China.
Blinken implicitly acknowledged that China’s action will not end the epidemic because “when a government aggressively restricts a precursor chemical, traffickers simply buy it elsewhere.”
The coalition, which will meet in person in September, on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, it will also examine national best practices in addiction treatment.
It will also address other synthetic drugs such as captagon, a stimulant similar to amphetamines whose use has increased in Arab countries, including Saudi Arabia, which participated in Friday’s meeting.
An AFP investigation in November revealed that war-torn Syria has a $10 billion worth of captagon industry, which is used to finance both President Bashar al-Assad and many of his associates. enemies.
*With AFP and Efe
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