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VOA Editorials No.4
The United States is in the midst of its most severe drug epidemic since the 1980s. 1)
,13) thanks to close cooperation with its international partners, and with mechanisms created over the past decades to fight drug trafficking, said Assistant Secretary for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, William Brownfield.
He spoke at a press conference to introduce the congressionally-mandated 2017 International Narcotics Control Strategy Report, submitted annually by the State Department. 2)
.17) This year’s report, said Assistant Secretary Brownfield, “is a story of 40 years of building capabilities, intelligence, coordination, specialized units, new laws, and relationships around the world.”
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,12) coordination, joint operations and intelligence sharing that have improved the ability of both countries to address the issue of drug trafficking across the U.S.-Mexico border.
4)“
,14) because we have mechanisms, cooperation,” said Assistant Secretary Brownfield.“We have regional groupings; we have equipment and technology; we have specialized units; we have legislation and statutes on the books in more than 100 different countries that allow us to address the issue internationally, multi-nationally, regionally, and bilaterally among governments. It is much better that we are confronting this situation, this historic opioid crisis today, with the architecture that we have in place now than it would have been 20 years ago,” he said.
“I believe we have a good strategy. 5)
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Aired: March 8, 2017.
