White House announce measures to tackle illegal fentanyl trade

July 31 (UPI) -- The White House on Wednesday announced new efforts to curb access to fentanyl and other synthetic drugs.

President Joe Biden will issue a National Security Memorandum directing all federal departments and agencies to concentrate their efforts to stop the flow of fentanyl and other narcotics into the country and urge Congress to pass his administrations "Detect and Defeat" Counter-Fentanyl proposal.

Biden said that while his administration has taken steps to seize fentanyl at the borders, arrest and prosecute "high-level drug traffickers," sanctioned entities involved in global drug trade and announced counternarcotics cooperation with China "far too many of our fellow Americans continue to lose loved ones to fentanyl."

"This is a time to act," he said. "And this is a time to stand together -- for all those we have lost and for all the lives we can still save."

The administration said the memorandum builds on Biden's "Unity Agenda" to end the opioid epidemic by enabling the government to disrupt drug cartels and their suppliers and financiers faster and more effectively.

The memorandum will help increase intelligence collection on traffickers and their tactics to smuggle narcotics into the United States and assist law enforcement personnel seize more drugs before they start circulating in communities around the country, the White House said.

Biden also encouraged Congress to pass legislation including the "Detect and Defeat" proposal.

"These bipartisan proposals increase penalties on drug smugglers, give border officials key tools they need to target fentanyl at our border and close other loopholes that traffickers exploit," Biden said.

The White House said the anti-fentanyl proposal combines many bipartisan ideas to combat trafficking and hold those taking part in the practice more accountable. It would also give border officials a better way to track and target millions of small-dollar shipments that can often cross the border undetected, closing a loophole traffickers take advantage of.

"It would establish a nationwide pill press and tableting machine registry so that law enforcement officials can track them and protect against their illicit use in producing fake fentanyl pills," the White House said.

"And it would permanently regulate fentanyl-related substances as 'Schedule I' drugs, subjecting the distribution and possession of these drugs to heightened penalties."