We live in perilous times.
More than 77 million fentanyl pills were seized in 2023. Drug Enforcement Administration testing shows that as many as seven out of every 10 fentanyl pills contain a potentially lethal dose. As a result, fentanyl-related deaths continue to skyrocket, with 200 people dying of fentanyl poisonings daily. Our communities are reeling, and narcotics officers face this crisis and see these tragedies daily. Yet, this awful trend has no foreseeable end in sight.
Law enforcement is working tirelessly to keep up with the volume of counterfeit and dangerous drugs coming into the United States. Resources are already stretched thin, crime is rising, and our borders are flooded with illegal drugs and counterfeits. Yet, an inexplicable recent government decision may soon make illegal foreign drug importation issues even worse.
The Food and Drug Administration recently approved a plan for Florida to import prescription drugs from Canada — an unprecedented decision that previous administrations and FDA commissioners from both parties have refused and denounced.
From a health, safety and law enforcement perspective, this decision is wrong and will have devastating consequences. Allowing wholesale shipments of drugs produced and packaged in other countries — without the safety guarantees we uphold in the United States — is a recipe for disaster.
Criminal networks constantly search for vulnerabilities in our border security, and allowing foreign drug importation will only compound the devastating crisis we are experiencing. These criminal networks are bringing counterfeit medications into our country through illegal border crossings, trafficking between points of entry, and smuggling counterfeits into air and sea cargo, express consignments, and even international small parcel shipments.
Importation opens and exposes another weakness for these criminals to exploit. They will leverage state importation plans to smuggle more substandard, adulterated and counterfeit prescription drugs and fake fentanyl pills into the United States to rake in even more illicit profits, with total disregard for the health and safety of unsuspecting Americans.
Why would the government want to open the door to another large-scale source of pills produced, packaged and handled outside of the FDA’s jurisdiction? Is it because it’s suddenly a great idea? The United States boasts the safest pharmaceutical supply in the world. Why would we want to mess that up?
We risk our safety by opening our borders to any importation plan, even from an allied nation like Canada. Canada does not manufacture most of its drugs; it imports them. So, importing from Canada means importing from any other country in the world, where packaging, labeling and inspection standards aren’t anywhere near as rigorous as our own. It is not Canada’s responsibility to protect Americans’ safety — that’s the responsibility of the FDA.
By green-lighting importation, federal officials defer some of that authority to foreign shippers without U.S. jurisdiction. When importation goes awry, law enforcement will inherit another unfunded mandate. Law enforcement will be the one answering 911 calls for injuries and deaths from falsified, adulterated and counterfeit medicines. Law enforcement will face the burden of tracking the foreign criminal actors who committed these crimes.
Having worked narcotics crimes for more than 30 years, I can tell you this task is not easy. These criminal groups are highly organized, well financed, very nimble and often foreign actors outside U.S. law enforcement’s grasp.
Active and retired law enforcement at the state and federal levels and their associations have repeatedly voiced concerns and opposition to foreign drug importation. The warnings come from experts, including a former FBI director, the National Sheriffs’ Association and the National Narcotics Officers’ Associations’ Coalition.
The good news is that Florida’s plan has not gone into effect. Before medicines can start flowing across the border, Florida must file formal requests to the FDA for each drug it seeks to import. That means the federal government can still step up and do the right thing: Stop Florida from importing unsafe medicines and deny other states’ importation proposals. Put American safety first — not the profits of illicit criminal networks.
