President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping agreed that China would crack down on the production and exporting of fentanyl and the precursor chemicals used to make it, according to media reports.

But while Biden is painting the agreement as a win that will “save lives”, drug policy experts told VICE News they’re skeptical the measure will curb the overdose crisis—and it may make the drug supply worse.

Biden and Xi met Wednesday in San Francisco, where both leaders were in town for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit. According to the New York Times, China will go after the exporting of illicit fentanyl into the U.S. and the manufacturing of precursor chemicals, which are being used to make fentanyl and smuggle it into the country from Mexico.

  • HubertManne
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    311 months ago

    I would think we would learn from the first war on drugs. Support of addicts yes, try to police it away no. Counselors not cops.

      • @Hazor
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        311 months ago

        The people who are that severely damaged by drugs* are a small percentage. I’ve only seen a handful who got that bad because of drugs (I’m a professional in the field). Most addicts can benefit from appropriate care and could become functional members of society again if they had proper support - which our system grossly lacks.

        *Most cases of persistent psychosis aren’t drug-induced; most of those throwing feces have psychosis from some other cause, which can also be treated with varying levels of success. Drug-induced psychosis is most of the time transient, and subsides as the drug wears off.

          • HubertManne
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            311 months ago

            I mean we used to have psychiatric facilities but due to abuses they just sorta got rid of them (well and the lower taxes god) instead of regulating them better.

            • @[email protected]
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              111 months ago

              We got rid of them in the name of small government.

              It was the Neo-liberal takeover ushered in under Reagan (and has been every president since) that shuttered the doors.

              A constant, soul sucking feature of Neo-liberal society is it’s refusal to invest or reinvest into itself, choosing to extract as much wealth out of the working class as possible as fast as possible - short of rioting.

              Its a funny thing from this crowd, they say we should run the government like a business but they never say what KIND of business. A non-profit? A ma and pop?..silence.

              Infrastructure, Education, Medicine all have a positive Return On Investment (ROI), which means that the smart business decision is to pay for it all, ensuring it’s thorough, properly done, and to best practices.

              But that is not what neo-libs mean. They mean short term profit corporations where responsible parties go unpunished.

              The literal worst system you can imagine.

          • @butterflyattack
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            311 months ago

            A couple of junkies who are nodding out in public still have the same rights to freedom and self determination as anyone else. You’re just advocating for more of the same war on drugs, brutalising marginalised people. After so many years it should be obvious that shit does not work.

              • @[email protected]
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                211 months ago

                Good on you. The world needs more of this

                Be proud of this. don’t lose this, don’t let the world beat it out of you.

          • HubertManne
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            211 months ago

            Not quite the same but NPR interviewed a guy who used to basically live in this open air drug market in california and he got incarcerated and he said it saved his life by forcing him to go cold turkey.