Overdose deaths in the US have been rising. In 2022, a record 108,000 people died from overdoses.

And there is one drug that's been behind a lot of them.

Fentanyl is what's known as a synthetic opioid and to give you a little bit of context

it's a narcotic it's a drug but it's an incredibly potent drug.

That's our colleague Brian Speegel.

For Americans, the issue of fentanyl is front and center in many of their lives.

I mean, how many people do we know friends or family members of friends who have had people, you know, impacted by the

fentanyl crisis.

To get this situation under control, the US is targeting a major source of illegal fentanyl.

China.

Yeah, China is a critical player in all this.

There's no way around it.

China over the last decade has played such a kind of crucial role

in the supply chain of fentanyl.

So the United States can do a lot of things on the demand side.

They can try to control how many people are taking fentanyl.

But the United States really needs China's cooperation.

And last week, the US got that cooperation.

Beijing agreed to regulate key chemicals fueling the fentanyl crisis.

But getting here hasn't been easy.

Welcome to the journal, our show about money, business, and power.

I'm Kate Leimbaw.

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