Presidential Document2022-20851
Presidential Determination on Major Drug Transit or Major Illicit Drug Producing Countries for Fiscal Year 2023
Primary source
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Published
September 23, 2022
Signed
September 15, 2022
Issuing agencies
Executive Office of the President
Full Text
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<title>Federal Register, Volume 87 Issue 184 (Friday, September 23, 2022)</title>
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[Federal Register Volume 87, Number 184 (Friday, September 23, 2022)]
[Presidential Documents]
[Pages 58251-58252]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [<a href="http://www.gpo.gov">www.gpo.gov</a>]
[FR Doc No: 2022-20851]
Presidential Documents
Federal Register / Vol. 87, No. 184 / Friday, September 23, 2022 /
Presidential Documents
[[Page 58251]]
Presidential Determination No. 2022-23 of September 15,
2022
Presidential Determination on Major Drug Transit
or Major Illicit Drug Producing Countries for Fiscal
Year 2023
Memorandum for the Secretary of State
By the authority vested in me as President by the
Constitution and the laws of the United States,
including section 706(1) of the Foreign Relations
Authorization Act, Fiscal Year 2003 (Public Law 107-
228) (FRAA), I hereby identify the following countries
as major drug transit or major illicit drug producing
countries: Afghanistan, The Bahamas, Belize, Bolivia,
Burma, Colombia, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic,
Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras,
India, Jamaica, Laos, Mexico, Nicaragua, Pakistan,
Panama, Peru, and Venezuela.
A country's presence on the foregoing list is neither a
reflection of its government's counterdrug efforts nor
level of cooperation with the United States. Consistent
with the statutory definition of a major drug transit
or major illicit drug producing country set forth in
sections 481(e)(2) and 481(e)(5) of the Foreign
Assistance Act of 1961, as amended (Public Law 87-195)
(FAA), the reason countries are placed on the list is
the combination of geographic, commercial, and economic
factors that allow drugs to be transited or produced,
even if a government has engaged in robust and diligent
narcotics control and law enforcement measures.
Pursuant to section 706(2)(A) of the FRAA, I hereby
designate Afghanistan, Bolivia, Burma, and Venezuela as
having failed demonstrably to make substantial efforts
during the previous 12 months to both adhere to their
obligations under international counternarcotics
agreements and to take the measures required by section
489(a)(1) of the FAA. Included with this determination
are justifications for the designations of Afghanistan,
Bolivia, Burma, and Venezuela, as required by section
706(2)(B) of the FRAA. I have also determined, in
accordance with provisions of section 706(3)(A) of the
FRAA, that United States programs that support
Afghanistan, Bolivia, Burma, and Venezuela are vital to
the national interests of the United States.
Addressing the ongoing and increasingly staggering toll
of the drug addiction and overdose epidemic in the
United States, which tragically claimed nearly 108,000
lives in 2021, remains one of the foremost public
health priorities of my Administration. Through our
2022 National Drug Control Strategy, my Administration
will focus on critical drivers of the epidemic,
including untreated addiction and drug trafficking, and
will redouble efforts to strengthen foreign
partnerships to address drug production and
trafficking, particularly to tackle the shared
challenge of synthetic drugs.
My Administration's Fiscal Year 2023 Budget request
calls for $24.3 billion to support evidence-based
prevention and treatment, including harm reduction and
recovery support services, with targeted investments to
meet the needs of populations at greatest risk for
overdose and substance use disorder. The Budget request
also includes significant investments to reduce the
supply of illicit drugs originating from beyond our
borders.
The United States is committed to working together with
the countries of the Western Hemisphere as neighbors
and partners to meet our shared challenges of drug
production, trafficking, and use, and to counter the
deleterious impact of narcotics-related corruption. My
Administration is expanding
[[Page 58252]]
cooperation globally to bolster efforts to address the
production and trafficking of dangerous synthetic drugs
that are responsible for so many of our overdose
deaths, particularly fentanyl, its analogues, and
methamphetamine. We will look to expand cooperation
with China, India, and other chemical source countries
to disrupt the global flow of synthetic drugs and their
precursor chemicals. Under the U.S.-Mexico Bicentennial
Framework for Security, Public Health, and Safe
Communities, we support and encourage Mexican efforts
to target clandestine drug laboratories, chemists, and
companies involved in chemical diversion; to enact
stronger chemical control and accountability
frameworks; to increase interdiction of precursor
chemicals and finished synthetic drugs in transit; and
to arrest key organized crime figures involved in the
synthesis and trafficking of fentanyl and
methamphetamine and the laundering of drug proceeds.
The United States is encouraged by Afghanistan's ban on
opium poppy cultivation, production, and trafficking,
and will monitor the implementation of this ban. The
United States is also encouraged by Bolivia's
counternarcotics efforts over the past year, including
increased cooperation with international partners. I
encourage Bolivia's government to take additional steps
to safeguard the country's licit coca markets from
criminal exploitation, to reduce illicit coca
cultivation that continues to exceed legal limits under
Bolivia's domestic laws for medicinal and traditional
use, and to continue international collaboration to
disrupt drug traffickers. In addition, while the
foregoing list is focused by law on drug trafficking
and the production of plant-based drugs and synthetic
opioids that significantly affects the United States,
addressing the global proliferation of other dangerous
synthetic drugs remains a key drug control priority of
my Administration.
You are authorized and directed to submit this
designation, with the Afghanistan, Bolivia, Burma, and
Venezuela memoranda of justification, under section 706
of the FRAA, to the Congress, and to publish this
determination in the Federal Register.
<GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT>
(Presidential Sig.)
THE WHITE HOUSE,
Washington, September 15, 2022
[FR Doc. 2022-20851
Filed 9-22-22; 11:15 am]
Billing code 4710-10-P
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</html>Indexed from Federal Register on September 23, 2022.
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