Hi everyone.
I want to thank Chairman Rogers for inviting me to participate in this summit
and for his years of leadership on this vital issue – as well as
his commitment to making American diplomacy as strong as it can be.
It might not be obvious why the U.S. Secretary of State
is joining the conversation about America’s opioid and addiction crisis.
I don’t work in law enforcement, and I’m not a doctor, counselor, or first responder.
But our country’s addiction crisis comes up in my work a great deal.
The scope of the crisis is staggering.
As you know, the CDC estimates that more than 88,000 drug overdose deaths occurred in the U.S.
between August 2019 and August 2020 – the highest numbers ever recorded in a 12-year period.
Those numbers represent an enormous amount of suffering – by those who
died from a cruel disease, the loved ones left behind, and communities ravaged by addiction.
The opioid crisis helps drive cycles of poverty, violence, and despair.
It’s a public health crisis and an economic crisis.
It’s also a national security crisis.
Almost all the illicit drugs responsible for America’s drug overdose deaths
are produced outside the United States.
Disrupting the flow of opioids – especially synthetic opioids
like fentanyl – is an urgent national priority.
And it requires intensive diplomacy and global cooperation.
We’ve seen in the pandemic that the criminal organizations behind the drug trade
are highly adaptable.
They use the tools of 21st-century commerce, including internet-based marketing and sales,
virtual currencies, social media, and international postal services.
And while the opioid crisis is worse in the United States than anywhere else,
synthetic opioids are increasingly prevalent around the world.
The Biden-Harris Administration is committed to deterring
and disrupting the production and trafficking of illicit drugs into the U.S.
The State Department is attacking the issue on multiple fronts at once.
We’re leveraging international institutions to mobilize a global response.
In fact, next week, the annual United Nations Commission on Narcotic Drugs will meet,
and the U.S. will advocate for a renewed focus on synthetic drugs
and for better information sharing among countries on drug trafficking trends.
We’ll also vote to place international controls on synthetic opioids and push for those controls
to happen fast, which will make it harder for criminal organizations to operate.
We’re pressing China to address the production and sale of precursor chemicals
that are the ingredients for synthetic drugs.
We’re working with Mexico to stop the flow of drugs over the border.
We’re coordinating with the Treasury Department to apply financial sanctions
and other deterrence tools, to help bring transnational criminals to justice.
We’re strengthening coordination with the private sector, which plays an important
role in fighting the illicit drug trade, including by sharing information with
governments about suspicious orders and transactions and by adopting
crime-sensitive business practices to prevent the exploitation of their goods and services.
And we’re promoting best practices to reduce drug demand worldwide – because ultimately the
most powerful way to fight the global illicit drug trade is to reduce the demand for illicit drugs.
This is the definition of a crisis that no single country,
state, agency, community, or family can solve on its own.
I want to thank each of you for being in this fight – in particular, the counselors,
public health workers, social workers, and family members
who face this crisis every day and fight it with everything you’ve got.
Our nation’s security, prosperity, safety,
competitiveness – and our children’s future well-being – are all at stake.
The U.S. State Department is in this fight with you for as long as it takes.
Thank you.