Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt has called on the U.S. State Department to increase its pressure on China to stop the flow of fentanyl from reaching Kansas and the nation as a whole.

 

Even though there has been a crackdown of sending it directly into the United States, Schmidt says that even more is getting into the country in a different way.

 

Due to this happening, Schmidt has joined a letter sent with 15 other attorneys general to U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken outlining their concerns about the production and distribution of fentanyl.

 

Schmidt also said Kansas has seen overdoses skyrocket. The Kansas Department of Health and Environment has reported that preliminary statistics from the State Unintentional Drug Overdose Reporting System showed there were 338 fatal drug overdoses between January 1, 2021, and June 30, 2021, a 54 percent increase from the same period in 2020. Of those Kansas deaths, 149 involved fentanyl or fentanyl analogs.