Video: Senator Portman Discusses New Report on Fentanyl Through the Mail

January 2018 – On CNN’s The Lead with Jake Tapper, Portman discussed his stunning new bipartisan report released yesterday that details how drug traffickers exploit vulnerabilities in our international mail system to easily ship synthetic drugs like fentanyl from China into the United States. A hearing was held on the report earlier today. Portman also discussed the FBI’s Russia investigation into their meddling in the U.S. election and his hope that investigators will deliver a thoughtful, nonpartisan report to the American people sooner rather than later.

Excerpts of the interview can be found below:

PORTMAN ON OPIOID CRISIS, FENTANYL INVESTIGATION

We have to do more, but we have actually done a lot in terms of funding and changing some laws already. As you know, I’m the co-author of the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act, which has put more money against this problem, but more importantly, it’s put it towards evidence-based things that are actually working in terms of treatment and recovery and prevention. Hundreds of millions of dollars more was spent this year than last year, but we have to do it again. We have to actually up the spending further because the crisis has not abated. It’s gotten worse, not better. In my home state of Ohio, we had more overdoses this last year, we believe, than the previous year. Our biggest problem in Ohio now is not heroin, it’s this synthetic opioid coming through the United States mail system. That’s what our report was on that was issued last night and our hearing was on today. It is outrageous to me that as a government we’re not pushing back more on that. We know for a fact this opioid problem is being made much worse by synthetic heroin made in China, shipped through our mail system to our citizens’ houses. We traced this. We came up with a shocking report last night showing how this is happening, showing how easy it is to buy the stuff, and how the U.S. mail system is being used as a conduit.”

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