The Loophole that Allows Fentanyl to Flood into America

At this point, it is fairly well known that the synthetic drug Fentanyl has been contributing to a worsening opiate epidemic in this country. While the drug is prescribed and can be found in prescription form, the majority of it is found on the streets. This is caused by a legal loophole, making law enforcement powerless to stop it.

Domestic couriers like UPS and FedEx are required to have advanced, electronic tracking that allows law enforcement to assess threats and illegal shipments and intercept them. The exception to this, which allows large packages full of Fentanyl and other synthetic drugs into the country, is couriers from outside of the country because they are not required to follow the same protocols.

However, this may be changing due to legislation being pushed through which requires packages shipped from abroad to carry the same information as those sent domestically.

Juliette Kayyem, who served as an assistant secretary in Former President Barack Obama’s Department of Homeland Security had this to say:

“You have the demand problem, the public health problem of making sure people cannot be addicted, but on the supply-chain issue, one of the loopholes is clearly the postal system,” she said. “These drugs—these more lethal drugs and unlawful drugs, are being delivered here through a system that is bringing in millions of packages and letters a week.”

For now, the loophole still exists but many are hopeful that Congress will pass the legislation to dampen the inflow of drug packages into the US. For more details on this story, visit the News Tribune’s Website.