According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in 2021, 100,306 Americans died of drug overdoses and poisonings. In 2022, according to the CDC, 109,000 Americans died of drug overdoses and poisonings.
The drugs killing Americans are sourced from many countries. South America is prominent for some types, while Asia is the main source of others, but most make their way to America through Mexico, smuggled by the Mexican cartels across the southern border. The most recent major development is the massive flow of the highly dangerous fentanyl, made into consumable form by Mexican cartels from ingredients provided by the People’s Republic of China (see also here and here), although China denies it has anything to do with the fentanyl crisis in the U.S.
The U.S. government has acted against China because of its export of fentanyl ingredients. In 2021, President Biden imposed sanctions on four Chinese pill makers. According to Breitbart:
Also subjected to Treasury Department action was an individual named Chuen Fat Yip, described as “one of the largest, if not the largest, producers of anabolic steroids in the world.” Yip, a 68-year-old resident of the now-infamous city of Wuhan, allegedly shipped millions of dollars worth of fentanyl ingredients from Shanghai and Hong Kong to illicit customers worldwide… Federal drug charges were filed against Yip on Tuesday by the U.S. Attorney’s office in the Northern District of Texas, which seized an estimated $2.3 million in cryptocurrency from Yip’s digital wallet in November.
China claims to have outlawed the production and export of fentanyl ingredients, but these claims have been viewed skeptically, as it is believed that nothing goes on in the PRC that is not known by the authorities and does not have at least the tacit agreement of the Communist government. Furthermore, the PRC argues that the responsibility for drug addition and death lies right at home in the U.S. According to the Chinese mouthpiece, Global Times:
It should be clarified that the US fentanyl abuse crisis does not originate from China, and is actually a social problem in the US. It is no secret that some American pharmaceutical companies put their own economic interests above public health by actively encouraging people to use prescription fentanyl a few years ago, leading to the quick spread of the fentanyl addiction.
The Global Times faulted the U.S. government for not formally regulating fentanyl as strictly as China and boasted that authoritarian Beijing could easily solve the drug crisis American democracy seems helpless against:
With 5 percent of the global population, the US consumes about 80 percent of the world’s opioids. Isn’t it obvious where the roots of the US fentanyl abuse crisis lies? It is a total governance failure of the US government, a result of the irresponsible indulgence of the drug abuse by the federal and state governments. If something like this happened in China, officials would have been held to account layer by layer.
While China may be culpable, and may have malicious geopolitical motives for allowing the export of deadly drugs to the U.S., the first responsibility for drug addiction and death in the U.S. must rest with the American consumers of drugs who actively seek them out and consume them. Without customers willing to pay handsomely for drugs, no one would produce, export, or smuggle them into the U.S. The U.S. has a drug culture which is the source of the problem. Government officials in various jurisdictions increasingly decriminalize and legalize drugs, and refuse to impose penalties on those who deal drugs or use drugs. In the U.S., drugs are “cool.”
Related: Biden’s Border Crisis: by the (Unbelievable) Numbers
Fentanyl, however, is a recent entry, and a deadly one. Originally intended as a pain killer, it leads to severe dependence and has also been adopted as a recreational drug. It is fifty times stronger than heroin, so tiny amounts can have major effects. While there are some fentanyl addicts who seek it out, fentanyl now also comes as an additive to a wide range of recreational drugs, often without any notice, and is ingested inadvertently by drug users. Because fentanyl is so powerful, inadvertent use can kill instantly. As is now repeated, “one pill can kill.” That is why fentanyl deaths of non-users are no longer referred to as “overdoses,” but as “poisonings.” In the case of deadly fentanyl, inadvertent users cannot be blamed for their deaths. The responsibility is with the suppliers and their enablers.
Secondarily responsible for the drug pandemic are the enabling government officials. The Biden administration apparently believes that anyone arriving from a foreign country should be allowed to enter and settle in the U.S. To facilitate the entry of illegal aliens, they have canceled all of the policies in place, such as the wall construction, the remain-in-Mexico policy, etc., that restricted foreigners from illegally entering the U.S. Immigration laws have been ignored by the administration. The Customs and Border Protection Agency and Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency have been hamstrung and are not allowed to do their mandated work. The open border policy of the administration has worked effectively. Records have been broken of foreigners entering—1,378,000 registered entries, plus up to a million got-aways in just this fiscal year 2022.
The administration’s motives for its open border policy have been a matter of speculation, as there has been no official explanation, and its representatives just repeat the counter-factual claim that “the border is secure.” One explanation advanced is that the administration believes that the Democratic Party can capture this new dependent population as future (or perhaps current, if illegal) voters. Another explanation is the administration’s repeated assertion that the country is “systemically racist,” that the country is too white, and, with an inflow of black, indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC), the country will have more “social justice.” Whatever the reason for the open border policy, the results are undeniable: American is poorer and more dangerous, and the rule of law is no longer regarded as important.
Along with a record number of illegal aliens pouring into the country comes a flood of smuggled illegal drugs. According to NBC News:
Federal agents in this section of the southern border say they’ve seen a staggering 4,000 percent increase in fentanyl seizures over the last three years… One kilogram of fentanyl has the potential to kill 500,000 people… “Fentanyl has changed everything,” he said. “This isn’t marijuana they’re dealing. They’re dealing death.”
Just as illegal aliens have spread to every state, so fentanyl has spread to every state, dealing death and leaving family misery in its wake.
Ill-conceived government policies, such as open borders, can be dealt with by voters, if they have the wisdom to do so. But those immediately responsible for and profiting from the flow of illegal drugs as well as the human trafficking of illegal aliens smuggled across the border are Mexican criminal cartels. We know that this is a threat to national security, as some 97 individuals on the terror watchlist have been identified entering the country. But how many of the half-million or million get-ways have entered to engage in terrorist acts against the country? What we do know is that over a hundred thousand Americans, mostly young people, have died from smuggled fentanyl poisoning. It is the leading cause of death for 18-45 year-olds.
The intentional killing of over a hundred thousand Americans annually is, I would argue, an act of war by the Mexican criminal cartels. It is the cartels that turn the ingredients into pills, camouflage fentanyl in pills that are made to appear to be milder drugs, and smuggle and distribute them into America. In my view, it would be entirely appropriate for America to declare war on the cartels and, giving due time for the Mexican government to clean up by destroying the cartels, if they are capable of it, unleash America’s military in decisive action against the cartels until they are annihilated. This would be no more than self-defense.
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