U.S. Department of State Counselor Tom Sullivan and White House Homeland Security Advisor Liz Sherwood-Randall convened a virtual meeting today with leadership of 12 countries that are leading progress in the Global Coalition to Address Synthetic Drug Threats to mobilize international action to tackle the synthetic drug crisis: Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Dominican Republic, France, Italy, Mexico, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom.
The meeting followed President Biden’s Leaders’ Summit of the Coalition at the UN General Assembly in September, during which 11 Coalition countries announced new initiatives, including efforts to disrupt the supply chain of fentanyl and enhance public health interventions.
The United States welcomed the announcements by Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, and France on their new initiatives that will move the work of each of the Coalition’s core lines forward. Argentina spoke to its efforts to establish a regional center to share information and best practices to disrupt synthetic drug trafficking. Brazil discussed its initiatives to expand Early Warning Systems to identify and share alerts on emerging synthetic drug threats. Colombia emphasized it stands ready to collaborate with Global Coalition partners to analyze seized illicit-synthetic drugs and their precursors. France presented on its intent to explore training French-speaking public health professionals around the world in substance-use prevention and treatment.
Counselor Sullivan and White House Homeland Security Advisor Sherwood-Randall commended partners on their collaborative efforts to disrupt the supply chain for fentanyl and other synthetic drugs; detect emerging drug threats; and prevent and treat substance use through effective public health interventions. Both underscored the U.S. government’s priority to counter the threat posed by synthetic drugs and our deep commitment to make progress on this lethal threat to U.S. citizens.