Under the Biden administration, records are being set that affect every American every day: The highest inflation, staggeringly steep gas prices, rising building material costs, and even a pound of ground beef now bearing a price tag akin to Wagyu steak. But, yet another record not often spoken about is that during 2021 the US experienced roughly one overdose death every five minutes, equating to 107,000 Americans.
In 2021 alone, synthetic opioid use and abuse accounted for 71,000 deaths. That number shows a jump of 23% from the year before. Cocaine deaths increased by a staggering 23%. Death involving methamphetamine and other drugs went up by 34%. One might argue that if one plays stupid games, one is sure to win stupid prizes, but these drugs aren’t what the partyers of the 60s, 70s, 80s, and 90s used recreationally. These substances are cut with an inexpensive additive, fentanyl, and most buyers aren’t made aware of that dangerous ingredient.
The White House issued a statement calling the numbers “unacceptable.” But can the government curb this crisis? The answer is yes. And it starts at the southern border with Mexico.
The Porous Border
The suspiciously silent overseer of illegal immigration, Vice President Kamala Harris, has failed to pull together a strategy to stop drug trafficking. Despite Harris' inaction, the administration recently unveiled its latest plan to make America sober again. They refer to it as harm reduction, focusing on educating and treating drug users. In brief, the “harm reduction” strategy being pushed by Biden’s more likable drug czar, Dr. Rahul Gupta, who heads the Office of National Drug Control Policy, is as follows:
Monitoring transnational criminal organizations that manufacture and traffic illicit drugs.
Improving drug policy.
Ensuring the people most in danger of overdose can get evidence-based treatments, including people experiencing homelessness and those in prison or jail.
Reducing the supply of illicit drugs smuggled across US borders.
How do you reduce the supply of “illicit drugs smuggled across US borders?” Exactly. Step one: Secure the border.
(Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
Liberty Nation has followed the increase in overdose deaths and causes of synthetic opioid abuse for years. Keelin Ferris reported that the nation producing lethal amounts of cheap fentanyl is ignored by the Biden team: “[China] is the nation responsible for the immense amount of fentanyl killing Americans every day. Former President Trump frequently criticized China’s high level of exports of fentanyl or the substances used to make it, which are smuggled into the United States through Mexico.”
Why? Because the Chinese know they will get away with committing this crime due to the US’ apathy in protecting its borders.
A bipartisan panel came together to figure out how to handle the growing epidemic of overdosing folks in America. While the Biden administration's report hints at disrupting the supply chain from production in China to distribution by Mexican cartels into the US, it rambles on about treatment programs and punishment. In brief, the report states:
“Through its work, the commission came to recognize the impossibility of reducing the availability of illegal synthetic opioids through efforts focused on supply alone. Real progress can come only by pairing illicit synthetic opioid supply disruption with decreasing the domestic US demand for these drugs.”
It’s a sad state of affairs when grocery store shelves are bare because of that darn supply chain, yet illegal drugs are shipped professionally, strategically, and swiftly. Business as usual on the southern US-Mexico Border, one might say.
