America faces another ongoing public health challenge – outside of Covid-19 – in the scourge of illicit opioids getting across our borders through the U.S. Postal Service (USPS). Congress passed, and President Donald J. Trump signed, the bipartisan STOP Act in 2018 to combat synthetic drugs like fentanyl and carfentanil from being shipped right into the United States. The Department of Homeland Security has released the interim final rule (IFR) titled the “Mandatory Electronic Information for International Mail Shipments” to implement the STOP Act, yet that draft has alarming loopholes that will allow opioids to continue to be shipped right into the United States via the U.S. Postal Service.
The Synthetics Trafficking & Overdose Prevention Act or STOP Act was crafted by Sens. Rob Portman (R-OH), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Marco Rubio (R-FL), and Maggie Hassan (D-NH) with House support from Reps. Pat Tiberi (R-OH) and Richard Neal (D-MA) to battle what Sen. Portman called “a heroin and prescription drug epidemic in our country.” Portman pointed out that “this crisis is being made worse by an influx of deadly synthetic drugs coming into our states from places like China and India.” The problem is that there are loopholes in law that allow traffickers in primarily in China to send “letters” containing these drugs that never get screened by the USPS.
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