Atlanta, Georgia - Today in Atlanta, James Walsh, the Senior Bureau Official for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL), will lead a global panel discussion on the international opioid crisis at the National Prescription Drug Abuse & Heroin Summit (Rx Summit). Walsh will deliver opening remarks and moderate a panel discussion, which will feature participants from Mexico, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).

The annual Rx Summit is attended by thousands of participants from the medical, law enforcement, public health, civil society, government, and drug treatment sectors. Several U.S. Senators and Representatives, the U.S. Surgeon General, and the heads of the Food and Drug Administration, National Institutes of Health, and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are taking part in the Summit.

In October 2017, President Trump declared the U.S. opioid crisis a National Public Health Emergency; over 42,000 Americans died from opioid overdoses in 2016. In his remarks at the Rx Summit, Deputy Assistant Secretary Walsh will address the international dimensions of this crisis, as well as the newly emerging technologies and trafficking patterns which are making the opioid epidemic so challenging. Walsh will also discuss the State Department’s key role in fighting the crisis in meetings during the Summit with Representative Hal Rogers, founding co-chair of the Congressional Caucus on Prescription Drug Abuse, as well as Senators Maggie Hassan and Edward Markey.