It is part of the cost of the intentional failure of this administration to enforce immigration laws. It is not just about letting people into this country so the can have a chance at a better life, it is also about protecting the people who live in our nation.
If you checked the graph, you’ll note that the rise in deaths began in 2015, and then skyrocketed up to 2020. Which was during Donald Trump’s presidency. The vast majority of fentanyl and other drugs are smuggled in through legal ports of entry. The largest amounts come through the San Ysidro border crossing in San Diego County. Drugs also enter by boats and private planes—especially in Florida and the east coast. The big-time drug kingpins want to get truckloads of product into the country. They don’t give a flip about the small quantities some poor mojado can carry in a backpack. A southern border wall—which may keep a few people out—will be nearly useless in keeping drugs out.
I don't know if the uptake of Fentanyl can be purely attributed to border policies one way or the other...
As
@jayem noted, the consequential quantities coming in wouldn't have been stopped by a wall or cracking down on people who are trying to sneak in 'on-foot'
I think a more conspicuous correlation exists...
In that, the big uptick started occurring when they really started cracking down on prescribing practices with regards to authentic regulated pain meds.
It was a bit of a catch-22.
On one hand, it's understandable that there were concerns regarding drug companies pushing addictive pain medications, and physicians/practices that were basically operating as "pill mills" for a profit.
On the other hand, if you clamp down too tight on it, and make it so that it's nearly impossible to get pain meds even for people who actually need it, they're going to find a way to get their hands on something to address the pain (or are trying to taper themselves off of whatever pain pill they were on). My aunt had a heck of a time after she had major surgery...they only allowed her to take the strong pain meds for about 3-4 days post surgery, then after that, switched her to a prescription strength combo of naproxen and acetaminophen. Needless to say, if you're less than a week off of major surgery, prescription-strength versions of Aleve and Tylenol (which are basically just double the dose that you'd get in the OTC version) probably aren't gonna cut it for giving a person any meaningful pain relief.
Drugs like fentanyl aren't typically "recreational"...it's not like people are buying it "because they wanna party" (like cocaine, hallucinogens, etc...). It's usually as case where people think they're buying a different kind of pain pill because they can no longer get the real stuff from their doctor, and are being sold something different.
When they opted to crack down on predatory and irresponsible prescribing procedures (which was needed), they needed to go with a more nuanced approach to that instead of a "Hey, we realize that you do have severe chronic pain that Advil can't address, and we've had you on this other stuff that can be habit forming for 3 years...but the FDA says we can't give you anymore so you're cut off"
The same is true for psychiatric drugs...are they over-prescribed? Sure...but if you already have a large number of people on them, and want to reign in the problem, it would require knowing (and accounting for) the weening process and allowing for at least the tapering off period rather than cutting everyone off cold turkey as that would result in a lot of problems.
www.washingtontimes.com
