What is the Biden-Xi fentanyl deal? What is the fentanyl crisis in the US?

In their first meeting in over a year, United States President Joe Biden and Chinese Premier Xi Jinping announced an agreement to tackle the production of ingredients for the drug fentanyl and its flow into the US. The drug has led to a deadly epidemic of opioid abuse in the United States. Senior US officials described the deal as the most important agreement from the summit.

Here is a breakdown of fentanyl, its effects, and the agreement signed between the two countries:

What is fentanyl?

Fentanyl is a highly potent synthetic opioid, which is 50 times stronger than heroin. It is a drug that a doctor can prescribe to alleviate severe pain.

 

Fentanyl is illegally produced and peddled by criminal gangs. According to the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), most of the illicit fentanyl found in the United States is trafficked from Mexico using chemicals obtained from China.

Also Read: Expect candid talk: Blinken defends Biden's 'dictator' remark for Xi

Cartels prefer the drug as they can produce fentanyl in smaller amounts due to its potency, facilitating its smuggling into the United States. To increase fentanyl's strength and market value, it is often adulterated with heroin, cocaine, and methamphetamine. Because of fentanyl's high potency, it is significantly more prone to causing overdoses compared to other substances.

People who are exposed to the synthetic opiate often seek them out to avoid painful withdrawals, as it is highly addictive. Because of its strength, a tiny dose of fentanyl can kill.

What is the Biden-Xi Fentanyl deal?

During the meeting, Biden told Xi that fentanyl posed one of the worst drug problems the US had faced. At the post-meeting media briefing, Biden stated that the two leaders agreed that fentanyl production needs to be "curbed substantially." China agreed to go after companies who produce precursor chemicals to fentanyl, Biden added.

Biden said that the deal helps "significantly reduce the flow of precursor chemicals and pill presses from China to the Western Hemisphere." "It's going to save lives and I appreciate President Xi's commitment on this issue," he said.

How many deaths have been caused in the US due to fentanyl?

Fentanyl was behind the majority of overdoses that killed a record 110,000 Americans in 2023. The drug has become the leading cause of death in American adults under 45 years old.

Also Read: Joe Biden, Xi Jinping have far to go if they want to lift cold war clouds

Less than 40,000 people died from a drug overdose across the country in 2010, and less than 10 per cent of those deaths were connected to fentanyl. Drug overdoses killed more than 100,000 people across the country by 2021, with an estimated 66 per cent of those connected to fentanyl.
 

In 2017, for the first time ever, over 100,000 people died annually in drug overdoses across the country in one single year. More than 66 per cent of these deaths were connected to fentanyl.

Deploying data compiled by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, scientists at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) studied trends in US overdose deaths from 2010-21.