FIRST ON FOX: Rep. Jim Banks, R-Ind., is pushing the Biden administration to categorise fentanyl as a organic and chemical weapon, and to sanction China for its function in fueling the U.S. drug disaster.
“The Chinese Communist Party is the largest police state in the world. If they wanted to stop the flow of fentanyl from inside their border to the U.S. and Mexican drug cartels, they could do it overnight,” Banks advised Fox News Digital. “Instead, they are sending this deadly opioid to kill tens of thousands of military and working-aged Americans every year to destroy our communities and economy at levels only seen by weapons of mass destruction. They must be held accountable.”
His invoice would amend the Chemical and Biological Weapons Control and Warfare Elimination Act of 1991, which requires the president to impose sanctions on international entities that knowingly contributed to a different nation’s inventory or use of chemical and organic weapons.
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![A split image of Jim Banks and Joe Biden](https://a57.foxnews.com/static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2024/05/1200/675/banks-biden-fentanyl.jpg?ve=1&tl=1)
Rep. Jim Banks, left, is pushing the Biden administration to categorise fentanyl as a organic and chemical weapon. (Getty Images)
It comes shortly after the House choose committee on China, of which Banks is a member, launched a bombshell report accusing China of worsening the continued fentanyl disaster within the U.S.
The committee discovered that China’s Communist authorities supplied subsidies to firms that manufacture fentanyl precursors and different artificial medication, so long as these merchandise are being offered exterior of China.
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A bombshell House report accused Chinese President Xi Jinping of overseeing his government’s subsidy program for companies making fentanyl precursors. (Lauren DeCicca/Getty Images)
The program has been in place since 2018 and did not stop even after President Biden met with Chinese President Xi Jinping in November 2023. In fact, the committee found that China increased those subsidies while in talks with U.S. officials in 2019 and 2020.
The rate of drug overdose deaths in the U.S. quadrupled from 2002 to 2022, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Deaths were highest for adults aged 35-44 in 2021 and 2022, the data shows.
U.S. authorities have grappled with fentanyl coming across the U.S.-Mexico border and other places, with deadly amounts being laced with other illicit recreational drugs.
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![blue fentanyl pills in bundle](https://a57.foxnews.com/static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2023/11/1200/675/Border-Patrol-fentanyl-Seizure-4.jpg?ve=1&tl=1)
Bundles of blue capsules containing fentanyl have been intercepted on the border. (U.S. Customs and Border Protection )
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Nate Moellering, the chief vp of Allendale Treatment, an Indiana-based habit therapy heart, and himself a fentanyl survivor, blamed China’s authorities for straight fueling the disaster.
“Some of our best and brightest are having their precious lives cut short because of the greed and negligence on the part of the CCP. Sanctions against China are a great first step when it comes to the federal government doing its part,” Moellering advised Fox News Digital. “This is not a red or blue issue.”
Fox News Digital reached out to the White House for remark.