23 years after 9/11, Americans face new international threat. We can fight it the same way.

Twenty-three years ago, in the wake of 9/11 , the U.S. government marshalled a robust response to the terrorist attacks that claimed nearly 3,000 lives .

The Taliban regime, which harbored the attackers in Afghanistan, was toppled. The al-Qaida leaders were methodically hunted down. Airport security was tightened. And then-President George W. Bush demanded that our intelligence and law enforcement agencies overcome obstacles to coordination and work more closely together. This admirable, forceful reaction has kept us relatively safe from international terrorism ever since.

Today, the nation faces a different international threat, one that costs the same number of lives we lost on 9/11 every 10 days . According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, drug overdoses took the lives of 107,543 Americans last year .

That awful toll includes at least 74,702 fatalities resulting from synthetic opioids, including fentanyl ‒ about the same number of deaths associated with COVID-19 in 2023 .

Fentanyl crisis strikes far too many families, including mine

Most of the fentanyl originates as precursors in China, is manufactured in Mexico, then finds its way into the United States mostly through conventional means such as vehicles and packages. The drug overdose epidemic also imposes great economic cost on our nation; Congress’ Joint Economic Committee put the total at $1.5 trillion in 2020 .

This is a deadly scourge that has struck far too many American families, including my own seven years ago, when we lost our courageous son Jonathan to an accidental overdose of fentanyl-laced heroin when he relapsed during his journey of addiction recovery.

I lost my son to fentanyl. Now my family is on the front lines of the opioid epidemic.

Halting progress is being made on several fronts. The number of deaths attributable to fentanyl, though appallingly high, is very slowly declining . Our capable law enforcement and intelligence agencies have been working steadfastly to interdict this influx of deadly drugs.

Indeed, the capture of two key Mexican cartel members in late July was an ingenious example of collaboration among the FBI, the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Department of Homeland Security.

However, and reminiscent of pre-9/11, the agencies responsible for interdicting fentanyl and related substances have not been working as closely together as they should ‒ as closely as they worked against terrorism after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Obstacles to cooperation in the law enforcement and intelligence arena are difficult to overcome.

Treat fentanyl traffickers more like 9/11 terrorists

Despite vigorous denials by leaders, rivalries remain abundant at the working level among government organizations. One agency might be concerned that sharing information could put a prized source at risk or jeopardize an investigation supporting a prosecution.

Sharing is not a natural act when agencies are physically separated and people with relevant information are not in the same room. In the worst case, knowledge can be held as power or as a source of institutional pride.

What are nitazenes? These new synthetic opioids could make fentanyl crisis look like 'the good old days'

To directly address these issues and more, President Joe Biden released a new national security memorandum on July 31, partially based on a report from the President’s Intelligence Advisory Board, that takes the long-needed and vital step of identifying fentanyl-related deaths as a national security threat.

The memorandum directs every department of our government to do even more to tackle this scourge and to better share the information required to do it. It also establishes a National Security Council-led Fentanyl Disruption Steering Group to oversee the effort.

This isn’t glamorous stuff, but it’s crucial.

More specifically, the president’s memo establishes fentanyl as a stand-alone intelligence priority . It directs government agencies to work together to increase intelligence collection, exploitation and dissemination; establish a common assessment of the threat; increase the scale and speed by which information is shared; and work more collaboratively to support strategic disruption efforts.

It takes the key step of directing that fentanyl traffickers be treated more like terrorists in how they are tracked.

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The memo also directs enhanced collaboration with private sector entities in a variety of fields, including s hipping, freight forwarding, e-commerce and social media . Indeed, there is a gaping need for better technology and far more capacity for detection at ports of entry, including border crossings and package handling facilities.

The Transportation Security Administration has, at some inconvenience to passengers, made air travel safer. To help prevent fentanyl deaths, Americans should be willing to accept similar inconvenience in border crossing and package delivery.

To be sure, the epidemic of overdose fatalities, which affects the United States more than other high-income nations , is a multidimensional supply-and-demand problem. There is no silver bullet. A major obstacle has been stigma, similar to that present during the HIV/AIDS epidemic, which has dampened our nation’s overall efforts.

We will prevent other families from experiencing this tragedy only by leveraging every tool at our disposal, amplifying our efforts in prevention, treatment and interdiction.

The opioid crisis shouldn’t be overshadowed in the news by the presidential race; it ought to be an integral part of the race.

At their debate scheduled for Tuesday, Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump should be pressed to detail their plans for combatting the crisis ‒ and be asked to pledge to continue the new policies aimed at addressing the fentanyl pre-9/11 moment we are experiencing every day.

James “Sandy” Winnefeld, a retired Navy admiral, was the ninth vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. He is co-chair of SAFE Project , a nonprofit organization working to end the opioid epidemic, and is the chair of the President’s Intelligence Advisory Board.

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: 23 years after 9/11, Americans face new international threat. We can fight it the same way.