ASAP Urges the President’s Commission on Combating Drug Addiction and the Opioid Crisis to Tackle the Global Drug Pipeline
Solutions Presented by the Commission Must Include Efforts to Tackle the Major Drug Pipeline in the Global Postal System
Washington, D.C. – Americans for Securing All Packages (ASAP) urges the administration’s new interagency coalition to combat America’s opioid epidemic to consider steps to cut off the supply of deadly synthetic drugs by closing a security loophole in the global postal system. The President’s Commission on Combating Drug Addiction and the Opioid Crisis, led by New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, can take an integral step toward tackling this epidemic by addressing this major security gap, which provides a pipeline for some of the most toxic opioids.
As recent reports have indicated, powerful synthetic opioids are increasingly manufactured in foreign laboratories, purchased on the ‘dark web’ and shipped through the global postal system to communities across the country. Because of this loophole in the global postal system, nearly one million packages are shipped to the United States every day without advance security data that would allow law enforcement to identify packages containing dangerous materials – including deadly, synthetic drugs.
“With powerful drugs like fentanyl showing up in more neighborhoods every day, any effective solution for this tragic epidemic must ensure that we are cutting off the supply of these deadly drugs,” said Juliette Kayyem, senior advisor to ASAP. “This loophole in the global postal system provides unacceptably easy access to these drugs for children, addicts and drug traffickers.”
“The establishment of this Commission is a welcome sign that the administration understands the magnitude of this crisis,” said Gov. Tom Ridge, senior advisor to ASAP. “Cutting off the supply chain of these deadly drugs by closing the postal loophole is a common-sense move that already has bipartisan support, and it would have a real impact on achieving President Trump’s goal of a safer America.”
President Trump acknowledged the importance of closing this postal loophole in a campaign speech in New Hampshire and in his plan to address the opioid epidemic, saying his administration would “crack down on the abuse of the loopholes in the Postal Service to literally mail fentanyl and other drugs to users and dealers in the United States.” There is also bipartisan support for a solution in Congress. The Synthetics Trafficking & Overdose Prevention (STOP) Act, which would require all packages shipped through foreign postal services to include vital security data, was reintroduced in February and currently has 12 co-sponsors in the Senate and 76 in the House.
About Americans for Securing All Packages
Americans for Securing All Packages (ASAP) is a bipartisan coalition composed of health care advocates, national security experts, businesses and nonprofits who believe it is time for the U.S. government to take action and ensure that all packages being shipped to the United States from any foreign postal service are adequately screened before arriving on the doorsteps of unsuspecting Americans.
