'Game changing' move on fentanyl may help US

Enhanced cooperation on law enforcement and combating illicit drugs were high on the agenda when President Xi Jinping and his US counterpart Donald Trump met in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in December. As Trump said then, China designating all fentanyl derivatives as controlled substances would help limit the supply of illegal opioids coming into the United States.

The US has less than 5 percent of the world's population, yet it reportedly consumes 80 percent of the global opioid supply. This is partly because pharmaceutical companies have long spread the myth that patients would not become addicted to prescription opioid pain relievers, and the healthcare providers recklessly prescribed them in pursuit of profits. As a result, the demand for opioids has soared and the opioid epidemic has been claiming more and more lives for example, nearly 50,000 in 2017.

Trump has declared the opioid crisis a public health emergency, and his administration is seeking to address it by reducing the demand and over-prescription, raising awareness of the dangers and curbing the supply of illicit synthetic opioids by cracking down on the domestic and international supply chains.