From coast to coast in every corner of the US, deaths from fentanyl overdoses are soaring.

A fentanyl epidemic in the United States killed more than 72,000, 72,000 people in 2022.

Most people who take fentanyl don't even know they're taking it.

You can't see it, taste it, or smell it.

And we know that this global fentanyl supply chain, which ends with the deaths of Americans,

often starts with chemical companies in China. More than a hundred thousand Americans died of a drug overdose last year,

and at the forefront of this crisis is fentanyl.

The illicit drug has been a leading killer of young Americans for the last decade.

And while the US has faced drug epidemics before,

what we're now encountering is truly unprecedented.

While fentanyl addiction and overdose is a domestic challenge, it's also an international one.

U.S. officials are looking abroad to China and Mexico in an attempt to curb abuse at home.

China, because it's the leading supplier of fentanyl. in an attempt to curb abuse at home.

China, because it's the leading supplier of fentanyl precursors,

the chemicals used to create the drug.

And Mexico, because it's where much of that final assembly happens

before the drug is smuggled into the United States.

Both countries are important in this conversation, but today we're going to focus on China,

particularly because the current state of US-China tensions has strained cooperation in a number of areas.

Controlling illicit drug flows looks to be one of them.

I'm Gabriel Sierra, and this is why it matters. Today, China's role in the

US fentanyl crisis. Can you describe for us what fentanyl is and why it's so addictive?

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