DHS Nielsen: 'We Need a Bigger Stick' to Stop Chinese Fentanyl Production

The United States “needs a bigger stick” to stop the inflow of Chinese-made fentanyl drugs, Homeland Defense secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said Thursday.

It is coming from China, we need to do more,” Nielsen told Ohio GOP Sen. Rob Portman, who had just described the impact of Chinese-made fentanyl in his home state. Portman said:

We have an opioid epidemic. People don’t know the role that fentanyl played — 4,000% increase in fentanyl overdose deaths. Now the number-one killer in Ohio. Relatively inexpensive to make synthetically. Most of it is coming from China. Most is coming through the mail system.

“We need a bigger stick,” Nielsen later told Alabama’s Democratic Sen. Doug Jones, adding:

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