By Abraham Jonah
Managing Editor, Middle East
A United States Senior Bureau Official for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL), James Walsh, has led a global panel discussion on the international opioid crisis at the National Prescription Drug Abuse & Heroin Summit (Rx Summit), recently held in Atlanta, Georgia.
Walsh delivered opening remarks and moderated a panel discussion, which featured participants from Mexico, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).
Thousands of participants from the medical, law enforcement, public health, civil society, government, and drug treatment sectors attended the annual Rx Summit. Several U.S. Senators and Representatives, the U.S. Surgeon General, and the heads of the Food and Drug Administration, National Institutes of Health, and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention took part in the Summit.
In October 2017, President Donald Trump declared the U.S. opioid crisis a national public health emergency; over 42,000 Americans died from opioid overdoses in 2016. Part of the issues addressed were the international dimensions of this crisis, as well as the emerging technologies and trafficking patterns, which are making the opioid epidemic so challenging. Walsh also discussed the State Department’s key role in fighting the crisis in meetings during the Summit with Representative Hal Rogers, founding co-chair of the Congressional Caucus on Prescription Drug Abuse, as well as Senators Maggie Hassan and Edward Markey.