Federal agencies collaborate with each other and with some foreign governments, such as China, Mexico, and Canada, to combat the production and availability of illicit synthetic opioids. Our recent report looks at some of these cooperative activities, such as sharing information on emerging trends and helping to expand the regulation of illicit substances. It also reviews other federal efforts to prevent illicit opioid use in the U.S., such as treating overdose deaths as crime scenes in order to investigate and identify the source of the drugs.
Diana Maurer, the GAO director who led this work, walks us through some of these federal efforts to deter illicit opioid use in a recent podcast: