DEA

The head of the Drug Enforcement Administration is visiting China this week to discuss combating sales of synthetic drugs, including fentanyl, CNN reports. Acting Administrator Chuck Rosenberg will also discuss new psychoactive substances and money-laundering activities when he meets with Chinese officials.

In the past year, federal and state policymakers have taken a number of steps to combat synthetic drugs, also known as “novel psychoactive substances,” according to Jonathan Woodruff, Senior Legislative Attorney at the National Alliance for Model State Drug Laws.

The Drug Enforcement Administration this week warned the nation’s opioid epidemic has been exacerbated by the reemergence of the synthetic opioid fentanyl.

The Drug Enforcement Administration has received more than 22,000 comments about its plan to temporarily ban the drug kratom, according to The Washington Post.

The Drug Enforcement Administration has added another fentanyl-related drug, known as furanyl fentanyl, to its list of banned substances, according to The Wall Street Journal.

The Drug Enforcement Administration has temporarily banned the synthetic drug Pink under federal law, according to NBC News. The agency has received reports of at least 46 confirmed deaths associated with the drug.

Thirteen drug distribution companies knew or should have known that hundreds of millions of prescription narcotic pills were ending up on the black market, according to an investigation by The Washington Post.

The Drug Enforcement Administration said this week it will reverse its decision to temporarily make kratom a Schedule I drug, NPR reports. The reversal comes in the wake of protests by advocates, scientists and kratom vendors.

Drug cartels are selling lethal doses of fentanyl disguised as street heroin and counterfeit OxyContin pills, two U.S. government agencies are warning.

The Drug Enforcement Administration this week announced it is requiring significant cuts in the production of prescription opioids, HealthDay reports. By 2017 the amount of prescription opioids permitted to be manufactured in the U.S. will decrease by at least 25 percent.

The Drug Enforcement Administration has issued a warning to the public and law enforcement about the risks of the synthetic opioid carfentanil, ABC News reports. Carfentanil is 10,000 times more potent than morphine and 100 times more potent than fentanyl.

A group of House lawmakers—both Democratic and Republican—is asking that the Drug Enforcement Administration delay the decision to make kratom a Schedule I drug, according to The Huffington Post.

The Drug Enforcement Administration announced kratom, a plant-based drug with opioid-like effects, will become a Schedule I drug.

The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) on Thursday announced that it will not reclassify marijuana as a drug with accepted medical uses. The DEA will increase the number of authorized marijuana manufacturers supplying researchers.