File photo: A bottle of fentanyl Photo: IC

Some US government officials have turned a blind eye to the huge efforts that China has made in the prevention and control of illegal trafficking of fentanyl-related drugs, and have claimed that China is a main source of fentanyl and that fentanyl and other synthetic opioids trafficked from China have taken hundreds of thousands of American lives, China's narcotics control authorities said.

The comment came after the US government issued a statement indicating that China is one of the major sources of fentanyl, a powerful synthetic opioid that has claimed the lives of many Americans. The statement alleges fentanyl is being trafficked from China to the US.

It is extremely irresponsible for some in the US to accuse and smear China in this way, China's National Narcotics Control Commission (NNCC) said in an exclusive statement sent to the Global Times on Monday.

The Chinese government has been cooperating with the drug enforcement agencies of other countries, including the US, in a highly responsible manner within its own legal framework, the NNCC said, adding that according to US customs and border protection, the US has not seized any fentanyl substances from China since October 2019. 

Five regional narcotics laboratories in Beijing, Zhejiang, Guangdong, Sichuan and Shaanxi under the NNCC have been established to offer technical support for inspection of the suspected substances seized by customs.

Since 2012, the US has informed the Chinese side about more than 10 leads in smuggling cases involving fentanyl substances, only three of which have been successfully detected. Dozens of kilograms of fentanyl substances have been seized, according to the Chinese authorities. The other intelligence leads from the US have so far yielded no valuable clues.

Against the backdrop of the huge efforts that China has made in the crackdown on drug-trafficking with the international community, the US has seen a rising trend of drug abuse.

Drug deaths in the US fell in 2018 for the first time in 25 years but then rose to a record high in 2019 and are now continuously rising, a resurgence that is being complicated and perhaps worsened by the coronavirus pandemic, the New York Times reported on July 15.

India is emerging as a major source for finished fentanyl powder and fentanyl precursor chemicals, according to a report by the US Drug Enforcement Administration in January.

There are several reasons for the use of fentanyl-related drugs in the US, including general drug use habits and inadequate government supervision, analysts said.

The US has five percent of the world's population, but consumes 80 percent of the world's prescription opioids, US media outlet National Public Radio reported on July 17, citing Jonathan Chen, a physician and researcher at Stanford University Medical Center who studies prescribing patterns.

The US government has failed to control prescription drugs, with drug abusers collecting drugs across state lines and doctors prescribing drugs repeatedly without supervision, the NNCC said, noting that US medical channels have serious disadvantages.

"We believe that in order to truly solve the problem of fentanyl substance abuse in the US, the first step is to make clear the reasons for the problem, the people who abuse the drugs and the sources of fentanyl substances, so as to identify the crux of the problem and make appropriate remedies," said the NNCC.