Last year, Congresswoman Stacey Plaskett announced that she had joined her Puerto Rican counterpart Congresswoman Jenniffer Gonzalez-Colon to introduce the Caribbean Border Counternarcotics Strategy Act, H.R. 920. Last week, she announced that the measure had passed in the U.S. House of Representatives as part of the Office of National Drug Control Policy Reauthorization Act of 2024.
Ms. Plaskett said the measure "provides statutory authority to require the ONDCP to include a Caribbean Border Counternarcotics Strategy in its National Drug Control Strategy." She explained that the strategy “must include measures for preventing the illegal trafficking of drugs through the Caribbean region into the United States.” Combatting drug trafficking and drug-related violent crime in the USVI and Puerto Rico is an explicit goal of the recently passed measure.
Ms. Plaskett noted that the urgency of the problem was expressed by several regional prime ministers in recent discussions held with the congressional delegate. “We are well aware of the violence and destruction drug trafficking has exacted in our region,” she said. “The loss of lives, opportunities and the social structure to these issues must be combatted with multiple tools,” she said.
In addition to the counternarcotics measure, the ONDCP Reauthorization Act also continues funding for several key anti-drug programs aimed at preventing and mitigating the various harms illegal drugs inflict on society.
The congresswoman hopes that the package can be swiftly passed by the Senate and signed into law by President Biden before he leaves office.
