[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 [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2022-20851]


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  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.
                
                
                    (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