President Joe Biden will focus on stemming the flow of illegal substances into communities across the country as part of his inaugural National Drug Control Strategy.
National Drug Control Policy Director Rahul Gupta previewed the two-pronged strategy, which prioritizes untreated addiction and trafficking, to reporters Wednesday before its Thursday release.
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Gupta touted Biden proposing a $300 million increase for Customs and Border Protection and a $300 million boost for the Drug Enforcement Administration in his $5.8 trillion fiscal year 2023 budget to enhance domestic and international law enforcement cooperation and interdiction.
“But we must do more,” he said. “We have to hit the drug traffickers where it hurts them the most, and that’s their wallets. Through this strategy, we will work to more than triple the number of drug traffickers sanctioned and increase our border security.”
The strategy comes after roughly 107,000 people died from drug overdoses in the 12 months before November, a majority from synthetic opioids including fentanyl and its analogs, but also from stimulants such as methamphetamine and cocaine.
“That’s an American life lost every five minutes around the clock,” Gupta said.
The drugs are “too often” produced from China-made chemicals and enter the country via Mexico before being distributed by domestic criminal organizations to communities where naloxone, an opioid overdose antidote, in addition to other prevention, harm reduction, and treatment programs, are not readily available, according to Gupta. Gupta contended that closing data collection and analysis gaps would help cut off the supply chain and improve policymaking more broadly as well.
“The most important action we can take to save lives right now is to have naloxone in the hands of everyone who needs it,” he added. “We will double treatment admissions for populations most at risk of overdose deaths and ensure universal access to medications for opioid use disorder by 2025.”
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The strategy additionally refers to safe syringe access, promoting Biden’s framework as the first to “champion” harm reduction. The White House disputed a February report that the Department of Health and Human Services would provide clean, so-called “crack pipes” through a harm reduction service.
