"Under President [Joe] Biden’s leadership, overdose deaths and poisonings have decreased for five months in a row, but these deaths remain unacceptably high and are primarily caused by fentanyl," the White House said in a news release.
Biden plans to announce possible key actions in order to tackle this issue in his upcoming State of the Union speech later on Tuesday, the release said.
Some of the actions include disrupting the trafficking, distribution and sale of fentanyl, the release said.
"In just the last year, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has seized a historic 260,000 pounds of illicit drugs primarily at ports of entry on our border, including nearly 15,000 pounds of fentanyl," the release said.
Moreover, the Drug Enforcement Administration seized more than 26,000 pounds of fentanyl in fiscal year 2022, the release added.