Held a hearing on the growing problem of individuals buying illicit opioids over the internet and shipping them to the United States through the mail. The Opioid Crisis, sadly, continues to get worse, not better. Last month, the center for Disease Control reported that more than 63,000 americans died in 2016 from Drug Overdoses. Indications are that number increased in 2017. These Overdose Deaths are shocking. The number of deaths continue to grow. My own home state of ohio, we were told recently is now second in the country in terms of Overdose Deaths. Its heartbreaking. And increasingly, these overdoses are due to a synthetic heroin, illegal versions of fentanyl, a drug that is 50 to 100 times stronger than heroin. In fact, in ohio, fentanyl and its variations were involved in 60 of the Overdose Deaths last year. So, its become the number one killer in ohio. The vast majority of illegal fentanyl is purchased online from labs in china and then shipped to the United States through the
Epacket approachs a year. And that is one individual. Commissioner owen, you may agree or odisagree on, that and id like to hear from you on it. But i dont believe that the evidence supports what you are saying in terms of this priority and the significant ramping up in terms of the last year, and certainly not with this kind of data, and do you agree with that, officer . Well, we learned an awful lot from the jfk pilot as it was begun. And it started with the very small amount of electronic data coming from france, and we had to train the officers how the effectively target and work with the Postal Service that the packages to be presented to were in fact, presented and we had to learn a lot from the pilot, and it is a slow road, and led to the delay in the International Mail facilities, but we are on the right track through, and there is a sense of urgency behind this, and we will continue to move forward. Mr. Cintron, are you planning to expand beyond the epackets . Yes, right now,
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