In Case You Missed It: DEA Chief and FDA Commissioner Warn of Deadly Fentanyl Delivered Through Global Postal Network
This week, the heads of the Drug Enforcement Agency and Food and Drug Administration both spoke out on the major threat posed by deadly synthetic drugs shipped through the global postal system, and the need for better detection and enforcement capabilities.
Chuck Rosenberg, acting DEA administrator, told NPR’s Here & Now: “Folks can order [fentanyl] easily off the dark web. You can sit down at your computer and in a couple of key strokes find any number of illegal sites, and order it up and have it delivered through the U.S. Postal Service to your home.”
Separately, the Washington Post reports that the FDA is strengthening efforts to detect illegal opioids entering the country through the mail, deploying additional employees to help detect and analyze suspicious packages. Commissioner Scott Gottlieb spoke on the need to “devote even more resources and attention to these risks,” warning that “facilities check envelopes and packages arriving from more than 180 countries but often don’t have manifest details that would help in targeting shipments.”
These actions follow the release of the President’s Commission on Combating Drug Addiction and the Opioid Crisis’ preliminary report, which recommends federal legislation and a presidential directive to support law enforcement’s ability to detect fentanyl and other illicit substances sent through the mail.
Read the full stories at NPR and the Washington Post.
