Spanberger House bill would ‘attack the source of the fentanyl crisis’

U.S. Rep. Abigail Spanberger of Virginia yesterday helped introduce bipartisan legislation to strengthen efforts to destroy precursor chemicals and keep illicit drugs out of American communities.

Precursor chemicals are substances used to manufacture illicit drugs such as fentanyl. Most of the fentanyl in the United States is trafficked by Mexican cartels and drug traffickers who synthesize precursor chemicals, which are largely obtained from China and India, into fentanyl and traffic the drug into the U.S. While the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) works with Latin American countries to curb the flow of illicit drugs, the U.S. has a limited view of how much or how little other nations are doing to destroy seized precursor chemicals.

The Spanberger-backed Destruction Initiative for Stored Precursors Overseas and Safe Enforcement (DISPOSE) Act would facilitate U.S. collaboration with partner countries, including Mexico, Colombia and Peru, to destroy seized fentanyl precursor chemicals. The legislation would direct the U.S. Department of State, in consultation with the U.S. Department of Justice and U.S. Department of Defense, to create the Precursor Chemical Destruction Initiative. The program would establish benchmarks and reporting requirements for the U.S. and partner countries to improve and increase rates of precursor seizure and destruction.

“Fentanyl is killing Virginians and Americans across our country at alarming rates — and far too many of our neighbors have found themselves in the throes of addiction. As a former federal law enforcement officer and a former CIA case officer who worked narcotics cases and tracked cartels, I’ve seen firsthand how criminals manufacture and traffic illicit substances into the United States,” Spanberger said. “Our country must do more to attack the source of the fentanyl crisis and stop the illicit drugs flowing across our southern border from Latin America. By better coordinating our strategy to destroy precursor chemicals, this legislation would help keep these substances out of the illicit drug supply chain and out of our communities.”

The Precursor Chemical Destruction Initiative created by the DISPOSE Act would set reporting requirements to:

• Improve and increasing rates of seizure and destruction of listed chemicals in beneficiary countries,
• Alleviate the backlog of seized listed chemicals and dispose the hazardous waste generated by illicit drug trafficking in beneficiary countries in an environmentally safe and effective manner,
• Guarantee that seized listed chemicals are not reintroduced into the illicit drug production stream within beneficiary countries,
• Free up storage space for future listed chemical seizures within beneficiary countries, or
• Reduce the negative environmental impact of listed chemicals.

The DISPOSE Act is led in the U.S. House by U.S. Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar of Florida and in the U.S. Senate by U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa.