China says it will crack down on all types of the synthetic opioid fentanyl, following a plea from the US.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
All fentanyl-related substances will be added to China’s list of controlled narcotic drugs from 1 May, officials said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It follows a pledge Beijing made during US-China trade talks in December.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The powerful painkiller, much of it believed to be made in China, is said to be driving a huge rise in drug addiction in the US.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The number of deaths from painkillers such as fentanyl led to President Donald Trump declaring a national emergency in 2017<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n China’s production of the drug has long been a source of tension between the two countries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “The US is concerned about all variants [of fentanyl] and it has all been resolved,” Liu Yuejin, deputy director of China’s narcotics control commission, told a news conference.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Mr Liu said the claim that China was the main source of fentanyl “lacked evidence”, and instead blamed a history of abuse of prescription medicine in the US for fuelling demand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “We believe that the United States itself is the main factor in the abuse of fentanyl there,” he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “Some people link drug consumption with freedom, individuality, and liberation. If the US really wants to resolve the fentanyl substance problem they have more work to do domestically.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n Fentanyl itself is already on China’s list of controlled drugs. Expanding the list to all fentanyl-related substances is aimed at stopping smugglers from changing formulas to circumvent the law.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Fentanyl is estimated to be 50 to 100 times stronger than morphine and is usually only approved in the US for severe pain arising in cases like treatment for cancer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The US says the synthetic drug is being sold on the internet and sent by post from China, fuelling the opioid crisis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n US authorities list all fentanyl-related products in the most dangerous class of drugs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In 2017, the US announced the first ever indictments against two Chinese individuals for conspiracy “to distribute large quantities” of fentanyl as well as other opioids.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The issue over fentanyl figured during a trade war between China and the US that erupted last year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n China’s pledge to control the drug came during a post-G20 summit<\/a> between the two countries in Buenos Aires in December.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" China says it will crack down on all types of the synthetic opioid fentanyl, following a plea from the US. All fentanyl-related substances will be added to China’s list of controlled narcotic drugs from 1 May, officials said. It follows a pledge Beijing made during US-China trade talks in December. The powerful painkiller, much of it believed to be made… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":110,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[165],"class_list":["post-3408","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-www-bbc-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3408","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/110"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3408"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3408\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3409,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3408\/revisions\/3409"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3408"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3408"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3408"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}