This article first appeared in New English Review.
Recently, I had lunch with some
active-duty DEA agents. (I am retired from DEA.) During our conversation, the
topic turned to the fentanyl epidemic that is killing hundreds of Americans
every day. In response, DEA has instituted a program in which agents assist
local police in investigating fentanyl deaths in an effort to identify and
prosecute the dealer who furnished the drug to the victim. These cases would be
tried in federal courts.
DEA's website has an overview of how the program works.
In addition, many states are
seeking to enhance their own penalties for fentanyl pushers. Unfortunately, a
similar bill in California, which would provide a warning to a convicted
fentanyl dealer that a repeat offense that resulted in death would make the
dealer liable to up to life in prison, is not making any headway in Sacramento.
This would be similar to a current California law in which previously-convicted drunk drivers involved in a
subsequent drunk driving offense that resulted in someone's death could be
subject to 2nd-degree murder charges.
Unfortunately, even though the
California fentanyl bill was drafted in a bi-partisan manner, Sacramento is
under the firm control of Gavin Newsom and the Democrats. The bill has stalled and it is highly unlikely it will pass.
Most illicit fentanyl in the US
comes from Mexico, produced using precursor chemicals smuggled in from China,
mislabeled as other chemicals, and commonly passed through by Mexican Customs
with little to no real verification.
Thus, like so many other problems
in California like crime, homelessness, sanctuary cities, etc. the powers that
be in Sacramento choose to do nothing. Meanwhile, Governor Newsom goes
gallivanting around the country, visiting red states, and telling them they
should follow the example of California, a state falling into ruin under the
liberal rule of Newsom and Democrat mayors in places like Los Angeles and San
Francisco. Newsom has designs on being the next president so he can ruin the US
like he is ruining California (or at least finish what Biden started.)
But Newsom is no worse than our
current administration in Washington. What is Biden doing about the border with
Mexico, where fentanyl crosses into the US every day? Virtually nothing. Take
away the issue of violence along our border, illegal immigrants, human
trafficking, etc, the fentanyl issue alone is sufficient reason to secure the
border.
The fentanyl issue is not one of "secure the border" unless you mean stopping everyone from crossing either way.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.cato.org/blog/fentanyl-smuggled-us-citizens-us-citizens-not-asylum-seekers
Here are facts:
Fentanyl smuggling is ultimately funded by U.S. consumers who pay for illicit opioids: nearly 99 percent of whom are U.S. citizens.
In 2021, U.S. citizens were 86.3 percent of convicted fentanyl drug traffickers—ten times greater than convictions of illegal immigrants for the same offense.
Over 90 percent of fentanyl seizures occur at legal crossing points or interior vehicle checkpoints, not on illegal migration routes, so U.S. citizens (who are subject to less scrutiny) when crossing legally are the best smugglers.
The location of smuggling makes sense because hard drugs at ports of entry are about 97 percent less likely to be stopped than are people crossing illegally between them.
Just 0.02 percent of the people arrested by Border Patrol for crossing illegally possessed any fentanyl whatsoever.
The government exacerbated the problem by banning most legal cross border traffic in 2020 and 2021, accelerating a switch to fentanyl (the easiest‐to‐conceal drug).
During the travel restrictions, fentanyl seizures at ports quadrupled from fiscal year 2019 to 2021. Fentanyl went from a third of combined heroin and fentanyl seizures to over 90 percent.
Annual deaths from fentanyl nearly doubled from 2019 to 2021 after the government banned most travel (and asylum).
It is correct that the hunger of Americans for drugs is an important factor in the drug problem overall. We as consumers are also guilty. I don't disagree with the points you are making about where fentanyl crossings. What is needed at the POEs are more detector dogs. Of course, a lot of seizures are based on intelligence.
ReplyDeleteAs for the illegal crossing points,the current policy of processing people and releasing them into the country is totally wrong and asinine. We need the cooperation of Mexico and we don't get it except sporadically thanks to the corruption problem-which is not only damaging to us but damaging to Mexicans in general. That is a whole different topic of conversation. If you want to argue that fentanyl is not an argument to secure the border than we can talk about the human smuggling and the surrender of our border to the cartels.