China says US should reduce demand for opioids

Beijing (AFP) – China said Monday that the US should do more to stem its own demand for synthetic drugs, but pledged despite tensions to strengthen cooperation to stop the country's manufactured opioid flow. Asian.

China is considered one of the major manufacturers of synthetic drugs – including opioids such as fentanyl – that have been accused of public health crises worldwide.

In anticipation of his first state visit to Beijing last year, President Donald Trump said the US opioid crisis was a national public health emergency and called for a halt the "cheap and deadly flow of fentanyl".

China will seek greater cooperation with the United States to stem the flow of fentanyl, and these efforts will not be subordinated to "political or economic problems," said Liu Yuejin, deputy director of China's National Control Commission. narcotics.

"But … it's more important for the US to do its best to reduce the huge demand and the drug market," he said.

"To solve this problem, you have to look to the outside, but more importantly, you have to look inside.If there are fewer US users of fentanyl, then what fentanyl (Chinese) will not have a market. "

China has stepped up its efforts to stem the production of drug precursors and new psychoactive substances (NPS), chemicals that mimic the effects of illicit drugs while exploiting gaps in anti-drug laws, he added.

But "the situation remains gloomy," concluded an annual report of the Narcotic Control Commission released Monday.

These substances are readily available online from Chinese manufacturers, who constantly modify their formulas to keep them a step ahead of the laws that prohibit products based on their chemical composition.

Drug manufacturers "are turning more and more to uncontrolled chemicals to illegally produce precursors," with the import of these compounds increasing, the report says.

As a result, new synthetic drugs are emerging rapidly, with 34 new NPS being discovered last year – 15% of the known NPS in China.

The authorities cracked down 388 criminal cases related to drug precursors and seized 2,384 tonnes of precursor chemicals.

But "professional criminal gangs" dealing with these chemicals have emerged because of "high demand".

In a statement issued on the occasion of the International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking, President Xi Jinping said China should "crack down on drug crimes … and destroy resolutely the gang network of drug traffickers ". drug problem. "

In 2017, the number of known drug users in China increased by 1.9% to 2.6 million, according to the report. Of these, about 60% used synthetic drugs and 38% used opioids such as heroin.