Connect with us

Health

Trump signs bipartisan bill to combat opioid trafficking

Published

7 years ago

on

Washington, Jan 11 (IANS) US President Donald Trump has signed a legislation that will grant $9 million to the Customs and Border Protection to fight trafficking of opioid analgesics, entering the US from Mexico and Canada.

The initiative is specifically aimed at ending the trafficking of fentanyl, a white powder analgesic 30-50 times more powerful than heroin and usually used to treat cancer, although in recent years, criminal groups have used it to increase the potency of heroin.

The drug traffickers “are using our postal system and they’re killing our people,” Trump said on Wednesday while signing the bill in the Oval Office, accompanied by Vice President, Mike Pence, and 17 legislators from both parties, Efe news reported.

According to the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), fentanyl is manufactured in China but enters US territory across the borders with Mexico and Canada, where the drug arrives by postal mail and in very small quantities, making it very difficult to detect.

Trump said that the new bill is “a significant step forward” in the fight against fentanyl, a substance which, according to him, is so dangerous that it has killed police sniffing dogs.

“Even dogs die from the scent,” Trump said, adding that “nobody has ever seen anything like this.”

The law that Trump signed on Wednesday stipulates that the US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) must have portable chemical screening devices at ports of entry and at mail facilities.

Specifically, the legislation grants $9 million to the CBP to purchase hundreds of such devices as well as laboratory equipment.

The bill was passed in the House of Representatives with 412 votes in favour and only 3 against, and it subsequently received the unanimous support from the Senate.

Over the past six years, drug overdose deaths have become the most common cause of violent death in the US, over and above road traffic accidents or weapons.

According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 64,000 Americans died from drug overdoses in 2016.

Fentanyl is directly linked to more than 700 deaths between the end of 2013 and the beginning of 2015, according to the latest data from the DEA.

–IANS
pgh/

Related Topics:
Continue Reading

Corona

Covid toll in Karnataka is a worrying sign for state government

Published

3 years ago

on

May 4, 2022

By

 

Even though Karnataka recorded the lowest number of Covid deaths in April since the virus struck first in 2020, the state is recording a rise in the positivity rate (1.50 per cent). Five people died from the Covid infections in April as per the statistics released by the state health department. In March, the positivity rate stood around 0.53 per cent. In the first week of April it came down to 0.38 per cent, second week registered 0.56 per cent, third week it rose to 0.79 per cent and by end of April the Covid positivity rate touched 1.19 per cent.

on an average 500 persons used to succumb everyday in the peak of Covid infection, as per the data. Health experts said that the mutated Coronavirus is losing its fierce characteristics as vaccination, better treatment facilities and awareness among the people have contributed to the lesser number of Covid deaths.

During the 4th and 6th of April two deaths were reported in Bengaluru, one in Gadag district on April 8, two deaths were reported from Belagavi and Vijayapura on April 30. The first Covid case was reported in the state in March 2020 and three Covid deaths were recorded in the month. In the following month 21 people became victims to the deadly virus, and May 2020 recorded 22 deaths. The death toll recorded everyday after May crossed three digits. However, the third wave, which started in January 2

Continue Reading

Trending