This week, the House and Senate are aiming to finalize the Synthetics Trafficking and Overdose Prevention (STOP) Act within a set of opioid bills to be signed by President Trump. The STOP Act is a significant success for lawmakers and the administration to strengthen the nation’s public safety and combat the opioid crisis that continues afflict the nation’s communities.
Regarding the imminent STOP Act framework, Frontiers of Freedom president George Landrith stated, “The U.S. Postal Service has continuously failed to properly identify international shipping threats while neglecting to reform its deficient system. Adopting thorough data collection and monitoring practices of inbound packages in ways that are consistent with industry standards is an essential step for the Postal Service to protect our communities from hazardous materials and substances. Lawmakers and the President must adopt these solutions to put Americans’ public safety first.”
Previously, in June, Landrith hailed the key leadership efforts of the House Ways and Means Committee to assemble a fully viable plan, which convincingly passed the House.
For international shipping through private carriers, U.S. Customs and Board Patrol regularly depends on data and information that allows security agencies to trace the senders, receivers, and contents of packages. Only with the passage of the STOP Act will the U.S. Postal Service will be required to match these important security measures. Collecting and analyzing advance electronic data is a practice that the USPS must adhere to.
Given the depths of the opioid epidemic across the country, it is crucial to finalize the commonsense solutions of the STOP Act. We cannot act to soon enough to help mitigate the flow of synthetic opioids, like fentanyl, into the U.S. and ultimately establish the trust we need within our postal system.